Well if RIP has a 404 as a Sheep Rifle, this must be my Kangaroo("Roo") Rifle. My first custom rifle which I think turned out rather well. Which is testament to the great skills of the 2 gunsmiths involved both from Melbourne, Australia. Ross Waghorn did the Stockwork & Design Concept. Bob deVries of Kudu Services did the Metalwork and arranged for the engraving & Rust Bluing. I was/am quite green in this field and these guys made sure I did not put a foot wrong.

Its been more than 2 years since the project was started but I think the result speaks for itself. I take my hat off to Tom Turpin cause its bloody hard to get good shots of a rifle but here goes & hope you enjoy it:





















Specs are:

Aussie Walnut Stock as you can see from original blank photo
M70 Safari Express Donor action
MAB Barrel 23.5 inches
1/4 Rib with 3 leafed express sight
Banded Front Sight with Pop up Warthog Ivory night Sight
Banded Front Sling Swivel
Original Williams Floorplate
Wisner spring steel extractor
Kudu Custom magazine follower
New bolt knob with 3 panel chequering
Buffalo Horn forend tip & grip cap
Fleur de lys chequering at 22 lpi with ribbon
Shadowline Cheekpiece stock with cast off
Packmayr Decellerator pad
Inletted rear swivell
Talley QDs on Kudu custom bases
Swaro 1.25-4 x 24 illuminated with Battue reticle
All up wt empty 10lbs but sure does not feel that heavy as it balances perfectly where my left hand grips the stock with just a hint of muzzle heaviness. Blueprinted lapped etc. Trigger set at 3lbs, safety reworked for smoothness.

Can't wait to try it out!!! No Roo is safe now.

My specs were arrived at from advice from people on this forum. So thanks to you all and those great gunsmiths in Melb.

Cost well that is taboo. More than what you want to spend but heck every gun nut owes it to him/her self to have at least one custom gun before they go to the great hunting ground in the sky!! Don't you agree?

Regards
JohnT

JohnT,
Amen!

Mine is a beater, yours is a work of art.

I like to set QD levers so that inertial forces in recoil would tend to tighten them instead of work on them in the direction of loosening. Is this important? Maybe, but not as aesthetic sometimes. I would set your levers a bit differently, for myself (pointing downward and to the rear, southeast in your photo), assuming clockwise tightens them.

You show great upbringing. Thanks for sharing this faultless beauty.

John,

I have had the honour of shouldering your rifle, Bob showed me the finished product before you picked it up...it is truly great and Bob is truly a master smith...hope my .404 turns out as nice as yours, I know it will as Bob is a first rate smith.

Congratulations !!

Very beautiful, one you can be really proud of and that was worth the wait! You should post these pics on the gunsmithing forum too.

Simply Lovely!!!

Congratulations on all sorts of good choices from the Smiths to the materials.

Wow!
I will take it!

Very nice. Can you post who did the work?

Scrollcutter, not sure whether John edited his post or not, but the smiths are listed at the top of his post. Ross Waghorn, stockmaker and Bob de Vries, metalsmith. They're the same pair that made my rifle which I posted pics of last year. They make a great team.

Hopefully about this time next year I'll have pics to post of another rifle they've made

I really like that fur de lis, and I am not normally fond of that in a pattern, but that is very elegant in its lines, well executed. Great work.

Is the Australian Walnut cheaper down there? Wow that stuff is pricey here.

Red

I only know Waghorn's prices in Australia but I think the Cal. English walnut I saw in Reno was a little cheaper for similar quality.
That may not be the case if I went directly to a wood seller, rather than the stock maker.

John Great looking rifle!
I'll be glad when I get my 404 Jeffery project to the point I can send it to ScrollCutter!

John,

That has turned out nice. I think for a custom gun in Australia the combination of Waghorn, De Vries and the M70 375 takes a lot of beating.

Mike

Everyone thanks for your positive comments. I shall be taking it to the range next week and start running in the barrel.

RIP - Talley recommends that the levers be level facing each other. That was the way the gunsmith returned the rifle to me so I have not touched it yet, but a good point. They do lock up clockwise & as the recoil will tend to push them forward, its not a good idea in that position. I'd be different if the rings were mounted on the eject side.

