Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only 404 Jeffery

I traded a LH rifle for a LH Zastava opened at factory for 375 H&H and am considering a 404J to pair up with my 275 Rigby and 9.3x62. Fresh thoughts on the 404J welcomed.

.404J is a good round.

I built one on a M-70 RUM donor. Find a left handed CRF M-70 donor in 300 RUM and build you one.

There is less work to do with a RUM action, already set up for fat rounds. You will have to open the bolt face, which is easier with CRF than PF.

DF

Keeping it 375 will be a whole lot easier.

Just sayin'!

I own both a 375H&H and a 404 Jeffery.

The 404 is one cool rifle, but I have little use for it. When I was a young man I used a 404 for almost a year. Loaned to me, and I came to really like the rifle, but here in the USA I have no use for it. I made the one I own now for the nostalgia of having it, and the 375 covers all the bases better for me as does the 9.3X62 and the 9.3X74R.
There is just nothing in the USA or Canada that a 404 does that a 375 won't do as well, and if the game is over 200 years away the 375 makes range estimation less critical.
Also the bullets available for the 375 go from those made to open easily to those that open only some when they hit thick skin like that of a hippo or cape buffalo, to those that don't open at all.
In the .423 diameter you have "African bullets" and nothing else. Not that it matters much, but it is a point to think about.

If I were to be forces to choose between a 375 OR a 404 I would say the375 is a better choice for me, but the best is to simply have both.

Just fanning the fire but do you consider that the Jeffrey brings anything to the table that the 375 doesn't do on big game? I have heard some say that over 40 caliber is better but I doubt I could see a difference. If you follow this line of thought you could always go with 350 grain bullets in the 375. Taylor split the difference on if in open country or heavy cover on his preference.

Go for it, you already have a 9.3 which is close to the 375. Hornady makes ammo and brass for the 404. Resale on a 404 Jeffrey will be way better than a plain jane 375 in case you decide you don't need it in the future. Plus you get to say you have a 404 Jeffrey!

Life is too short not to have a few cool rifles in your lifetime. The 375 H&H is a great round but rather common. If I didn't already have an ongoing love for the 400 Whelen, I'd build a 404 Jeff. You are neither over gunned for anything on this continent nor under gunned for any other continent.

Well Peashooter makes an excellent point. One well worth listening to.

Your 9.3 is close enough to a 375 that I doubt you'd see any difference in the 2 on North American game. I can't anyway, and I also have several 9.3s. I have not killed anywhere near the number of game animals with my 9.3s as I have with my 375 (which is on it's 2nd barrel now) but I have killed and seen killed enough game with the 9.3X62 and 9.3X74R that I can say on elk, moose and buffalo, I have not seen any real difference in how the 3 cartridges kill.

So if you like the idea of the 404, make it.

As I said above, if I were forced to choose between a 375 and a 404 I would go with the 375, but the 9.3 is close enough.

Agree. I traded my .404J, kept my .375 H&H.

A .416 Rem is an easier conversion, most any full length mag action will work, less alteration than .404J.

DF

I'm in the process of building one on a LH Zastava. It would be nice if lighter, more streamlined bullets were available. Something like a Woodleigh 350gr PP, but they make a round nose in that weight that should open up well on lighter game. Most guys here that have them seem to have no trouble on lesser game using 400gr RN pills. I intend to use mostly cast in mine for local use.

I ended up with a Walther barrel for my .404J. Seem not everyone makes .404J barrels.

What barrels are available to you guys down under?

DF

We have a few barrel makers locally (TSE, Maddco, Sprinter, Swan and others plus a few Kiwi barrel makers). To be honest I didn't check locally as I bought a new Walther Lother prefit for a 98 when it was on sale.

For 98's it pretty hard to look beyond a Walther Lothar prefit. If you have time to order one, they have a huge list of chamberings (including quite a few obscure European chamberings) and a few contours.

Walther will work, mine sure did...

DF

.404J on a .300 RUM CRF M-70 donor with Walther barrel, Echols Legend stock, Williams bottom metal, NECG front and peep, M-70 Safari fold down rear to accommodate peep...

DF

Nice looking rig there, DF.

Thanks JFE. It wasn't that hard a build. The .404J is the parent round for the RUM family. They have rebated rims, the .404 doesn't, so the bolt face has to be opened and the extractor adjusted for the wider rim. The box mag is already set up for those fat rounds, Feeding ramp will need to be widened.

