Please go to page three for a link to close up photographs of Roberts .425 Westley-Richards; the feeding and follower dimensions and details.





Ok, do you have a chubby yet? I am almost there...



All matching numbers, original trigger will be included so I can lose that chunk of junk there now.



No rust, no pits, no arsenal marks, just a gorgeous m98 that has been sitting for many, many years

until the man decided to sell a project that he never started.

This will take time. I will need a new box to hold the large, fat cartridges. Since all the numbers match, I'll have to figger out a way to keep the original floorplate.

If the .425 W-R I will need someone to make the fingers to hold the cartridges coming up. Barrel, rib or not, sights, wood...money, will have to get some of that.

Hmmm...maybe I can have John Ricks put together one of the new .400 H&H's. That'd be cool...

I paid $125.00 for this jewel.

Yep, got a stiffy alright...

Hello Nitroman,
with such a nice action I would go with the .425WR.
You did not need the fingers to hold the cartridges ( clips )to feed the .425 WR properly. I can send you pictures of mine if you care, which shows the action in the white where you can see a couple of details and modification. Together with the original magazinebox you need an extention box which fit between box and floorplate and can still use the original floorplate.
And best of all you can use the stripper guide to quickly reload your rifle.
Robert

Please Robert, share the pictures with all of us!!

Boha

Boha
I do not know how to post them here, can I send them via email to you and you post them for me?
Robert

Robert,
If you will email the pictures to me I will post them for you!

Howdy Robert,

That is very kind of you to offer to get photos to me (us) of your rifle. This is the sort of helpfulness and coorperation that is the true spirit of this site.

Yes I would most sincerely appreciate your help by allowing the photographs to be posted.

My email address, if you haven't already sent the photos to another, is fsrfr@uaf.edu

Thank you Sir.

Rusty,
thanks for the offer, you should have them by now.
Robert

Robert ask me to post pictures of his Westley Richards

Gentlemen,

The deal on the action fell through. The seller was/is completely ignorant of BATF/US Postal Regulations, telling me the action was "illegal to send by mail". When I emailed back with a copy and paste from the BATF FAQ page and that pages address, he became...shrill, and demanded I complete the transaction in the manner he wanted.

Cost to mail a 2 pound (1 kilo) action from him to me, plus insurance, is about $6.25. He wanted $20.00. A matter of principle. I am not going to grovel for an action, even a beautiful action, from a rude jerk.

Robert, Sir, that is a beautiful rifle and I am in love with the floorplate!

I would ask for the following photographs:

a. The follower removed with width and height at back and front.

b. If you could take a photo directly from the side, that shows the bolt position at exactly the instant the cartridge pops free from the feedrail.

How many cartridges does your rifle hold? I have 100 W-R cases and the following actions to choose from: m1909 Argentine (2), m1908 Brazilian, m98 Chilean and m98/22 Czech with no letter prefix serial number (first production).

Looking forward to corresponding with you in the future.

Roger

Robert,
That is a remarkable solution to the problems associated with the venerable .425! My hat is off to the gunsmith that did it. Ingenious, sir, ingenious. If it could be coded into a CNC mill it could veritably revitalize the .425. Not for me, y' understand . . . unless I have someone rebuild my Parker Hale to make a matched set of WR Africans . . . NO! I shall be strong and resist spending safari money on any more rifles! Still, a stirling accomplishment, indeed.

Robert, I was wondering were you obtained your bolt peep sight? I'm currently obsessed with them! Thanks.

Hello all together,
thanks for the nice words on my rifle but you must see the finish one!

Toolmaker,
no problem I will remove the follower and made a close picture. Do not know if I can do if today but ASAP.

Nitroman,
together with the picture of the follower for Toolmaker I will give you the dimensions, and I try to make a picture of the moment the cartridge gets out of the rails. Give me a day or two.
I also use the cases from WR ( Wolfgang Romey) which are made by Horneber!
I would go with the 1908 Brazilian action, because you can use the magazine box and the floorplate togetherwith the extension. You should look for the stripper clips first, because they differ a little bit in width from the 98K if I remember that right, so if you can find clips which fit the .425 us it..

Boha,
the follower is made by Harry Baelder. I don't think he sells them singly.

Wanna577,
the peep sight is made by Gottfried Prechtel, visit his website under www.golmatic.de and here is the direct link:
http://www.golmatic.de/Waffen___Arms/Werkstatt___Workshop/Visierteile___Sight_Parts/visierteile___sight_parts.html

I hope I had answers to all
Robert

Thank you, Sir.

Thank you for your generosity, Richard. You say the man who made it does not sell them singly, does he have a minimum quant. for an order? Does he have an email add. or web page?

Toolmaker

Thank you, Richard. Congratulations on one splendid classic.

