More proof that the .404 Jeffery came about before 1909 comes from a letter from Burma, dated 31 July 1907, written by one Percy Smith, congratulating Jeffery on a delightful rifle. This letter can also be found in the Jeffery catalogue and is definite proof that rifles had been ordered, built, shipped to Burma, used and reported back on by 1907.

The final nail in the 1909 coffin however comes from a drawing named ‘Tracing 24’ dated 18 October 1905 depicting the .404 cartridge. Subsequently two other .404 drawings from 1907 (Kynoch AQ12/24) and 1908 (Eley 158) respectively have been found. There you have it!

Jeffery did not retain the .404 as a proprietary cartridge as many of its opposition did with cartridges they introduced. All gunmakers could chamber rifles for this cartridge, and most did, which naturally resulted in a fair degree of popularity and a hell of a lot of barrel dimension inconsistency.

About the .404’s popularity John Taylor wrote: ‘I can say at once that it is one of the most popular and most widely-used calibres throughout the big game hunting world. Altho I have only mentioned two firm’s names in connection with it, most gunsmiths, including the Germans, listed rifles of this calibre in their catalogues – which speaks for itself.’

The territories now known as Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe adopted the .404 Jeffery as an official game department standard issue chambering. The cartridge saw tremendous service in this role, acquitting itself magnificently. One can actually stop at that as it ends all arguments.

Due to its base and rim diameter being unusual in the US, the cartridge lost popularity after World War II. The Americans could at the time still not unglue themselves from their limiting preoccupation with .30-06 and .375 cases, as the once mighty British sporting ammunition industry gradually collapsed and big bore ammunition production eventually terminated. Fortunately sufficient stocks of ammunition floated around until 1963 when Dynamit-Nobel commenced production again. This availability of cases kept the .404 going while other British cartridges faltered.

Several cartridge case manufacturers such as Bell, Hornady, Norma and Bertram eventually began manufacturing .404 Jeffery cases, and a wide range of ammunition can now once again be had. The long and the short of all this is that the case and cartridge were revived.

America eventually discovered the .404 case. Dakota Arms lead the way when Don Allen based most of the cartridges in his proprietary line-up on it. Then John Lazzeroni modified it to serve as a basis for some of his designs. Just before the turn of the century a really big name in the cartridge world also came under the .404 Jeffery case’s spell. Remington based its Ultra Mag and Short Ultra Mag cartridge ranges on it; albeit slightly shortened and with marginally rebated rim. Around the turn of the century Rick Jamison and other Americans began using it as a basis for their wildcats, commercial and proprietary cartridges in pursuit of the short-fat benchrest philosophy.

As a result of the US awakening to it, this sensible big bore case configuration now at least enjoys a new surge of popularity. One can only hope that the Yanks will discover the .404 cartridge itself as well. The .404 Jeffery is still very much in business in Africa where it has enjoyed uninterrupted adulation for over a hundred years and it is one of my favourites.

It took a while before the 6.5 Creedmoor captured the imagination of the American shooting fraternity, but when the 6,5mm penny finally dropped, it did so big time. Today the 6.5 Creedmoor is the best-selling long-range, match cartridge on the planet.

Characteristics

The first thing to come to grips with regarding the .404 Jeffery is that its groove diameter is .424″ and not .404″. At .412″ not even its bore diameter is .404″. Where the .404 designation comes from cannot even be guessed at, but I assume it has something to do with the .303. Fact is that it is of larger calibre than the famous .416 Rigby and not every hunter is aware of that.

