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Is this rifle going to be a Safe Queen or a “plinker” for lazy Sunday afternoons at the range when it’s not raining?

Just curious about Wayne @ AHR .... a post above said he was "out of the picture." Did Wayne retire from gunsmithing work and/or close AHR?

Big red b.s. flag thrown. Loss of down, plus a game misconduct for flagrancy. No way the Ruger - with just a barrel re-bore - gets to holding 5+1 of .404 Jeff cartridges without a drop-box mod.

Duane Wiebe is the go-to custom ‘smith for bottom metal and drop-boxes (i.e., internal magazine capacity mods). Unfortunately, by reputation, he’s also real slow. Might be 2033 before you get your rifle back.

It's only "sacrilege" if you bought it to collect, not shoot, and then having a 'smith add custom touches to it would make zero sense anyway - monetary or otherwise. A "collector" gun, almost by definition, is a Safe Queen. Collectors well know that customization rarely adds value and usually...

This cartridge still shines in either of its original platforms, the true 18.5” 6.5lb carbine M600 or the 20” M660 on the same short-action but without the “space age” look of the vented rib running down the barrel. Despite what esthetic traditionalists and some flinch-prone Fuddleys say, the...

A 1-4x variable is all you need for big game hunting, especially African big game. Anything greater than 4x is unnecessary. In fact a fixed 3x optic is almost ideal for 99.9% of this kind of hunting. Hunting big game isn’t a 500+yds sniper competitor where tiny sub-MOA groups matter. Heck...

Yeah, I was lucky. Mine was in pristine shape. We replaced the hard factory pad with a same-size Kick-Ezzz pad and my ‘smith modified the height of the factory shark-finn sight to work with a receiver-mounted aperture sight. We added a 3-pt Ching sling and the result is a great little package...

Have a Remmy M600 carbine in .350RM. 18.5” barrel, 6.4lbs. I run it irons only. It’s a great short range snot-pounder on deer and hogs.

Yes, wasn't asking for details. I just don't know what a "88b" rifle in the stated chambering looks like.

Could have missed the historical memo, ... but I wasn't aware that early .404 "working rifles" had stocks with cheekpieces. My understanding was that cheekpieces weren't incorporated on stocks as a standard matter until scopes started coming more into vogue of Africa DGRs.

Would like to see a pic of an "450-400 88b" rifle, as I've never seen one (that I know of).

I prefer UW's heavy HC ammo in 10mm because his boolits are coated and so don't lead up the factory barrel. I also reload with coated HC 220grn boolits and have a handload using AA#9 that duplicates UW's factory 10mm in that boolit-weight.

Great read with very practical insights!

Great article! Thanks for the link. Got a laugh out of this commentary: He's also correct about a ghost-ring "peep" sight on the rear receiver bridge being faster than the typical pathetic factory "express" sight which is little more than a high-priced "buckhorn" with a folding leaf or two...

I have an older non-magnum M77 MkII Express Rifle in .30-06. They also made these in .270W. Same feature as the Magnum line. Looks like this: It handles great and is very accurate in the '06 chambering, but, ... that said, I wouldn't want one in a Magnum chambering, like the 416 Rigby or...

Do they have a U.S.-based distributor to order through?

I don't have any 2000MR, just a lot of 5744, RL-15, some RL-17, and quite a bit of Varget. I'm thinking that Hornady used RL-17 in their factory line of .404, and just for sh*ts & giggles was going to pull bullets on a few rounds, dump out the powder and weigh it on my scale, and then try to...

Last night I dug out my copy of Jeffrey’s 1912 catalogue and looked again at the .404 rifle page. They specify the 400grn bullet doing 2125fps from a 24” barrel. The barrel on my AHR .404 is 23”, so a velocity of 2100fps as a handloading target with that length barrel should duplicate the...

Thanks, I agree, but it's not mine. It's a pic I captured of a .425 WR rifle from a few years back mainly because of its elegant lines and the Old School flair.

Dude, when you figure out what you're saying, please let us know.

“Don’t like” is a stronger inference than what I said, or intended. They just appear different than what I was expecting from a re-do of the 404 and 500 Jeffrey line. So maybe not what I’d want personally although an integral aperture on the rear receiver (like the “pop-up peep” on the older...

Was talking mainly about Jeffrey-built rifles, and yes many did have banded front sights. From Jeffrey’s 1912 catalogue, the 404 rifle …. Note the barrel-banded front sight.

Depends on what big game I’m likely to hunt and where, and no doubt there will be overlap, but for a general three cartridge-based battery of rifles for the USA, to include the big stuff in AK like caribous, moose, and bears: 1) .30-06; 2) .350 Remington Magnum; 3) .404 Jeff. For a three...

Not wishing to be a contrarian, BUT …. I’m just not that impressed with the look of these *new* Jeffery rifles. They look, for lack of a better word, “Americanized” rather than carrying on something of the esthetic tradition of the classic British-made African DG rifles. In particular the...

I haven’t checked my “bullet stash” of late but I have a variety including Hornady’s bullets and some Hawks and Swifts. For me the .404 shines when it launches the .423” projectiles at or near its original velocities. Per the ancient texts, that’s in the 2000-2050fps (low end) or 2100-2150fps...

