Fellow Ballistic Enthusiasts,
I agree on all points that Jack Stevens posted, not long ago in this thread.
With that, I suspect the original .416 Rigby 410 grain ammunition was actually only providing similar ballistics to what was claimed with .404 Jeffery ammunition.
And as Jack Stevens already mentioned, original .404 Jeffery 400 grain ammunition was probably only leaving the muzzle at about 1900 fps, if not a bit less.
The .416 Rigby cartridge didn’t see as much use as the .404 did.
However, the Rigby bullet was evidently jacketed in mild steel, with softer guilding metal over that, so as to not wear out the rifling so fast.
What limited use the Rigby did see gave it a very good reputation on heavy dangerous game.
That bullet, incorporating the malleable steel jacket was ahead of its time IMO.
The .404 was reportedly a wonderful cartridge when used with the 400 grain bullets (soft and solid).
It is today better than ever, via our much sturdier bullets.
But back in the old days, a 300 grain, higher velocity “plains game” load was introduced.
Evidently, more than a few hunters foolishly used it to shoot huge, heavy dangerous animals.
Such a foolish mistake predictably often resulted in failures.
Moving right along ……..
Beginning on day #1 of the civilian introduction to Nitro-Smokeless Ammunition for hunting, target shooting, etc., I am convinced that, pretty much all of it, in all calibers available back then was going considerably slower than the factories claimed.
Dr. Kevin Robertson wrote about this in at least one of his several excellent books on big game hunting.
One very limited example to support my thoughts on this topic is that, when I was working on finding the correct combination of components in reloading for my approximately 100 year old 450 #2 NE double rifle, I borrowed a friend’s chronograph.
Normally I don’t care very much about velocity, within reason anyway.
My goals while reloading rifle (and handgun) cartridges are reliability plus accuracy.
However, that was my very first double rifle and so, like a child with a new toy, I was very enthused.
With that enthusiasm, I used the chronograph to satisfy my curiosity while firing my hand loads.
The old rifle consistently regulated the tightest groups with 480 grain bullets, leaving the muzzles at approximately 2050 fps.
My rifle had 28 inch barrels, supposedly preferred among hunters sitting in a howdah basket, on top of a trained elephant, in the jungles of India.
Those were the days.
Anyway, that huge volume cartridge had plenty of room for powder and even at approximately 2175 fps (vintage factory claimed velocity) and up to 2200 fps, if I opened the rifle while holding it vertically, the empties would fall out, via gravity.
So, chamber pressure was never a concern with velocity above what I settled on (2050 fps).
I used this rifle and ammunition in Africa with perfect success.
Upon discovering my rifle’s preference for 480 grain bullets at about 2050 fps, I decided that is likely the same velocity the factory ammunition of those times was loaded to.
With that, I wonder if the more common barrel lengths of those times —> 26 inches on doubles for dangerous game, might have only shown about 2000 fps, perhaps even less.
Not as common back then but, such rifles were sometimes even barrelled to only 24 inches.
Today, factory loaded ammunition velocities seem to be quite a bit closer to each brand’s claimed velocity.
Perhaps this is due to the fact that thousands of consumers own and regularly use chronographs.
As such, ammunition makers cannot get away with very much fibbing about their product velocities any more.
However sometimes, Ammunition Maker’s false advertising raises its ugly head today, at least once in a while, from what I have noticed.
As for specific projectiles, one buffalo is no proof of anything really.
Nonetheless, the fact that I absolutely flattened said animal via the early non-bonded Hornady DGX and DGS (soft and solid) respectively, leaving the muzzles around 2050 fps provides at least a tiny crum of conversation topic.
Bonded core bullets are definitely the best choice for the hunting of large animals.
For elephant, monolithic solids are
evidently the best choice.
However, when kept a good bit below today’s trend in extra velocity, the old fashioned non-bonded soft nose bullets work on the majority of species, most of the time (not all of the time).
If I owned a .404 Jeffery and hand loaded 400 grain ammunition, between 2000 fps and 2150 fps, for this excellent cartridge, as long as I obtained reliable ignition (no hang-fires) and decent accuracy (3 shots within 2” at 100 meters), I believe I would be happy hunting any land animal with it.
Cheers,
Velo Dog