In original cordite configuration the cartridge launched a 400-grain bullet at 2,125 fps from 28″ proof barrels. In actual hunting rifle configuration that probably meant around 2,050 fps. Yet it worked. Unlike humans that grow softer with each generation, African animals seem to grow tougher, because this moderate velocity load proved immensely effective in Africa at the time, whereas modern hunters scorn 2,125 fps of muzzle velocity in bolt action cartridges. Although Taylor mentions a number of reported instances of bullet failure (solids), he concludes that ‘I cannot see that the .404 would have become so popular if its slugs 

habitually behaved so badly.’ I think Taylor was just filling the page here like he did on occasion, as he was not so accommodating when he discussed the metric 10,75x68mm Mauser. At 2,125 fps even 4th Generation (full metal jacketed) solids fail more or less equally often or equally rarely in most large bores. Today there are excellent bullets for the .404 on the market and the modern hunter can rest assured that if he loads up with any quality bullet for this cartridge, he will be well equipped.

It was also available in 300-grain bullet configuration. Velocity with these hovered around 2,625 fps in proof barrels and around 2,550 fps in hunting rifles. As expected this pushed Green-Band velocity parameters and problems did occur with the original 4th Generation (jacketed soft point) 300-grain HV factory load, due to incorrect short range application, but none of the modern .404 bullets seem to suffer from this shortcoming; American bonded core bullets in particular. At a maximum average pressure of 52,938 psi (360 MPa) crusher, measured in terms of the CIP protocol, the .404 Jeffery’s prescribed pressures are moderate. It was a good idea in the days of heat sensitive Cordite, and it remains a good idea for dangerous game cartridges to this day, but it is not in line with modern trends. We must perhaps all sit down and develop reasonable pressures for modern propellants in classic cartridges. There are modern propellants that perform remarkably consistently despite surprising changes in the temperature and humidity. Examples are those propellants manufactured by Australian Defence Industries and distributed in the USA under the Hodgdon Extreme banner. It is better to consider most other propellants reasonably heat resistant, but not heat impervious. One should therefore not overdo any attempt at raising modern pressure specifications. Although the basic case has become sought after for its base and head dimensions, the shoulder and neck design of the .404 Jeffery case is antiquated. Its body is reasonably straight, but its neck is 147% of a calibre long and at 8º 30′ 32″ its shoulder angle is very shallow by modern standards. The long neck exhibits excellent bullet retention characteristics, but it could have been shorter and still performed the same.

The case can also be evaluated from another perspective. Firstly, it provides all the capacity needed to launch a 400-grain bullet at 2,300 fps from a 24″ (610mm) barrel, while maintaining moderate pressures. Secondly, this cartridge, with its Apollo rocket shape and absence of a belt, feeds like a hot knife through butter: much smoother and better than the various .416’s. Finally, does it not compromise magazine capacity to the extent the .416 Rigby and Weatherby Magnums do. During its heyday the .404 Jeffery was the large bore backbone of African hunting.

Much as the 9,3x62mm Mauser was the transition bore mainstay. These two cartridges attained their revered status because they worked so well. Field performance, much more than looks or purist technical requirements, is what counts when evaluating a cartridge. The .404 Jeffery is still delivering the goods consistently after a hundred and five years on the beat. That is what matters.

Performance

The .404 was designed as a short-range cartridge for massive animals. So applied it shines on eland, giraffe, buffalo, hippo, rhino and elephant. On lion I prefer magnum (2,600fps – 3,00fps) velocity cartridges and the .404 Jeffery will do that with 300-grain bullets. My preference should not be interpreted as meaning that lower velocity combinations do not work on lion. They do. I just have my own preference based on my own reasons, but any bullet that expands quickly and massively yet holds together is decent cat medicine.

With a 400-grain round nose bullet loaded to 2,350 fps, the .404 Jeffery’s Green-Band stretches to about 85 yards, and with a spitzer to ±100 yards. Loaded to 2,600 fps, the 350-grain round nose bullet’s Green-Band extends to 160 yards, and the spitzer’s

to 225 yards. That more than suffices for any big and dangerous game hunting and any person who finds himself in need of longer range capability should engage in a lot of sharpening up of his field craft.