So is the much maligned 350 Remington Magnum but in a smaller, lighter package, i.e., the old Remmy 600 & 660 carbines. 35W ballistics stuffed into a 6lb 18” or 20” platform. There’s no better cartridge for a short-range but hard-hitting “brush gun,” such as one would use against bears or...

If you could, please post up some pics of each so we can get a comparative view.

That’s the only thing mine lacks, a true quarter rib as the classic Jeffrey rifles of old had. Although with the right rifle ‘smith who has experience building African big-game rifles (e,g., Lon Paul), it wouldn’t be a terribly difficult mod to replace the current abbreviated rib for the...

I’m loading mine to about 2050fps with good accuracy. I have some Norma 404J brass but more Hornady. Some small amount of old Bell brass. Except for a rare seasonal run of brass by Hornady, the best time to have gotten into the 404J game, as far as ammo and reloading components, was back...

Wayne @ AHR built my .404J years ago off a CZ 550 action which was tuned and blueprinted. Everything else was a custom add-on - barrel, sights, stock, etc.

There's no downside to owning a .45-70 lever gun. I bought one about 8-yrs ago specifically for deer hunting because the .45-70 is a straight-walled "deer-legal" cartridge in my state. Mine's a Marlin SBL from their custom shop and it's extremely accurate. That said, a proper .404 Jeffrey...

As in 400grns with a .423-dia versus 405grns with a .458-dia, I believe?

Poorly designed rifle for the cartridge, ... not to mention it was loaded wrong. Hornady's .404 ammo is really 416 Rigby-velocity ammo topped with a .423 diameter bullet. Get a proper .404 rifle and load or shoot proper .404 ammo, i.e., @ 2050-2150fps, and you will have no issues, ... unless...

Was this a stock CZ .404 or something custom? And with what ammo was it "brutal to shoot"?

Sounds good. Nothing wrong with classic Fudd deer hunting, nor spending lazy Sunday afternoons plinking away at those little metal animal-shaped silhouettes with your favorite .22 rimfire, while imaging how they're really lions and elephants and you're doing it for real in Zimbabwe...

That's the point. ... Jeffrey's 404 was never supposed to be loaded (or hot-rodded) to the same velocities as the various 416s and 458s. It was always the most sedate cartridge among the .400-bore class. No worse than firing a .375 H&H rifle of the same weight with 300grn bullets. Depending on...

He caved and abandoned Jeffrey's venerable .404 for something else. The use of a .404J rifle is an opportunity to experience something rare in the world of hunting, but like most opportunities in life it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work. Some folks don't want work; they want easy...

Yes, this one’s chambered in .350RM. It’s a handy, quick-to-point snot-pounder. Deer, hogs, moose, caribou, or bears … or whatever critter happens to need the snot pounded out of it at the moment. (y) ;)

Noop. An aperture sight with a large ghost-ring size peep, with a gold/“twilight” outer circle, is preferred for shots from point-blank to about 150yds. Front sight … Side view: (y)

FYI, the 600s in .350RM all had vented ribs on the barrel (unless modified by the owner). Sounds like the one you want is the M600’s successor, the model 660.

At the time they were introduced, the compact model 18.5” 600 & the 20” 660 were originally intended to compete (in iron-sight trim) with big-bore lever actions - and to compete in the same short-range hunting venues in which big-bore lever guns shine: the thick, dark timbered country east of...

That's correct. Both the cartridge itself and the initial short-action carbine (M600) it was chambered for max-out with the 250grn RN bullet. At least if you want to achieve maximum safe book velocity. Remington’s successor model in the same chambering, the M660 (essential a 20” barreled...

Custom BRNO ZKK-602 by Lon Paul of Tanglewood. (Google is your buddy.) (y) :cool:

The 35-cal/.358 class of cartridges is very underrated. Almost uniformly they kill out of all disproportion to their paper ballistics. Noted gun-scribe, John Barness, has been preaching the virtues of the 35-cals for years.

Nooop, overbroad. The 250grn and 200grn bullets are exactly where the .350 Rem. Mag - the world’s first “short magnum” - shines. With careful use of the right powders, and an eye kept on seating depth, you can still wring out true magnum punch with the 250grn RN bullets. You just have to...

Why? Iron sights are there in case of scope failure to due weather conditions, damage, or otherwise. Good insurance to keep the hunt alive. Ah dude, focus. :rolleyes: “Clean” is esthetic nonsense concept … But if you think a set of front & rear iron sights “add weight” to what’s already...

Yeah, I don’t think the recoil from my M600 is that bad, frankly. The KickEzzz pad really dampens it, as does slinging up tight for each shot. But then I also have traditional DG rifles in .375 H&H and .404 Jeffrey, so maybe I’ve become sort of “acclimated“ to a higher level of felt-recoil.

The .35s are a great class of cartridges and the .35 Whelen and .350 Remington Magnum are clearly suitable for use on dangerous game, including the big bears. Way, way back in the day, the then-wildcat .35W was called the “Poor Man’s Magnum” - and for a good reason: for the price of a barrel...

If possible, either a BRNO 602 or a CZ 550 for the CRF and mag capacity. A pre-64 Winny action isn’t a bad choice, but you’ll be limited to a capacity of 3+1 rounds in .375 and 2+1 rounds for the .400-class cartridges.