Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only 404 wildcat based on 375/416 ruger case

I am wondering if anyone has tried to open out the 416ruger or 375ruger to .423" calibre and if so does the result give an advantage over the well respected 404J.

My thoughts are if it was a worthwhile increase it would be easy to get a CZ 550 in 404J and have the chamber opened out to take the ruger case. Forming the case from the ruger brass would be a simple step.

I believe there is one major flaw in your logic. If I'm not mistaken, the .404 Jeffery case is larger than the Ruger case.

Grasshoppers notion nonwithstanding, this exact thing has been done by out own Wildcatter 264 who in turn gives credit to muledeer for the idea.

Idea conceived

.404 Ruger 2

Baptism of Fire

My hat is off to Moe on this.

Fact...and thank you.

Here are the cartridges, by comparison:



.404 Jeffery on the left; .404 Ruger on the right. The cases are close enough that I can use my .404 Jeffery dies to make .404 Ruger ammo -- but you can't rechamber the Jeffery to the reworked Ruger case. And there would be little point to chambering in any way a CZ 550 .404 Jeffery to a shorter case -- the shorter (Ruger .375/.416/.404) cases are designed to fit standard length rifles. I have a .375 Ruger, and that is one of the many reasons it's a much better design than a .375 H&H, et al -- in that the old cartridge designs require much bigger rifles.

The .404 Ruger cartridges do look and work pretty cool, though. And it was beyond cool to have a very small role to play in Wildcatter264's buiding of a new rifle and trek to Africa to use it successfully.

One of the better events I've been involved in, however minutely, here at the 'Campfire .

Dennis

Thanks Dennis and all. The 404 Ruger is the most practical wildcat I've been involved with. Accurate, powerful and the best mix of nostalgia (.423" caliber) and modern tech (the standard length Ruger case and action). Hope to take it back to Africa next year, this time in the wood stock.

I have built a couple of them for clients..It has the same balistics as the 404 Jefferys unless one uses IMR-4831 and loads the Jefferys max and then the Jefferys beats the socks off the 404/375 Ruger. But the upside is most everyone loads both the 404 Jefferys and 404 Ruger to an easy 2400 FPS..so one is about as good as the other, trying to justify one over the other is campfire conversation only..

Not really...it depends on what you want. I have a CZ .404 Jeffery and a .375 Ruger, which led me to the notion that a .404 cartridge could be built that fits a standard Ruger action. The .404 Jeffery will not fit it, so essentially I could, as wildcatter264 did, meet the same ballistics in a shorter, lighter, better (maybe) action chambered in the .404 Ruger. If that makes a difference, it's different enough to matter. If it doesn't, then of course people can get large, heavy rifles even theough they don't need one.

One day I'm going to build a .404 Ruger, when I get done with some other things that need to be done first.

Dennis

Well I liked the 404 Rugers I built, but so did someone else and they liked them better than me obviously!

All that said, the difference in a .416 Ruger and a 404 ruger is very minimal any way you cut it, they are fully equal of each other in range, killing power and all that stuff.

I love the 404 and have owned many of them both on big actions and standard actions.. I believe they should be on a big Mauser action to work 110%. Lot of my love for the 404 is nostalgia and I admit that right up front, and I feel sorry for those that don't understand that, and they are many and they also like SS and plastic, I am the opposite.

I played with all the 40 calibers for years, then decided the .416 Rem is about the most practical and as good balistically as any .40 caliber on the market..It will always have available brass, lots of bullets around, and it can sizzle a 400 gr. bullet if you must or you can just shoot'em at the 2300 to 2400 FPS and kill whatever is out front, no exceptions, it will do the job.

All that said, I have never met a 40 caliber big bore that I did not like, I have met some guns in 40 caliber that didn't interest me..

I just FINALLY finished my Husky '98 in 9.3x57 and it'll be the heaviest rifle (in terms of bullet sizes tossed) I've ever fired, so perhaps if I were to build a 404 Jeffrey I'd consider the extra large, heavy action advantageous?

Wasn't the 404 Jeffrey designed to function in a standard Mauser action, or does it require a magnum-length one? I thought that one of the reasons it was so wildly popular in old Africa was because it was chambered in standard Mausers?

To my way of thinking either of these three (404 Jeffrey, 404 Ruger, 416 Ruger) would be pretty sweet. I have a certain appreciation for the Jeffrey as a lover of things nostalgic, but there are about 2x as many .416 cal bullets available through MidwayUSA as there are .423. Of course I recognize that you're not going to "play" with this rifle like I do my 257 AI or anything.

I'm kinda thinking that a big bore may be in my future. I may rechamber my x57 to x62 and then by a '96-based M46 in x57 so I have one of each and then move on to something bigger... skip 375 right to 404 Jeffrey?

Standard Mauser action or something longer?

Probably the best way to build a 404 Jeffery is to start with a M70 Win Classic (CRF) in one of the RUM cartridges. The head diameter is very close and may work without any (or much) bolt face alteration. The magazine box and rails are already configured for the RUM diameter, so should feed the Jeffery without problems. I don't have any experience with the M-98 conversion to 404 Jeffery but have heard it requires significant work to make it reliable every time.

Wildcatter is spot on as to the most inexpensive way to build a 404 Jefferys inasmuch as the RUM is a 404 Jefferys case to start with and that will save you a bunch of money..

I have built 404 Jefferys on std. actions, but personally I was never quit satisfied with them, they fed "almost" 100 percent. The 404s I built on the mauser m-20 big actions fed 110 percent. I find that satisfying considering what I use a 404 for, and that is primarily for dangerous game..It's a comfort to know its going to feed..

I see too many folks show up with guns they think work fine, but they were not tested throughly and we all know when one will go south, thats when the chips are down everytime!

With a build experience of exactly one 404Jeffery on a standard length 98 action, (and we all know that on the net this is statistically significent) I have reliable feeding. I have not been able to get it to miss feed no matter how energetically I work the bolt, however I have not had a bad tempered buff bearing down on me, but the way this one feeds I am confident that it would not let me down under any circumstances.

Von Gruff.