By large bore standards the .404 offers moderate recoil, smooth feeding and 4,700 ft/lb of kinetic energy. There are more specialised elephant stoppers which generate in excess of 5,000 ft/lb of energy, but there are few cartridges as versatile and easy to use as the .404 Jeffery. There is no visible difference between it and the .416 Rigby insofar as killing is concerned, but recorded statistics favour the .404 over the .416. Neither of course exhibits Taylor’s ‘paralyzing .375 effect from which nothing rises.’ The theory is that it does not penetrate as deep as the .416 Rigby. I have not conducted any statistically sound penetration comparisons, but in reality both cartridges offer all the penetration ever needed and any difference is unrelated to field requirements or results.

Much is always made about sectional density of a bullet. The popular conception being that the higher the sectional density, the better a bullet’s terminal stability. Generally sectional density exceeding .300 is considered excellent. A 400-grain .423″bullet has a sectional density of .319, while a similar .416 bullet has a sectional density of .330. Both fall in the excellent category.

The late Steve Lunceford on the left, and the author holding his .404 built on a double square bridge Mauser action. Steve ended the crop-raiding days of this big hippo bull near the confluence of the Limpopo and Magalakwena rivers. Author was there for the ride. Steve sadly died in an aircraft crash in 2011.

However, the popular sectional density perception is not supported by science. It should not be rejected, but it has more to do with weight retention than pure sectional density.

We have the right idea, we are just tagging it to the wrong definition. We all know that the longer a bullet is, the faster it must spin to remain stable in air. That does not change during the terminal phase, except that an animal’s body is at least 900 times denser than air. It is common knowledge that the denser the medium through which a bullet travels, the faster it must rotate to remain stable and head on.

Given the same mass and twist, a solid .423″ bullet (being shorter and having a lower sectional density than a .416″ bullet) should therefore be more stable than a .416’s during the terminal phase! It is also easier to bend a 6″ rod of a given diameter and material than a 3″ one. So, the longer a bullet is (all else being equal) the more prone it is to bending and losing terminal direction. That however is a separate discussion.

My intention is not to tote the .404 Jeffery as better than the .416’s, but merely to show that a great number of considerations used by hunters to pick one cartridge over the other are not particularly scientific, but merely the result of attempts at rationalization or susceptibility to propaganda. To understand terminal stability and penetration better, readers are advised to study the most authoritative publication ever on penetration, namely the book Bullet Penetration – Modelling the Dynamics and Incapacitation Resulting from Wound Trauma by Duncan MacPherson.

According to CIP specifications the .404 Jeffery is a tad shorter than the .375 H&H Magnum and countless standard length Mauser actions have been successfully converted to handle the .404, by stretching the magazine and doing some work on the rails and ramp. If you load the .404 to standard magnum length this  is not a problem, but a good case can be made for rather mating it to stretched actions.

Collecting grass to hang over the lion bait so that the vultures do not get hold of the meat first.

With a riflescope the almost perfect zero is about 90 yards using a 400-gr round nose. It offers a 0.2″ point blank range from about 37-100 yards. Very good for bush hunting. Even at 150 yards it is still within 2.3″ of line of sight, but I have grown so accustomed to my 75-yard zero that I personally do not deviate from it any more.

Handloading

If you load the .404 Jeffery to the CIP specified 3.53″ (89,66mm), a 400-grain Barnes RN solid is seated about 0.74″ (18,8mm) deep into the case, and a Woodleigh 400-grain RN solid about 0.654″ (16,7mm), while calibre is only 0.423″ (10,74mm). Nothing (except magazine length and/or leade) compels anybody to compromise the .404 Jeffery’s combustion space by seating the bullet deeper than a calibre, just to conform to CIP overall cartridge length specs. Particularly because cartridge overall length is changed by handloaders for all sorts of reasons, including accuracy. You don’t have to stick to crimping grooves either, especially if you use a Lee factory crimp die sensibly. Changing overall cartridge length affects pressures and should not be engaged in by the inexperienced.

