A client has brought in a Farquharson rifle made for the late John Amber, long time editor of the Gun Digest. The barrel is engraved ".416 Amber Creedmoor". Anyone have a clue what this might be? The rifle, which is nicely stocked & fully engraved, was sold without dies or any cartridge cases. The rim recess looks to be the size of the .450 x 3 1/4" case. According to the new owner, the rifle was written up in Gun Digest, but neither he nor I have old issues when Amber was editor.

I know I can always cast the chamber & probably will do so, but it little knowledge about the cartridge cannot hurt. Thanks.

I have all then gun digests 1962 and newer if you could give me even a year I will try and find it.

I believe it was based upon the .45 basic case, long straight taper to a long neck. I think there was a photo of the rifle and cartridge. I will have to check my old issues to see if I can find it.
C.G.B.

It would be so helpful if Gun Digest would publish a complete index of their articles, which they obviously have, since they market the entire collection on DVD.

I have the DVD set, 1944 - 2015.
I printed table of contents pages for every year to current, 2020.
Have them in sheet protectors in a binder.
Sort of like Mitt Romney's binders of women.
My earliest "hard copy" is 1961.
I too will be looking for the .416 Amber Creedmoor,
which sounds familiar,
after I finish chores.

1973 Gun Digest. The rifle was built by Clayton Nelson. The parent case is the .45 basic, 2.75" long, same head and rim as the .45-70. The engraving is by Lynton McKenzie and there is no load data. By the looks of the photos it is a really nice rifle; wish it were mine!
C.G.B.

Thank you very much for your information! It is very helpful. You're right that it is a nice rifle, but it remains to be seen whether the owner will want to go to the trouble to get it shooting again.
Roger

Thanks for that, I started in 1944, never made it to 1973, getting side-tracked so often.
Pages 54 and 55 of the paper edition 1973 GUN DIGEST, I have it on the shelf.
I'll whip out the disc rather than crack the spine of
my yellowing book by scanning it.

Excerpt for book review purposes, GUN DIGEST 1973:





Book review: Excellent book.

Below is a drawing of the .416 Amber Creedmoor that took 10 minutes for John Amber to design,
guesstimated here by using the RCBS Cartridge Designer tool and his description.
It exaggerates the appearance of the shoulder,
which would actually be a ghost shoulder.
The case taper stops tapering and turns into a parallel-sided neck for the last 0.5" of the 2.75" case:



Truly neato that the original rifle has a new owner interested in its care and feeding.

From the looks of the loaded ammo in the GD article, the .416 Amber Creedmoor was throated long, like a .458 WinM.
If so, then 2400 fps with a 400-410-grainer will not break a sweat,
just as John Amber suggested.
Very low pressure for 2200 fps with smokeless and jacketed Nitro Express Classic ballistics.
Also good for BP and paper-patched bullets
for Creedmoor ballistics.