Jeffery developed /designed the 404 Jeffery .....why is there a German equivalent , 10.75 x 73 mm caliber build by the Germans?
Who really has build designed this caliber, I really would like members who are from Germany and from England or any historical knowledgeable person who is clued up on rifle caliber history give me answers please????
C&P from another platform to answer your question Gert
Originally posted by ALF:
The caliber .423 ( 10.75) is old BP European, the case is British, the load on original form is British. The caliber originally was not 423 but 422 as per the Birmingham proof house records
Why do I claim that it's not German:
Propellant used:
Stick nitro ! The Germans went BP then Flake, no intermediate in the form of Stick Nitro as the English did, and to boot the Germans went flake with the 7x57 when the Brits were still smoking the world up with BP.
From inception ? 1904 introduced 1905 the 404 was Stick Nitro unitll about 1926 when the Germans load for it in Flake.
The second pointer is bullet weight.
Unlike modern wildcatters the Germans did not simply take a existing case, tweak and load, they, true to their reputation for precision actually worked out loads and optimal bullet weight mathematically and verified loads in ballistics labs. They were very proud of these facilities and rightly so.
So you see the odd bullet mass choices in their original cartridges. The 10,75 x 68 is an example, it's optimal bullet weight for charge weight was mathematically deduced and verified in a lab.
The case: it's Jeffery 450-400 and the volume is to accomodate Nitro not Flake. If it were German and designed for the Mauser action size of the time the case would have ended up the same size as the 10,75 x 68.
The Germans did not extend action use beyond the dimensions of cartridges designated per action size. If and when they needed to use a large case cartridge they designed a special action to match or else they altered the case making it fatter and rebating the rim
So to get to the 404, if it were German it would have been loaded with flake and we would likely have seen a different optimal bullet weight and case size for it.
The forerunner of this cartridge is a 450 -400 Jeffery with the rim turned down and an extractor groove cut. The caliber of these specimens = .409
Cartridges exist for this but I know of no rifle in existance today chambered in this format. It also has the large cap Berdan Primer of the original 450-400 Jeffery.
The first commercial 404 was by Eley.
There are many fallacies about the 404 and one is that it came in many variations, this is not true, the cartridge itself retained it's basic dimension and caliber .422 and then later .423 from start to current, this based on the various drawings as submitted to the Birmingham Proof House over the years.
As too bore size now there are different sizes out there, the German derived barrels were all standard. The British Vickers barrels however were smaller diameter and the reason possibly two fold. The difference in the Way the Germans measured bore ( they did not designate bore as land to land, they went groove to groove ) Hence their propencity for larger bullets for caliber .
Secondly then the fact that the Brits were shooting Nitro and needed to opitimize on pressure.
! It's a beauty!!!
