It's been a long time, but I just got word (via invoice) that my Ruger M77, RSM Mark II conversion to 404 Jeffery is now complete. The gun is being shipped on Wednesday.

The cost was a little more than I anticipated, $1,800, but looking at all the work that went in to this project, I'm not surprised. The only hitch, according to the gunsmith, is that he had several misfires with the ammo (RWS factory)that I supplied. The said the reason is the cases on the factory ammo was cut short. In fact, I noticed that the brass was cut short when I compared it to my handloads, produced from Norma brass, which are trimmed to the minimum. The RWS brass is .020 shorter than the stated minimum.

Anybody know why the RWS brass is so short? Are there any old specs for the 404 that call for the shorter OAL?

Congrats on the 404!!
jeffe

You now have joined an exclusive club of brilliant gunmen, who have discovered the holy grail of African cartridges, congratulations..

RWS makes them short because the European rifles in metric calibers of that era had a lot of deviation in how far they pushed the reamers in....thus RWS makes allowances. The first shot will fireform the case to chamber specs...