I always wanted a Big Bore by Sterling Davenport - a 500 Jeffery custom

The rifle has been purchased, by its not yet in hand. I can hardly wait. A Sterling Davenport Custom has been on my want-list radar for many, many years. And finding one in classic 500 Jeffery caliber is wonderful. Here's the early specs - more info to follow when I get it in hand. This will be my second 500 Jeffery. You may recall my post earlier this year about my Custom AHR 500 Jeffery. https://forums.accuratereloadi...1078981/m/8741084372

http://www.buckstix.com/buckpics/sterling-000.jpg

I've always had a hankering for a double rifle my self. Don't need one but would be fun. I have a 375 magnum.

I just learned that this rifle was the very last rifle built by Sterling Davenport before he retired. In addition it was "built for - and hunted by" Michael Fell, the well known East African Professional Hunter. I am hoping to get some photos from Michael that show him using this rifle on one of his hunts.

*** UPDATE ***

I got the rifle in hand today, and its even better than I expected. The rifle is virtually mint with only a very few handling marks showing that is was used in the field. I added a bunch of pictures showing all the features. Notice that I removed the unnecessary scope bases. Also pictured are the Timney Trigger and the large forward recoil lug added to the bottom of the barrel, with the entire action and barrel being glass-bedded. It is very interesting that Sterling built this rifle with a unique designed internal vertical stack magazine with special feed-lips to guide the cartridge into the chamber. Another unique feature of this rifle is that the magazine is intended to be loaded from the bottom - not from the top. The rifle holds 1-up and 3-down for a total of 4 shots. This design feeds 100% flawless. To load, you drop a round into the chamber, close the bolt, and open the floor plate, and drop 3 cartridges into the action, and close the floor plate. The 3-position safety keeps everything safe while loading. I have owned other 500 Jeffery rifles that had standard staggered magazines that would fail to feed reliably. Such a feed-failure can be a life-threatening draw-back when hunting dangerous game. Only my AHR 500 Jeffery also feeds reliably from its vertical stack magazine. I'll be adding field test data and targets next week.

http://www.buckstix.com/buckpi...terling-features.jpg

Beautiful rifle. Congratulations. A lot of work in that rifle!

Here's my first field test - a couple FUN LOADS that won't beat you up.

http://www.buckstix.com/buckpics/STERLING-TARG-2.jpg



http://www.buckstix.com/buckpics/STERLING-TARG.jpg

Beautiful rifle! Nice shooting!

This rifle is quickly becoming one of my favorite big bore rifles. Well balanced, and reasonable recoil.

It is fitting that the information about this rifle, should forever remain with the rifle. So, an Engraved Sterling Silver Plate was added.

http://www.buckstix.com/buckpics/sterling-plate.jpg

Interesting fence around the bolt handle

quote:

Originally posted by p dog shooter:
Interesting fence around the bolt handle

Just another example of Sterling Davenports remarkable talent.

Interesting story!

I also have kind of a similar one.

Mike was in the process of getting married and needed some funds.

He offered to sell me one of his Sterling Davenport rifles. I thought he said it was the last one, but might have been “one of” the last ones.

It was an old military Mauser made into a .318 Westley Richards.

It’s a beautiful gun, but Mike admitted it had some issues with feeding and that I would need to get it sorted before using it for hunting.

He said that he would pay for getting it fixed by a gunsmith he knew in Texas (by making it a single column feed) if I couldn’t get it sorted.

By the time I got it, Sterling had stopped working.

I tried to get a hold of Sterling Davenport and his son, who supposedly had taken over the shop, but to no avail. The rifle shot pretty well single shot with the old Kynoch ammo Mike gave me with the gun.

I really didn’t want to make it a 3 shot gun, and asked Jim Kobe here to take a look at it…

Suffice to say, it was a major PITA for Jim, but he got it running.

I shot a Nilgai with it, and took it to Australia as my scoped backup while hunting Buffalo and Banteng. I did shoot a dingo with it on that trip.

If I can get some more of the 250 grain woodleigh softs for it, I hope to get it to Africa at some point.

do you have any pictures of your rifle?

The inability to thumb rounds into the magazine from the top is a real problem in a dangerous game rifle.

I’m afraid it would be a non-starter for me.

This rifle's extractor allows you to toss a round into the chamber and close the bolt if an additional rush shot is needed after expending the 4 previously loaded.

It’s an interesting thing - the “reverse bottom loading”. I’d think that was designed to prevent the situation where recoil might cause that bottom round/bullet started backing out under recoil. By forcing a bottom reload, that last round stays up top.

Gorgeous rifle!

The bottom loading was made because of the long feed lips of the single stack mag box that insured 100 percent flawless feeding

It's a good thing that the extractor claw will jump over the case rim and allow a single fed round to chamber.

I've mentiond it before.... Barrel maker Buhmiller was on an elephant cull, using a Brevex actioned rifle, He stuffed one up the spout when an angry critter headed his way...Hopeless jam!

Happy ending, somone else was able to intervene, most likely saving Buhmiller's bacon.

I guess that was a French "improvement "to a German action.

Th required extractor clearance can be accomplished..with lotsa hours

quote:

Originally posted by buckstix:
The bottom loading was made because of the long feed lips of the single stack mag box that insured 100 percent flawless feeding

Not sure where that single stack myth started..

quote:

Originally posted by Duane Wiebe (CG&R):Not sure where that single stack myth started..

Not sure its a myth - Weatherby 460 rifles use a 2 down "single stack" mag, and my AHR 500 Jeffery also has a similar 2-down "single stack" mag.

Well...it does take some extra effort on the magazine..I always make Jeff's with three down with comprrssion room to load a fourth into the chanber.

A 4 +1 is accomplished with a coffin floor plate and trapazoid shaped magazine.

Granted, this might be out of range for the bean counters in a mass produced factory environment..but the 3+ 1 has been around a long time

quote:

Originally posted by Duane Wiebe (CG&R):
Well...it does take some extra effort on the magazine..I always make Jeff's with three down with comprrssion room to load a fourth into the chanber.

A 4 +1 is accomplished with a coffin floor plate and trapazoid shaped magazine.

Granted, this might be out of range for the bean counters in a mass produced factory environment..but the 3+ 1 has been around a long time

I totally understand. AHR and Sterling guns were not mass produced. This vertical stack method used by AHR, and Sterling Davenport, guaranteed 100% feeding - 100% reliable - with never, never, a chance for a miss-feed, ever.

Well..not going to continue this ad infinitum...suffice to say that 100 % reliable feeding EVERY time with staggered feeding is not only possible, but been done for decades and you don't have to load it upside down!

quote:

Originally posted by Duane Wiebe (CG&R):
Well..not going to continue this ad infinitum...suffice to say that 100 % reliable feeding EVERY time with staggered feeding is not only possible, but been done for decades and you don't have to load it upside down!

OK, enough said.

My AHR 500 Jeffery, with a single stack magazine, loads from the top. Only my Sterling 500 Jeffery, with a single stack magazine, loads from the bottom. I am sure you do an excellent build with staggered magazines and reliable feeding, but I have owned 3 different 500 Jeffery rifles with staggered feed magazines, that had "intermittent" feeding issues, occasionally turning them into single-shot or 2-shot rifles. One was a custom build, one was a CZ, and the other was a Browning.

Well, I'm not a particularly talented photographer. Here is my .318 on an Argentine Mauser by Davenport.

quote:

Originally posted by crbutler:
Well, I'm not a particularly talented photographer. Here is my .318 on an Argentine Mauser by Davenport.

A very nice looking rifle. Thanks for sharing.