This custom .404 Jeffery on a Vektor Magnum Mauser action is one of the author’s favourite rifles. In patent applications William Jackman Jeffery did not describe himself as a gunmaker. His company did not manufacture rifles or guns. He purchased them from Birmingham gunmakers and sold these under the WJ Jeffery brand name. That is one of the reasons why he did not maintain proprietary rights to the cartridges introduced via his company.

approaching the higher pressure levels which are accepted as the norm for cartridges of late.

If one looks at the various handloading manuals, and also when you punch the dimensional, volumetric and weight data into the better internal ballistic programmes, it becomes obvious that the slower medium burning propellants between Hodgdon’s H-4895 and H-414 provide the best results with the 400-grain bullet. Once the slow burning propellant category is entered into, suitability fast deteriorates. Somchem S-355 and propellants in the IMR-4064 and IMR-4320 class work well in this cartridge.

Although a lot of RWS cases still float around, it ceased making .404 ammunition and components around 2000. At this stage Bertram, Horneber, Kynamco and Reed are the best options for cases. I use Norma cases. They offer great consistency.

Woodleigh makes the most popular .404 bullets, but Barnes, GS Custom, Rhino, Stewart, Swift and RWS also manufacture good stuff. I use Swift, Rhino and Stewart softs. Rhino bullets are not always the dimensionally most consistent and I find that irritating on the handloading side, but when you put bullet to flesh, they work.

When it was active, A-Square also offered .423″ bullets. According to my information A-Square monometal solids were actually conceived and patented by Eric Lutfy of the Thunderbird Cartridge Company in Phoenix, Arizona.

To my mind, the day of the round nose solid has come and gone. The new generation of large meplat solids such as the GS Custom and the North Fork have arrived. I don’t use anything else any more.

The one thing to bear in mind when handloading the .404 case is that it is big. It requires a full size press and proper case lubrication, or the cases get stuck in the dies. It is a candidate for premium quality case lubes such as Imperial Sizing Die Wax.

Due to the .404’s sloping shoulder, great care must be taken not to set the shoulders back. Fortunately it has a long neck and it is easy to only resize it partially.

As with all cartridges intended to be used on dangerous game, full-length resizing of hunting handloads is recommended. Due to the sloping shoulder the cartridge is a smooth feeder and very few problems in this regard are ever encountered on the .404.

Despite the fact that the long necks can fairly easily be buckled when crimps are applied, it is easy to handload.

.404 Jeffery / 10,75 x 73mm Load Data Summary

This drawing of the Creedmoor Range depicting the venue and the crowd attending a day of competitive shooting between American and British riflemen appeared in the 6 October 1877 edition of The Illustrated London News. In those days, society did not frown upon firearm activities.

rifle range. When a Colonel Shaw, one of the NRA range committee members first saw the piece of land, he said that it reminded him of a moor. So, it became known as Creed’s Moor and later, simply Creedmoor.

The Creedmoor range was officially opened on 21 June 1873 and soon hosted historic competitions such as the famous one between the NRA and the Irish Rifle Team (which included the eminent John Rigby) in September 1874.

 It is therefore rather fitting that Emary and Thielen’s dedicated long-range match cartridge, the first commercial rifle cartridge ever specifically conceived and designed for extreme range competition, was dubbed the 6.5 Creedmoor.

It took a while before the 6.5 Creedmoor captured the imagination of the American shooting fraternity, but when the 6,5mm penny finally dropped, it did so big time. Today the 6.5 Creedmoor is the best-selling long-range, match cartridge on the planet.

Dave Emery has since retired, but he was one of the conceivers of the 6.5 Creedmoor and played a crucial role in its development. Dave was also involved in the design of several other cartridges during his tenure at Hornady Manufacturing.

It is commonly claimed by retweeting gunwiters that the tighter twist of the 6.5 Creedmoor and its ability to stabilize heavier bullets than the .260 Remington is what gives it the edge. That may be so when used across bush-ranges (≤ 150 yards) and when using 156 – 160 grain bullets. Truth is – nobody uses the Creedmoor in that fashion. The Creedmoor is used across extended ranges in both match and hunting application. It is so rare to find any hunter using bullets heavier than 143 grains for any application, that it can effectively be discounted as an advantage or consideration.

