416 Strausse, 416-03, or 416-303BR

[teklanika_ray]

Ok, I have decided to chase unicorns!!

I am developing a .416 cartridge of my own, but as a matter of research I stumbled onto the 416 Strauss.

I decided to order a reamer from Manson's and a barrel from PacNor, and I have decided to build a 416 Strauss myself for some research. I am using an Enfield P14 action to build the rifle. I ordered a set of expanders and die from Manson's to expand the 303 British brass up to .416 caliber, and when the barrel and reamers are returned. I will send the reamer to Pacific Tool and Guage to have custom reloading dies made. I have already prepared 200 pieces of brass for reloading.

The only information on the 416 Strausse is all based on a single magazine article. There are numerous internet articles, but they all reference the same article.

I am looking for any assistance for reloading data, or any history available on the 416 Strausse.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.
Ray H

 

[Sarg]

Sorry can’t help on loads & such but I also read the same stuff years ago when I was debating what to chamber in one of my Lee Speeds, it is a grunty cartridge the 416 Strausse in a strong action but I went with a .400 caliber, looked hard at the 40/60 Maynard but listed loads are light for that cartridge, also the .405 Grenadier but decided on the .405Win & had a Martini in .400 British or .400 Brit.

You could call yours the .416 Brit or .416 British if you wanted ?

 

[Grumpy gumpy]

What was the cartridge von Guff built on a mosin or a smle (I could have remembered that wrong) I have vague memories of a 7.62x54 or 303 opened up to 416, I’ll have the article somewhere in my piles of "useful "documents…..( wife calls it my fire hazard)
Gumpy

 

[teklanika_ray]

This cases were

Sorry can’t help on loads & such but I also read the same stuff years ago when I was debating what to chamber in one of my Lee Speeds, it is a grunty cartridge the 416 Strausse in a strong action but I went with a .400 caliber, looked hard at the 40/60 Maynard but listed loads are light for that cartridge, also the .405 Grenadier but decided on the .405Win & had a Martini in .400 British or .400 Brit.

You could call yours the .416 Brit or .416 British if you wanted ?

Easy enough to form the brass from 303 british to 416 caliber. I probably would have had less waste if I had gone with new brass, but in an effort to reduce cost I went with once fired brass.I did not keep count, but I would estimate a loss of about 15%. I will probably go dig through my brass bucket to see if there was a pattern to the failed cases. One pattern was a higher fail rate in brass that was not initially annealed. I lost about 20 pieces before annealing the brass and about 7 after annealing the brass. Then I annealed between each step and only lost a few pieces the rest of the time.

 

[Sarg]

What was the cartridge von Guff built on a mosin or a smle (I could have remembered that wrong) I have vague memories of a 7.62x54 or 303 opened up to 416, I’ll have the article somewhere in my piles of "useful "documents…..( wife calls it my fire hazard)
Gumpy

I had several BSA & Lee Speed sporter projects on the go & told Garry I was doing a .405Win on a BSA Metford action after researching the 40/60 Maynard (.410 on a 303 Brit or 30/40Krag case) & .405 Grenadier which is the 7.62x54R opened up to .410, good round by all accounts, I do like the idea of a .410 or .416 on a .444 Marlin case to.

PS that sort of work on cases is best with new brass & anneal before & after working the brass .

 

[teklanika_ray]

The one I am working on, is a 416 on a 9.3x74R case trimmed down a bit (the 416 Heuer). That barrel is being cut along with the 416 strauss barrel and 4ea 550 magnum barrels.

I'm not planning on shooting Cape Buffalo with it, but maybe American Bison, moose, and bears. It is more of a personal entertainment thingIt'll probably try a more common sense approach on the next one.

It is not a cartridge that is going to out perform another cartridge. It will never be commercially viable, and I don't see someone reading an article on it and repeating the experiment, out of curiosity, in 20 years.

There will probably be a lot more value in the mistakes and failures than in the final project. I just want to try to wildcat something and see how it goes.

 

[CoElkHunter]

This is a truly innovative wildcat. It supersedes Townsend's @Bob Nelson 35Whelen .35BNE (Banzai Nelson Express) wildcat based on the 7.7 Japanese cartridge. Bob will have to up his game to at least a .400 Chrysanthemum wildcat to keep up. LOL

 

[Saul]

The one I am working on, is a 416 on a 9.3x74R case trimmed down a bit (the 416 Heuer). That barrel is being cut along with the 416 strauss barrel and 4ea 550 magnum barrels.

I'm not planning on shooting Cape Buffalo with it, but maybe American Bison, moose, and bears. It is more of a personal entertainment thingIt'll probably try a more common sense approach on the next one.

It is not a cartridge that is going to out perform another cartridge. It will never be commercially viable, and I don't see someone reading an article on it and repeating the experiment, out of curiosity, in 20 years.

There will probably be a lot more value in the mistakes and failures than in the final project. I just want to try to wildcat something and see how it goes.

View attachment 731984

The 9.3x74r necked to 416 is a wildcat I have been kicking around in my head for a long time, and seems almost identical to the 400 Purdey.

 

[RR 314]

Love the enthusiasm and ingenuity. I am of no utility, but good luck!

 

[Rem280]

Slim chance, but why not try to reach out to the author of this article? He seems to know someone that has one. https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2009/05/30/416-strauss-a-303-wildcat/

 

[teklanika_ray]

Slim chance, but why not try to reach out to the author of this article? He seems to know someone that has one. https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2009/05/30/416-strauss-a-303-wildcat/

I started looking into it he has retired, but I'm going to see what I can do.

 

[odonata]

I've been a nostalgic fan of the 303 British ever since I shot my first deer with one. I also hunt in a straight-wall state where any cartridge that doesn't have a taper intrigues as a possibility worthy of consideration. So when I stumbled across that article about the 416 Strauss a while back, it is one that I've always been kind of curious about. It seemed like a workable idea but there was a dearth of information about it.

Some of the hunting restrictions I deal with if you merge the regulations of Arkansas, Mississippi & Louisiana to make a single "perfect" rifle would be that it would need to be +35 caliber, have a straight wall, an exposed hammer & be single shot. Reboring my Uberti Courteney Stalking Rifle in 303 British to a 416 Strauss would meet all the criteria for all three states for their early alternative / primitive seasons. Currently my Winchester 1885 in 405 Win & my Browning 1885 in 44 Mag are handling this duty. One thing I like about the idea of a 416 Strauss is the increased bullet selection.

303 British vs 416 Strauss

It appears that Otto Planiavsky who was a professional hunter & an avid wildcatter helped develop the cartridge through his company OPM (Otto Planiavsky Munitions) in Bapsfontein, South Africa . But a post in another forum indicates he has since passed away. In an earlier post from a couple of months ago I had mentioned the 416 Strauss to @Rimshot as part of his thread about wildcatting a new 9.3. Since he expressed an interest in the idea, I'll tag him here.