I'm thinking of purchasing a .404 Dakota. Anyone have any DG experience with this cartridge? I did a search but couldn't come up with much definitive info, other than many prefer the Jefferey, understandably. But I shoot left handed, which limits my DG rifle choices tremendously, and have located a .404 Dakota African which I believe will be superior to my .375 H&H, so if anyone has used the caliber, your comments would be appreciated.

Jetdrvr
I have a mate here in Aussie that has owned one and really liked it he shot elephant with it so it must do the job. My only concern would be how well it feeds!I know from others that some of those dakotas don't feed very well so try and test fire it and see how you go prior to purchase could make a big difference between flattening game and getting flattened

Thanks. I have a Dakota 7mm Rem that feeds flawlessly, but I don't know how the 404 would feed flat nosed solids. Hope I'll be able to shoot it prior to purchase, but maybe not, as an out-of-town dealer has it.

jetdrvr,

Let me know how it goes. I am in the same boat as you being a left handed shooter and wondered about the 404 Dakota.

The rifle I was looking at sold. I have a request in with the dealer if he gets another one priced right to give me a call. This was an 8800 rifle priced at 5500. Buying a new one just doesn't make sense, becasue to resell it you take a big hit on depreciation.

Looks like it would be quite effective, with a 400 gr bullet moving at 2400. I won't need it for a year, so something may happen yet.

Jet,

Why not just get a .404 Jeff. I just bought a used one in a Dakota M-76.

Hell after my wife finds out it may just be for sale real quick..

jetdrvr,
No experience with the 404 Dakota, but I would think if you were willing to spend $5,500, you could easily have a custom lh rifle made for that or less. I am havin a lh 404J made now. Of course you will have to wait for it though. Good luck!

jetdrvr:

I don't have a .404 Dakota but I do have a .404 Jeffery. The Dakota is just the more modern version of the Jeffery and I can tell you that the Jeffery is a superb cartridge. I load my Jeffery to more or less traditional velocity of about 2150 fps so it is very pleasant to shoot. However, there are other Jeffery guys here like Ray Atkinson that soup it up quite a bit to .416 Rigby velocity. That's the way the .404 Dakota was designed to run.

There is only one problem with the .404 and that is you don't have near the bullet selection that you do for say a .416 or a .458. Lately, when I going to the range to shoot jugs with my buddy, I will usually grab my .416 Rigby rather than my Jeffery. At the range, I can shoot plain old Hornaday Interlocks in the Rigby but for the most part, I have only shot Woodleighs in my Jeffery. I really like my Jeffery but when it comes time to grab a gun out of the rack, more often than not I will grab the .416 Rigby. You can load it down to about 2300 fps to shoot at the range and it is just easier to find components. Does Dakota still make a .416 Dakota?

Dave

I looked into just this option a couple of years ago when building a LH rifle. The .404 Dakota has some good things going for it in .404; main thing is that it's a much shorter case than the Jeff. I was set to rebarrel a M70 in .375 LH to .423 and chamber to the Dakota. Then up jumped the devil and threw a Daly LH action at me and Sterling Davenport 'talked' me into letting him use it to build me a .416 Hoffman using George Hoffman's personal reamers. I would have been happy with the Dakota, though .

BTW, another possibility if you're going to build something would be a .404 Ruger. You could do that on an '06 LH action.

You missed a helluva deal on that Dakota.

One problem is that this time next year I'll be tented up in Masailand with my buddy, hunting buff and don't have time to build one and then shoot it in. Cutting it too close.

The .404 is gone, and all I can do is hope another good deal comes along before I'm ready to leave. I have Mark at First Stop looking out for me, good guy I bought my last Dakota through, and he gets some good deals sometimes.

My problem is I'm a lefty and the pickins' are slim. Dakota seems to be the best choice, and their LH rifles depreciate quite a bit because of low demand.