Anybody know much about this cartridge? It's severely rebated, which makes me wonder about feeding. It appears to be ballistically similar to the 416 Rigby.

Here is a link to a rifle I found. I really like the looks of this, especially the takedown feature and drop box. Can't wait to see what John at Bridger Bullets comes up with for the schuler-type box for the cz-550.

http://www.gameguns.com/riflesdetail31.htm

Factory loads may have been similar, but the Rigby was loaded to a much lower pressure, i.e., the Rigby will way out-perform it.
It's basically a Jeffery rebated to 8x57 rim size.
Probably the definition of rebated rim feeding troubles.

425 actions from westley richards came in 2 or 3 types there was the which i think first version with a military style action done up with the drop box and the loading clips which hold the bullet in the middle of the action and at the proper hieght to allow trouble free feeding then i have seen one built on a mauser mag. action with the same drop box without the feeding clips this would not make a good d.g.r. because it could have feeding problems and westley richards will tell you that themselves if you ask the next version was made for rhodesia i believe as a elephant and big game control rifle it was made around 1950 and was called the GAME RANGER it was built on FN actions and it did have feeding problems .jack lott did a piece on them in the 1986 gun digest 4 pages and good reading .hey if you are that hot for one amoskeag auctioneers has one this saturday that is valued anywhere from4to 6 thousand i looked at it and aside from being restocked it is a nice tight rifle . paul

If I was even more enamored of nostalgia than I am (and that wouldn't be easy!) and absolutely HAD to have a .425 for some bizarre reason, I would have it so chambered but would have the bolt face opened up and use good .404 brass. You would get the same funny-looking but VERY effective cartridge and would avoid the feeding difficulties.

Even a severe nostalgiast can cheat once in a while.

I happen to be building one right now. It all started with a Krieger barrel I bought on eBay for only $75. I am using a VZ-24 with a commercial hinged floorplate magazine. I bought a reamer from JTS and am going to get a resizing die from CH for $83. I have a universal decapper and prefer straight line seaters made with the reamer. Altogether a cheap nostalgia piece to be so rare.

A couple of notes. One, I haven't had the feeding problems everyone discusses. I noticed that, unaltered, the rifle fed the second cartridge perfectly, but didn't feed the first. I assumed correctly that the follower was the biggest problem and a severe widening did the job. I have not touched the feed rails,and if feeds perfectly from the magazine (both positions). I have cycled over a hundred rounds through it, both slow and fast. Even tried laying on my back. No problem. It feeds better than most of the short belted magnums I have built, with a lot less work. I did put in a new magazine spring.

I personally think the feeding thing is overdone. I would dare say that most people who go on and on about the problem have never held a 425, much less used one. I have seen some references in old works that alleged the drop magazine was the worst of the two.

That said, I am going to get a second bolt to use with the modified cases as described above. The reason is spelled B-E-R-T-R-A-M. I bought six boxes of brass from Huntington' because they had it on sale for $30/box, which is really cheap. It is awful. First off, the necks as delivered weren't sized for loading. They needed to be resized. It was also so hard you could hardly work it. I had to anneal it to size the necks. I did this, incidentally, in a 44 Mag sizing die, which works perfectly as a neck sizer.

I also found that Woodleigh bullets are pretty well priced for this round. All in all, it is going to make an interesting large medium with ballistics that duplicate the 416.

Art,

Could you email me offline please?

fsrfr@uaf.edu

Have a couple of questions for you.

Thanks.