I have had some correspondence from D'Arcy Echols regarding a wildcatthat he has been doing some work on;basically a 375H&H necked up to take the same bullets as the 404 Jeffrey. He has a thread going over on AR on the cartridge and his work with it.
This is an interesting cartridge with the same slick-feeding and moderate recoil characteristics as a 375 H&H and can be built on the same actions.I know some guys have been running around trying to find actions that fit the 404 Jeffrey,and here is one that does the same things on H&H actions.
I thought the CF members would find it interesting,so asked D'Arcy if I could start a thread about it on here,and he said yes, so I will let him tell us all about it. Here is one of the emails I received from D'Arcy. I have asked Tanner to help me post the photo's that follow. Enjoy!
Bob
The idea for a 40 caliber bullet used in conjunction with a standard 375 H&H case has rattled around in my head since the late seventies. Some of the curiosity was sparked by instructors at the Colorado School of Trades. Further thought was inspired by the chapter entitled "The All-around Rifle" in John Taylor's book and his admiration for the 400's. What ever it was it settled in early on. What I can remember at that time was that 404 bullets and barrels were as rare as rocking horse crap. As I have yet to see a 375 H&H properly set up, fail to feed, it seemed like a good idea. The 450 Watts and Lott proved their worth in the field, why not a 40 caliber H&H. While everybody was trying to improve the H&H basic case I kept thinking about just necking the damn case up to .423 and making the Lott's little brother. The 375 shoulder would disappear when expanded to except a .423 bullet but the shoulder diameter would stay the same so it should feed with the same reliability as the parent cartridge in actions that were properly machined for the H&H taper. Hollands introduced the 400 H&H but then we're back to a limited bullets and barrel makers.
Last year I followed a thread on Accurate Reloading with interest as the idea of the same basic cartridge was being discussed. Good 404 bullets and barrels are now common and I had developed a gimp shoulder from testing to many large caliber rifles over 3 decades. The Lott was no longer fun to shoot and I'd like to think I still have a trip or two to Africa to make so I said what the hell and called the Henriksen Tool Company (541-535-2309). Hugh and I decided to make up a neck and throating reamer to use in conjunction with a standard 375 H&H reamer. The reamer has a stop collar that will allow minor chamber length adjustments if desired.
As we are also making up a new Remington 700 Legend stock pattern I decided to fit a 404 caliber Douglas to a newly acquired 700 action to get the ball rolling on our pattern as well as test this 30 year old "idea". Brian coached Matt through another fit and chamber exercise while I modified a set of Redding dies to form the brass and load the test rounds. I then called Dick Davis at McMillan and ask if he could send me a 700 stock in ANY configuration to use as a handle just to fire it through our sky screen. I have little doubt he chuckled as he boxed up an A3 pattern and sent it north. With nothing more than a smear of 5 minute epoxy behind the recoil lug I bolted the barreled action in place and even skipped installing a recoil pad. I was anxious.
I have now been to the range twice with this wildcat. I knew getting 2250fps with 400gr bullet would be easy and so it was. I used new Remington brass, Fed 215-M primers. and H-4895 to drive it all. I have now shot the Barnes 400gr Banded solid, the 400gr TSX, the Woodleigh 400gr FMJ and the Swift 400gr A-frame. I had to limit my testing to 50 yards this last weekend as a Match was being conducted on our 100-300 yard range. The scope was a new Leupold 3X.
I did a basic Ladder test with these 16 rounds, starting at 58grs using only the the A-Frame Bullets and went to 73grs before I ran out of rounds. I had two accuracy clusters, one when the velocity reached 2230fps and the other just over 2300fps. The velocity with the 73grs of powder was 2388fps which eclipses the original 416 Rigby load. I noticed no apparent pressure signs with that 73gr load. Belt expansion was only .0008. The next day I returned with 12 rounds all loaded with 66grs of H-4895 and the four different bullets listed above. The Barnes Banded solids certainly proved the 24.5" barrel was made well as did the other projectiles. The average velocity for all four loads was 2250fps which is right where I wanted to be. Std dev was in the single digits. Recoil was very tolerable, almost pleasant in a S&M kind of way.
This wildcat has no ballistic advantage over most of the other 40 calibers that are currently available, in fact it's pretty tame by comparison. With a steady finger on the trigger history tells us it will likely kill well beyond it's humble energy level. I have no doubt you will be able to use any LR 98 set up properly for the H&H case, any Pre-64 Mod-70 set up for the 300 or 375 H&H or any current Model-70 set up for the 7mm STW, 300 Wtby, 375 H&H or similar 3.600 length magazine and have it work like a champ from day one. You will get 4 down and 1 up if you have a proper W shaped spring installed under the follower in a non drop box magazine. No need for RUM boxes, special followers, incantations, etc.
The muzzle energy falls just north of 4500 Ft lbs , recoil foot lbs in a 9-3/4 lb rifle feels pretty damn mild compared to a Lott and a having 5 rounds available could be handy in a gun fight.