The CaB-Ratio of the 6.5 Creedmoor is 71.8 and the Expansion Ratio 7.8. That is middle of the road for both features and translates to reasonable barrel life. The Creedmoor’s CIP ‘S’ measurement or gas turbulence point is inside the case neck – even if barely so. If that is indeed beneficial as claimed by some, I find the position too precariously close (0.03” – 0,76mm) to the mouth to render a truly tangible benefit. An aspect that counts in favour of the Creedmoor is that it usually requires less of a given propellant than the .260 Remington for comparable performance. I compiled a VC Comparison table from the load data tables. According to the data used the Remington requires 2.1% more propellant to achieve a 3 fps (0.11%) velocity advantage. The Creedmoor’s conversion of propellant to velocity (Velocity ÷ Charge) ratio is 1.9% better in the example used. All this means that a 6.5 Creedmoor is the more efficient and that Creedmoor barrels should last to around 2,000 shots in competition and 3,000 for hunting use.

Performance & Application

Handload Performance Figures at 100% Bullet Expansion (24.0” Barrel)

 Averaged CSM = 5.29 lb (2,40 kg)

The bullets used for the calculation of the RTP (Relative Trauma Potential), and the Green-Band are quality hunting bullets, not extended range, high ballistic coefficient paper punchers. The hunting bullets used, drop below 2,600 fps at the end of the Red-Band, below 2,200 fps at the end of the Green-Band and below 2,000 fps where the Amber-Band ends.

The 6.5 Creedmoor is a great extreme range match cartridge, but for hunting it’s just a 350-yard option and can be stretched to 500 yards given a carefully selected bullet. That disregards my half-second time of flight principle. The needs of hunters differ massively from that of the extended range target shooter. The latter is not at all concerned about terminal ballistics. Their concerns are with external ballistics, not terminal ballistics. Sport shooters want to minimize time of flight, achieve the flattest trajectory possible and extend the supersonic velocity of the bullet as far as possible.

Whereas the 140-gr hunting bullet used in the tables fall below 2,000 fps at around 475 yards already and goes subsonic around 1,225 yards. A Berger 140-gr Match Hybrid Target bullet will, for example, only do so at around 585 and 1,575 yards respectively, depending on altitude and atmospheric conditions.

Hunters are concerned with reliable expansion, bullet integrity, wound channels and venison destruction. It is so that Karamojo (Walter Bell) hunted elephants with a 6,5mm cartridge in days gone by, but let’s be honest; none of us is Karamojo Bell and times have changed. We should use cartridges within more realistic parameters.

A realistic approach is that he 6,5mm cartridges are small game cartridges best suited to species weighing up to 330 lb (150 kg) on the hoof.

The other big name in the development of the 6.5 Creedmoor was Joe Thielen, also of Hornady. Here Joe is with a nice nyala bull he bagged.

situation with the Creedmoor as the 6mm situation that led to its creation! The high pressures generated by pushing the cartridge beyond specification stretch the primer pockets rather quickly. To strengthen the case head and improve case web integrity, Lapua opted to leave more brass in the area by opting for the smaller primer option. I remain a sceptic.

What I can confirm is that case volumetric consistency and case neck tension are major contributors to long-range precision. Lapua cases are extremely consistent out of the box and should be case of choice for the precision shooter. To extract the utmost precision from the 6.5 Creedmoor, rigorous case classification of neck wall consistency and water capacity should be applied. That must be followed by dedicated case preparation steps such as primer pocket uniforming, flash hole deburring, neck turning and regular annealing. So are the use of a top-class press, competition dies and loading techniques.

The 6.5 Creedmoor works with a variety of slow-burning propellants in the H-4350 to H-4831 bracket with all bullet weights. Vihtavuori is the one company that developed a dedicated 6.5 Creedmoor propellant: N-555. It burns between the two Hodgdon/ADI propellants mention above.