Scrollcutter - as my mate Stu C pointed out our gunsmiths were:
Ross Waghorn - stockwork & design concept. This fellow is an incredible artist and in a few minutes he'll sketch out your dream rifle right before your eyes. He refuses to use a stock duplicator even for roughing out and does everything by hand. He does a bit then lets the blank be for a couple of weeks then goes to work on it again.

Bob DeVries of Kudu Services did all the metalwork & organised the engraving and rust bluing. Ross actually put me onto Bob and as Ross says his metalwork just keeps getting better and better.

Mike375 thanks as it was you that put me onto Ross who then put me onto Bob. Funny how things work out!

StuC & I corresponded quite a lot as both our projects were in progress within months of each other. He's got the custom bug Bad real Bad. A critical case!

PC - I heard you have been spending too much time in Bob's shop and not letting him do any work!!! Hence all our jobs are delayed. Bad boy! I'm sure you will enjoy your Jeffery.

Dago Red - Good Aussie Walnut is not cheap even in Australia. Both Stu & I bought from our gunsmith's stock, if they make a few bucks on top, that's fine by us as we have peace of mind and know that they themselves are happy with the wood they will be working on. The wood on my rifle is very dense hence quite heavy but not quite as fancy as you can get in the USA with that marble cake effect.

I was surprised when my rifle tipped the scale at 10lbs exactly (empty with scope). Sure does not feel that heavy in the hand which must mean the balance is right. In fact had a bull session last night with the boys and one guy who really knows his guns guessed that it weighed 8.5lbs.

Now will it shoot??? I bloody well hope so!! Otherwise its expensive firewood!

Oh did I mention that with the custom follower & the blueprinting, polishing etc if I tip the rifle over the bolt will slide closed all by itself. No teflon, NP3 etc required here. Not necessary but oh so nice!

Regards
JohnT

JohnT

Very nice rifle.

Forget the roos, which species of buffalo will be first, water or cape?

NitroX - why given those choices of course Cape. No contest.

Thanks for organising the Saeed videos for the aussie hunters.

Regards
JohnT

John,

I have imposed a "self Ban" on myself similar to those at gaming venues

Did you take the other .404 Bob had already built sitting on the shelf ?? I am modelling mine on that with a few variations.

JohnT,

10 pounds with scope and mounts and good, dense wood is perfect for a well balanced walnut and blue .375 H&H masterpiece. And it looks like you are on top of everything with the levers. The level/parallel-to-bore position is not quite neutral to recoil/inertial effects, as there is some rise at the muzzle, so Talley has not written the last word in lever placement.



Do you get 3 or 4 down in the box? And out of curiosity, what is the muzzle diameter, not counting any band, of course?



I have lusted after the Johannsen Magnum Mausers in .375 H&H and .416 Rigby, but a Winchester M70 customized to the nth degree is as good as it gets. Harry Manners preferred the factory M70 in .375 H&H as his elephant rifle, so he made the M70 .375 H&H as classic as any H&H Mauser.



My RIP-Rifle in .375 H&H (Pre-64 M70) has a 1 pound Brown Precision stock (graphite, Kevlar, fiberglass, with grit-textured black paint, no decals on the butt) and a No. 3 Douglas stainless barrel that is 0.625" at the muzzle. It weighs just under 8 pounds with Leupold 2.5X-8X in Leupold QRW rings and bases, with NECG banded front sight, no ammo or sling. Adding ammo,4 down and 1 up, plus the sling and swivels brings it up to just shy of 8.5 pounds. That is the African Varmint Rifle, 3/4 MOA if I do my part in shooting it. An NECG peep goes on the rear QRW base when the scope is removed.



When you use wood, you need weight in the barrel to balance, and a quarter rib and sights helps there if the barrel is slim. Your rifle seems to be the perfect weight to be expected.

Very nice John, RIP will come around soon & build a "proper" .404.

RIP - measured it just then. The muzzle dia is 0.640. Its in what Ross Waghorn calls a Holland & Holland taper. My target weight in my " specs" was 9-9.5lbs so they went over but the overiding criteria was balance. I think the density of the walnut tipped it over the weight limit as it is really quite a trim stock. (Well maybe that quarter rib added a bit but what's an express rifle w/o a rib eh?).