I talked to D'Arcy about the stock. It's made by McM for him, but he has full rights, they can't sell it direct. He inletted it for Williams bottom metal and the fit was Echols perfect, just a drop in. I didn't have to touch it. He did install cross pins that I painted over. McM would only recommend mag fill for a big gun like this, this one is std fill. D'Arcy said it would hold and it held just fine, although I did Steel Bed it.

Someone could do a similar build with a LH donor.

The Legend comes without inletting for the port or bolt handle, so it could be set up left or right handed.

D'Arcy is very easy to talk to and knows his stuff, likes to help his customers.

DF

Is that Light Years?

Good luck finding a left handed M-70 in 300 RUM though.

OP could go over to Accurate Reloading, in the Gunsmithing sub-forum, and read the thread on D'Arcy making a mauser feed 9.3x62, IIRC. Lots of pictures, videos and commentary on getting it to work 100%. There is a LOT more to it than just swapping parts.

As OP already BTDT.

If you handload, you can do a google search for ".404 Jeffery bullets." There are several sources that offer a respectable array of bullets suitable for most North American big game hunting.

.416 Rem would be an easier conversion than .404J.

DF

Have always thought about a 404 Jeffery, having had a 416 Rigby and still have a 40 cal Sharps rifle along with the 400 Whelen, 416 Taylor, and now have a secret 40 cal rifle being built, I'm flush with 40's.

"Secret 40 cal"...?

You can tell us, we'll keep it a secret.. .

DF

LOL, I'm going to have it built then have a Bud try to guess what it is by looking at a loaded round, he reads these pages but doesn't post.

Obviously you need a 416 Dakota!

I think I got the last few boxes of Dakota brass before they discontinued it, so I had to build a rifle to run it through!

Makes sense, for sure...

DF

It sure does! I got the last set of 416 Dakota dies from Dakota and some Norma 404 RNE brass, so I am in need of a rifle... I love the 404 Jeffery, but think the 416 Dakota is "better". McCray, please tell us more about your 416 Dakota. Maybe start another thread? BTW, I'm super jealous of your Dakota brass

I just won an auction for 100 pieces of new Norma 404J brass. I'm running out of excuses....

Now you committed.

DF

right. plus I already have an extra gentry 3 pos safety in the closet. need a barrel and bottom metal and away we go.

That Gentry need to be outed, needs to be out of the closet.

Look forward to updates on that project.

DF

When the pieces start coming in I'll get pics up.

Rifle is in. Rough as expected. Will take apart and take some pics.

I’ve smoothed up rough actions with abrasive but gotta keep that stuff off the locking lugs.

Takes a good bit of work but worth it.

DF

But definitely need to assure good contact on the lugs.

The barrel is a little beefier than I was expecting. Measuring the barrel as 23" Ran some snap caps through it and the damned thing shoots them 7 feet across the floor. 8.5 lbs on my scale though it may be off a tad. Thinking slightly less.

I wouldn't mind cutting the lugs if I was going to re-barrel. I'd be hesitant to get too aggressive with them, concerned about changing head space.

DF

Gotcha. Need to figure out the bottom metal though. sunny Hill says no bottom metal when action opened in the front. duane Wiebe seems to be an option. Would not mind just finding an in the bow release interarms floorplate at the moment. Do you know if a 1909 bottom metal could be used if one created a new magazine? Worth it or just buy a whole thing at that point?

Good question.

Could get expensive, either way.

DF

$400 doesn't break the bank. but still the question is out there.

Adds up and before you know it you could have bought a custom action.

DF

I came close to building a 404 maybe 15 or so years ago when it seemed to have been resurrected with a number of folks building rifles on AR. I held out, moved a number of times, and once settled put together a 416 Remington after owning a Dakota 416 Rigby in the moves. The Remington round just made sense to me and my tweaked New Haven M70 has proven itself well.

I'm sitting on 2 pristine New Haven LH Classics; one standard and one magnum. Nice guns. I've given real thought to just hunting with a 30 06 and a 375 plus a ss bad weather 30 06.

416 REM is an easier one to build than .404J.

DF

Clearly which led me away. I bought mine and swapped the stock, sights and extractor and went buffalo hunting. Hence my choice.

Nice buff. What bullet and load?

Building a .416 Rem for my hunting bud to take to Africa.

DF

Got my brand new 100 pieces of Norma 404 brass. Long neck on that stuff!

I use Norma in my 404J and 375Flanged Mag. Love it! Expensive here but worth it!

About $1.60 USD for me per round.

Brass only

Here the brass has gone way over $4 per case. Crazy!

correct. brass only. I'll look for another 100 cases and that should last a lifetime.