I picked up a Parker Hale yesterday (I know, I know, but read a little further!) that's a bit different, and I'm not quite sure what to make of it.

Technically, it's an "1100 African Magnum" in .458, which strikes me as being a bit high falutin'...but - the s.n. is "Mag-27xxx. The bottom metal is very stout, and the internal length of the mag box measures 3.625". It's blocked to 3.5" with a glued in rubber block. The rear of the mag box is 3/16 thick, and the front is 1/8. It's forged as one piece with the trigger guard, and probably weighs nearly a pound with the spring and follower.

The floor plate is hinged, with the release in the guard. The release is sort of flattened rather that the common 'quarter round' and has a whopping stiff spring with a deep engagement notch - I can't imagine an accidental release.

The distance from the toe of the feed ramp to the rear of the well is also 3.625, and the feed ramp has not been milled away - it measures about .5". The left raceway has not been milled through. There ia an "M" and an "O" on the bottom of the recoil lug, and an "8" on the bottom of the action aft of the lug. I haven't been able to get the front scope base off yet, but there are no marks visible on either side of it. The receiver is 6.5" to the rear of the bolt abutment/bolt release, and 8.75 overall, including the tang.

The bolt has the old wing type three position safety and the bolt body is 6.25". The bolt knob is round/smooth, with a very small & obscured mark that might be a crown over "BNP". The bolt handle and cocking piece are numbered to the receiver.

Aside from being as-new, the rest of the rifle is run-of-the-mill Parker Hale and I won't bore you with it. Since I'm not a .458 fan, my main interest is in the action. Did Parker Hale actually build these actions themselves? It looks too well finished to be a Santa Barbara or a Zastava, which I believe they DID use a lot.

A Google search didn't yield much, so I thought I'd try here. I'm also away from home, doing the 'laptop-in-the-hotel-room' trick, so my reference material and tools are not available right now. I'm curious as to what I have here - junk or gem? Any ideas?

while a pretty durn good rifle, it is NOT a "magnum mauser" rather a worked 98.


the triggerguard and floor plate themselves are great... and great big ole hurkin things...

there's nothing wrong with them in 458 win.. and can take 458 lott...

a perfect candifate for a 550 express!!

jeffe

I know they used that action for the .404 Jefferys for a short time before they went belly up...

I guess I'm a bit prejudiced about Parker Hales, as they were a dime a dozen in every hardware store through the '60s and 70's, and toward the end they put out some "Midland" rifles that were just plain junk. At least the ones that got sold up here were. I was always under the impression that they built on whatever they could buy a bunch of, for the best price - Santa Barbaras, or Zastavas, or recycled #1 Mk.4's.

That's why this one surprised me - there's the recoil lug under the action, and another one silver soldered to the barrel, and a barrel hold-down screw to boot. Not only that, the stock is ballasted with lead billets in both the butt and forearm. Damn stock weighs twice what the barreled action does. I can see a beast of a featherweight happening here, so if you see me running around with my eyes crossed and drool running down my chin, it's because I was shooting a 6 1/2 pound .458! Saeed will have to make another video, and I'll have to make sure my Blue Cross is paid up.

Ray - I did find reference to some of them in .404 Jeffreys. I'm not THAT lucky. My main curiosity arose from the length of the mag well, with the full length feed ramp and C-ring being intact. I can't find any reference to who built the action, which brings nagging worries about hardness and such and I don't want to spend a bunch of money trying to polish a turd.

I sure am curious as to where that action started it's life...

I have never heard of anything that would indicate that any 98 action was ever made in Britain. It is believed that all Parker-Hale 98 actions (1965-90?) came from Spain, either military or commercial. Santa Barbara gets a bum wrap because some of their actions were definitely made for "economy" sale. Others are rather nice, however. Same goes for Zastava. Any one item that is produced for 25 years is going to have ups and downs in quality control.

I've seen 2 of them in .404, selling in the $1-1.5k area). I passed on them because they had too many commercial features, not because quality was poor.