.425WR - Thoughts

[Jack Stevens]

Very very good caliber. My dear friend and former employee, Jabbar Mollah owns a best grade .425 WR magazine rifle built by Westley Richards in 1926. And it’s still going very very strong.

In my opinion, it even surpasses my beloved .375 Holland & Holland Magnum in terms of being an “All-Rounder” caliber since it’s much better for body shots on bull elephant.

With Kyamco closed down recently, nobody (to the best of my knowledge) is producing factory loaded ammunition for it. Although custom loading services in the United States (such as Superior Ammunition, John LaSala and Hendershots) are sometimes willing to load up a batch.

For hand loaders, brass cases can be obtained from Bruce Bertram in Australia who occasionally produces a batch. Bullets can be had from DZOMBO in South Africa (only brass flat nosed monolithic solids) and Wim Degol in Belgium (copper jacketed round nosed FMJ solids and bonded soft points). As of this time of writing, I can’t say for sure if Woodleigh is producing bullets in this caliber ever since the factory fire in 2021. Although I do know that they’re producing bullets for some other calibers.

Do you know whether Bertram brass for the various 400-cartridges is being imported into the U.S.?

 

[HunterX]

It is. Desert Tech Munitions is the importer. https://deserttechmunitions.com/categories/bertram-brass.html

 

[Jack Stevens]

It is. Desert Tech Munitions is the importer. https://deserttechmunitions.com/categories/bertram-brass.html

Thanks!

 

[SkullKeeper]

425 WR podcast
So, here is a podcast that came out last month, as a discussion about the 425 WR with the lead Westley Richard’s person. It was very informative and discussed the Feeding issue and what caused it. As mentioned above. If the follower is correct, and the rails are right, and you don’t have a weak military Mauser spring, it works without the side clips.

I think the rifle would have to be tuned by a competent Smith like Tim Ditmore, but it’s the same think you would do with a 500 Jeffery which also has a rebated rim. Still a neat cartridge despite the controversy.

I have brass, dies and a reamer, so I’m going to have to make one without the clips sometime and test it out. Maybe toss it in a blank like one of these exhibition grade Turkish or Bastogne walnut blanks. View attachment 779072
View attachment 779075

I want that piece of Turkish walnut ! lol

 

[SkullKeeper]

I contacted Hammer Bullets in Montana and spoke with them about making a solid bullet of my specific design/dimensions. I wanted them to use their unique driving bands in my design as well. It has a shallow dished cup point that they have used successfully on ele in other bullets they make and I felt like it was a good compromise between a flat point and a normal cup point with a deeper dish. This cup point version weighs 401 grains, a flat point version would be 406 grains. I have three small changes I’m thinking of for a final design. My eye surgery will keep me from testing them for another 2 weeks but I will post results here when I finish testing.

 

[SkullKeeper]

@SkullKeeper
Maybe you want to share your experiences and newly created bullets for this cartridge?

Will do that now !

 

[PerH]

Rhino bullets are down for now it seems based on webpage closed down and similar . They made .435 bullets for WR also .

NPB bullets by William Noody in US , he can be asked to make them if he hasn’t made them already . Since he uses Corbin dies you can get the type you wish from Varmint , RN , FN , Fmj , Mono , HP , Bonded bullet .

( no connection with him , just good to see makers of different types out there , he make .318 bullets also btw )

 

[Jack Stevens]

You might try contacting Bengal Bullets and see if they have a mould for the .435" bullet. They use gas-checks and coating.

I bought a large quantity of their GC-ed/coated 390grn .404 boolits a couple of years ago. They're great for making practice loads, but being hard cast they should work fine for hunting use.

.404 (.424") - 390 Grain WLFNGC (100 count)-404-390

bengalbullets.com

 

[Tintin]

It is. Desert Tech Munitions is the importer. https://deserttechmunitions.com/categories/bertram-brass.html

Bertram Bullet Co also do standard cup and core bullets, including .435” for the .425 Westley Richards.

 

[PCC600]

Well, if you read the accounts it seems that the ‘Game Ranger’ .425WR rifle, a ‘working grade’ or base-model rifle sold to African Game Departments, had intermittent jamming issues due to, allegedly, the use of weak mag springs and/or the incorrect Mauser follower that was incompatible with the cartridge’s length for consistent feeding purposes.

WR’s high end ‘Best Grade’ WR rifles didn’t exhibit these feeding/jamming issues. (See my post #41 above).

So yes, it wasn’t a ‘cartridge problem’ per se.

Nonetheless, enough problems with .425 GR rifles jamming in the field during encounters with DG went on to attach a sour reputation to .425 rifles generally. That, and the absurdly unwieldy 28” barrel made the .425 less popular than even base model .404s which enjoyed an excellent rep for performance in the field - as to both reliability and stopping power on DG.

It is interesting that the earlier 425s did not have 28 inch barrels . My very early version runs a 26 inch barrel and the newer a 25 inch . Not sure when and why the longer barrels came in - possibly for maximum velocity . My 2 run happily at 2300 fps+/- . Early WR catalogues always refer to 26 inch barrels .