.425 Westley Richards

[Quaticman]

I have the opportunity to purchase a beautiful custom rifle built on a P17 action chambered in .425 Westley Richards. I don't know too much about this rifle/cartridge combo other than John "Pondoro" Taylor spoke quite highly about the cartridge in his book "African Rifles and Cartridges". I've heard that the rebated rim sometimes causes feeding problems. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this rifle/caliber combination.

 

[Quaticman]

Here's a pic.

 

[Spooksar]

I have a 425 WR on a Montana 99 action, the biggest problem is feeding it, the only brass available is Bertram and in my opinion gargabe. I recently made some brass out of Bell 404 Jeffery and it works much better. Love the caliber now that I’ve got good brass.

 

[Quaticman]

I have a 425 WR on a Montana 99 action, the biggest problem is feeding it, the only brass available is Bertram and in my opinion gargabe. I recently made some brass out of Bell 404 Jeffery and it works much better. Love the caliber now that I’ve got good brass.

This rifle comes with 50 pieces of brass and Redding dies along with 100 Woodleigh bullets.

 

[Bullthrower338]

Beautiful rifle!

 

[Wheels]

It was the rifle of the Uganda game dept pre-independence.

The 404 Was used by most of the British colonial game departments and thus became more popular.

 

[Velo Dog]

Beautiful rifle!

+1

 

[ChrisG]

It is a gorgeous rifle! Unfortunately, unless you have some way of making brass from existing brass, it is all but dead. the other problem then is going to be locating the 0.435" diameter bullets. I am sure woodleigh makes some but I am pretty sure you are going to be stuck with shooting $70/50 bullets whether you are punching holes in paper or shooting animals. I love the idea of the round as it is a classic, but in practicality, it is hard to advise you to buy it.

 

[John A Flaws]

I was fortunate to pick up a Westley Richards 425 several years ago. I have only seen about eight or ten of them for sale over the past twenty five years. Half of them have been in rough shape and not ones I would be apt to buy. I love the caliber a short mag before there were short mags.

 

[Rule 303]

If you can sources brass and bullets go for it.

 

[Richard WR425]

If you guys are still looking for brass, Kynamco in England still sell Kynoch brass at a very reasonable price and it is of excellent quality. Contact David Little at dclittle@kynamco.co.uk
Their service is top notch.
I use Woodleigh bullets in my .425 and they are also excellent.

 

[Spooksar]

It is a gorgeous rifle! Unfortunately, unless you have some way of making brass from existing brass, it is all but dead. the other problem then is going to be locating the 0.435" diameter bullets. I am sure woodleigh makes some but I am pretty sure you are going to be stuck with shooting $70/50 bullets whether you are punching holes in paper or shooting animals. I love the idea of the round as it is a classic, but in practicality, it is hard to advise you to buy it.

You can make brass out of 404 Jeffery it takes a bit but I made 100 a couple of years ago. On a different note was on Quality Cartridge web sit last week and they have 425 WR in stock, just need to figure out how to get it into Canada with out paying high export fees.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

I have the opportunity to purchase a beautiful custom rifle built on a P17 action chambered in .425 Westley Richards. I don't know too much about this rifle/cartridge combo other than John "Pondoro" Taylor spoke quite highly about the cartridge in his book "African Rifles and Cartridges". I've heard that the rebated rim sometimes causes feeding problems. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this rifle/caliber combination.

@Quaticman
It's M17 action or a P14 action. Both the same action but the P14 was for the 303 e and the M17's were 30 ought six. Both very good and extremely strong actions.
Bob.