Guys,
A friend was given his grandfather's rifle, Grandpa died of influenza in 1918.

I know it's a Jeffery rifle but any other details and approximate value would help him out.

Interesting and unusual. Is the striker extension for manual cocking?

Maybe an original Jeffery barrel & action that have been put into an old surplus military stock? That cocking piece extension would not have come out of Jeffery either.
Wonder what the bore looks like.....
Shame that the Jeffery daybooks are so closely held that it is very difficult to research these things.
- Mike

I wonder if its the original stock slimmed down and converted to straight grip

Wal Winfer's book

British Single Shot Rifles Volume 3
Jeffery and the Trade Farquharsons with notes on Nitro Cartridges

has some serial numbers and one photo of an actual, partial, ledger page listing a ".404 Mauser" with stock by Turner (finishing gunsmith) and Krupp barrel.
S/N was 16476 with a date of 11/12/1906. (Winfer, p. 6)
This indicates that many gunwriters don't know squat about the date of origin of the .404 Jeffery.
Serial numbers of the Farquharson falling blocks, double rifles, and the Mauser bolt action rifles were sequential with time, of course, for the W. J. Jeffery rifles,
all types sharing the same sequence.

The final .303 falling block, according to the author, "was built about 1908 and carried S/N 18987." (Winfer, p. 217)

William Jackman Jeffery died in 1909.

The pictured .404 Jeffery above has S/N 18679
which would fall between 1906 and 1908:
S/N: 16476 dated 1906
S/N: 18987 circa 1908

So S/N: 18679 is circa 1907-1908.

If it was built while the genius W. Jackman Jeffery was still alive,
it must have been Bubba-smithed sometime after Jackman had anything to do with it.
Or it is just missing part of the cocking piece peep as Alf suggests,
and it is the economy model rode hard and put up wet.
Great piece of history.
Does it have a windowed box like Phil Shoemaker's had?
Nearly-all-wood-sided magazine box?

Price?
What did Phil get for his, which might even have been a 1907 model also ...

Rip ...

Phil started the bidding at $7000 and it was also a 1907 model.
About like the subject rifle other than condition which I do not know about.
From Phil's thread:

quote:

Originally posted by 458Win:
My son has offered to take me on a Cape buffalo hunt for my
70th B-day and his sister for her 35th B-day present.
In order to pitch in I am offering a few of my guns for sale
including

1. Original 404 Jeffery delivered in Jan 1907.

I have posted lots of photos of this rifle on this and other forums
and as it was purchases for an Alaskan bear hunt by a wealthy
Oregon lumberman and I have carried it for that purpose while
guiding.
It is a good, solid rifle and one of the earliest know Jeffery 404's.
Am asking $7000 but will listen to offers.
Also have an unopened paper wrapped carton of 10 boxes of
Kynoch ammo and 7 5 packs of Kynoch ammo ...

Photos posted previously were eaten by photopucker:

quote:

Originally posted by 458Win:
I recently picked up a 1905 Jeffery 404 and from the photos you can see that they used a standard M-98 and ground off the sides of the magazine box so that the wood formed the sides of the box. then they inletted a steel plate int the front of the box to protect it.
the rifle weighs under 8 /12 pounds and is a lot slimmer and livelier than the 416 Rigby built on a magnum Mauser that came out six years later.

Even with no cross bolts nor extra recoil lugs the stock remains solid after over 100 years.

PHOTOPUCKER STRIKES AGAIN

I also just received a copy of this poem that my friend Lon Paul recently found


Grandpaw’s Jeffery



It rested between the Ivory
That hung on Grandpa's wall
It's finally checked and yellowed
Like the tusks it helped to fall

It's barrel smooth and polished
From a hundred bearers hands
It reflected the light warmly
Like campfires flickering brands

The stock of English walnut
Chewed and clawed a bit
It still showed a trace of checkering
an a dent where a horn had hit

Stamped on the barrel lightly
Was a name and not much more
A single word "Jeffery"
"Jeffery .404"

If that rifle could only talk
And take us back once again
With grandpa in Africa
A time of Buffalo,Elephants and men

But that day has set it's sun
And the rifle speaks no more
Oh what I'd give for one last time
To hear it's mighty roar

You guys are the best!

Thanks for all the information, I passed it along to the gun's owner.

Here are some more photos:
Any more information or opinions would be greatly appreciated.

The cocking piece extension/peep sight has a Jeffery patent number.

I figured Alf would produce the patent drawing.
Sure would be nice to find the missing bits,
or remove the peep base from cocking piece
to speed the lock time, until the peep is restored.

The latest photos show some great walnut with excellent
grain layout, the reason it has survived intact, no doubt.
A shine-up with Tru-Oil on the outside
and hidden epoxy and steel crossbolts and pillars and grip rod on the inside
is what I would do.

The metal finish is perfect, I would start wiping it
occasionally with Breakfree CLP.

Tip ...

Thanks again, guys!

quote:

Originally posted by RIP:
I figured Alf would produce the patent drawing.
Sure would be nice to find the missing bits,
or remove the peep base from cocking piece
to speed the lock time, until the peep is restored.

The latest photos show some great walnut with excellent
grain layout, the reason it has survived intact, no doubt.
A shine-up with Tru-Oil on the outside
and hidden epoxy and steel crossbolts and pillars and grip rod on the inside
is what I would do.

The metal finish is perfect, I would start wiping it
occasionally with Breakfree CLP.

Tip ...

Honestly, I thought that Alf would have told me which tree the stock was cut from.

There is a smith in So. Africa that builds a copy of the bolt peep, Im sure he could furnish the bits...or a good smith could make them for that matter..expensive? probably..I purchased 5 of those peeps and sold them some years ago on AR or GI not sure..Pierre van Tonder picked them up for me and brought them to camp in the Selous...Contact Pierre, he could tell you the name of the smith and his location...