It takes 3 down, tried to get 4 but then I would have to get a Blackburn bottom metal & that alone costs A$700. The advantage with 3 is that the lines are trimmer & the Williams came up well.(too good to throw away)

PC - yes I did pick up the 404J that I think Bob built for himself but never got round to using. That has a much heavier barrel profile but still only weighs 8.5lbs. So it will be an interesting one to shoot with open sights!! Bob told me he went through Slee's stock blanks and picked that one up for about $500. Wow what a bargain cause its come up a treat but the wood is obviously not as dense at the one on the 375H&H.

RIP - Did I mention that I picked up at the same time a 404J built the " proper" way??? . Just waiting on my reloading dies then we can share loads.

Regards
JohnT

John,

I if you get the oppurtunity would you be able to post pictures of your .404 I think it will be appreciated. The barrel profile I have gone for on my .404 is model #1450 that Lothar Walther produce, I will have it cut to 23 1/2".

Will you mount a scope on your .404 (Bob had an exceptionally good method for opening up the mauser 1909 at the rear for the .404 there and he was complemented on his unique idea by someone but I just can not quite remember the crux of the story.....yours was done in this manner and I have asked for it to be completed on mine).

Yes the stock was a bargain !!

fredj338,
I have designs on a Dakota 76 in .416 Dakota as my ideal girly-man rifle to top off my personal museum of eighty-some bolt action, single shot, and double rifles. However, I'd probably leave the wood in the safe and take it hunting only in fiberglass.

JohnT,
You'll want to get a McMillan stock to beat around the bush with. Keep your wood safe. As PC said, any photos of your .404 Jeffery Mauser would be very interesting, as well as measurement of the magazine box width at front and rear, inside the box. And what is the muzzle diameter of the .404 Jeffery lightweight you have there, please?

It would be great to have you share some loads here. Our great Hodgdon powders are your ADI stuff, repackaged for American consumption, as is well known. Hodgdon's Varget will be hard to beat. I suspect H4350 Extreme will be great.

I stopped at 87 grains of H4350 with the 400 grain Woodleigh RNSP Weldcore, Norma brass, Federal GM215M primer, velocity was 2329 fps and uniform, 24" barrel of the African Sheep Rifle (1 in 10" twist). The case was about 100% full, but a drop tube would allow 2400 fps and a good load it would seem to me, without any powder compression, maybe at 90 grains of H4350 = ADI ????

The same components in the same rifle, except 81 grains of Varget (ADI ????), gave right at 2400 fps with plenty of room in the case left over. Good load.

You know that if you stop at 2400 fps with 400 grainers in the .404 Jeffery, then pressures will be fine with any reasonable powder in a 24" barrel. Probably just a little over 50K psi with RL-15 or Varget and room to spare. Maybe less peak pressure with the powders slower than that and the case packed full.

Saeed has posted some excellent data for Varget and VVN550. I will be trying the VVN550, H4350 and Ray Atkinson's IMR4831 next, with drop tube.

Your .375 H&H muzzle diameter of 0.640" is sporty indeed, sounds like your smith is tops. Thanks for that detail.

Thanks for sharing, I'm a rifle junky.

RIP & PC - I'll post some pics of the "Kudu Services" 404J when I get a chance to upload them to the web. Whoa - I just checked my data, guess my memory aint that good. Its 8lb 4oz not 8.5 pounds all up without scope & empty. Thanks for the Load data I'll take note for future reference. If I can get it to work with ADI powders that's ideal, very available & reasonably priced.

PC - I did get a set of custom bases (for Talley Rings) made up by Bob for the 404J. He had it engraved & all so that it blends in perfectly but I have not mounted a scope on it yet. My very good friend reckons I should leave it as open sighted. This rifle also holds 3 down in the mag. Am waiting for my dies to arrive so I can start reloading. I don't know if any 404J factory ammo is avail in oz. PC this rifle has a Timney trigger modified by Bob. Man it is so sweet & as you know Timney's aren't that expensive. I'd definitely get that done on your custom 404J.

I must say that I am surprised at the level of interest in the 404J on this forum. Seems much stronger now than for the .416 say, nothwithstanding the difficulty/availavility of components. Maybe its due to the RUMs & WSM being based on it.

Regards
JohnT

John,

the Timmney trigger on your .404 is supurb...I have asked Bob to put a blackburn trigger on, but your right the position of your trigger blade was excellent.