Toolmaker try www.h-baelder.de

Boha

Boha, thanks -I took a look and it seems that Mr. Baelder is a smith, not a maufacturer - Oh well, guess I'll have ta wheeze some CNC time when I get a chance

Toolmaker

Hello Nitroman,
my email to you, with the sketch of the floorplate and the pictures of the feeding came back to me with the message - "The following addresses had permanent fatal errors", can you please check it?

Rusty,
can I use your help for posting the pictures again?

Robert

I had too much junk in my email folders, had to clean some out, it should be coming through...I hope.

Many of you know I also Own a 425 WR. I am playing with the thought of haveing A CNC machine programed to make a run of Extended mag boxes. Please send me a PM if you would like one. We could split the cost and I will let you know what I find out.

Please send me a PM as I don't visit much anymore.

Urdubob

Those clips are not new, they were on the original 425 WR and they may or may not work, some did I suspect but the 425 WR was never popular because it had feeding problems..that is the history of the rifle..

The 404 on the other hand was widely accepted and the darling of most of the game departments, mostly because it came in cheap dependable standard Mauser 98 rifles...

The 404 would be your best bet, if you are a hunter and intend to hunt with this rifle..If your going to use it for a show piece then either should surfice...

The 425 shown in the photo is absolutly and outstanding example of the gunmakers art...very nice indeed.

I have that stock pattern btw and those of you who were at Dallas SCI a 2 years ago will recall the JP Sauer 9.3x62 I had in that Obendorf design with the panels on my table to attract clients, but some cajun oil tycoon had to have it and being the whore I am let it go and regretted that to this day...had the same color and fiddleback wood..

Anyway, my point being that Jim Brockmaon copied that stock patter from my stock and now has it available for those of you who might want it...its a neat stock design, and just barely modified from the original, in that it is a tad strighter..

Robert, if you can try sending it again?


fsrfr@uaf.edu

Thank you.

Nitroman,
I try it at this moment - the file is a little big
Robert

I have the photos! Gorgeous!! I am uploading them now.



Ladies and Gentlemen, Robert has sent me many huge photographs of his rifle, the feeding from both the follower and the first cartridge in the magazine. He has also included detailed dimensions of the follower and photographs of the Top, Side and Front.



I have taken the liberty to cut and paste into new images to remove the background so as to not overload the servers. On www.hunt101.com you will note there are two size ranges available to choose from. Note also I did not recapture the image and create a smaller one with less pixels. They are just as detailed as the ones he sent. If you want the full sized ones, let me know. fsrfr@uaf.edu



I am not going to post the photos here unless I get permission from Saeed, as again, they are large, covering most of a full page ~ 900kb in .jpg format!



Please go here http://www.hunt101.com/showgallery.php?stype=2&si=TheChemist&cat=500&sort=1&ppuser=5601 and you can see all of them laid out in order.

I had a Krieger .435 barrel i ended up with in a deal. I had thoughts of a .425 WR but traded the barrel off before I got to it. Al Straitiff has it now. i'm sure he hasnt done anything with it either. make him an offer if interested. 603-532-9483

I just bought it.

nitroman, what's up with your .620 rifle? Are you doing it on an enfield? Is it shootable yet?

I flaked out and did not do a 600 OK because I decided to go hunting instead.

500,

It is in-process now. All that remains is to TIG the plates into the receiver. I haven't asked him where he is on the deep floorplate. These things and blueing are all that remain.

Then I have to pay him.

I talked to Al tonight, he said you'd called. I think I lied to you. I told you kreiger, but I think it was Obermeyer who made the barrel. Do you have the old gun-digest article by Jack lott on the .425? He liked the cartridge, and said done right it had no problems at all, side clips or not. The feeding problems were from cheap rebarrel jobs without the proper work done to them. He also headspaced a second bolt to his and opened it to use .404 brass cut and sized to .425. that way if .425 brass was hard to find he could use reformed 404 brass. he was happy with the results.

Ok, haven't heard anything. Here is a photo of the cartridge feeding from the follower:



And this of is of a cartridge feeding from the left side of the box.



The all important follower dimensions



The follower top, side and front







I wanted to make them a single image but Irfanview kept changing the sizes.

And lastly one more of Robert's beautiful rifle.



Now using these photos people should be able to build a .425 Westley-Richards. I certainly will over the summer. I will

begin by using a scrubbed VZ-24 receiver and working on the rail to get it to feed. I will have fun.

It seems to me that that feller in Belgium that publishes the magazine does the same thing with his .425's, but then maybe I'm just thinkin' of his version of the .500 Jeff.

Here it is, the drawing for the magazine extension. Now anyone who is friends with a machinist, or who owns a mill, can build themselves a really nice rifle. Just like a W-R. We all should thank Robert for his generosity, since this information is only available to those who would be working in the W-R shop or to someone who owns a .425