This 404 is based on a re heat treated 1909 Argentine. The barrel is a Lothar Walther. My 4MJ bottom metal allows four down with room for compression to load a 5th up the spout. The excellent wood is from Roger Vardy. front claw mounting ring and rear sight base are shop made and square bridge welded on as a base for the rear lockup. My trap door cap is used for extra sight beads. The tasteful engraving was done by Jim Blair.

The rifle without the scope comes in at 8 1/2 lbs.

Very nice looking rifle!

Beautiful rifle! How long is the barrel?

My 404 Jeffery also weighs exactly 8.5 lbs. Perfect weight for this caliber IMHO.

Thanks for sharing.

Fine looking rifle as always Duane.
Was just rereading you Feeding and Function of a Converted Mauser booklet this morning as I drank my coffee. It is a great information piece.
I am weighing the options of carrying either my original old Jeffery 404 or another little stainless 416 Ruger during this spring's bear season.
At 111 years of age I think the Jeffery may deserve a little consideration for its age but the Ruger sometimes has a hard time digesting flat nosed ammunition from the right rail. But in all truthfulness , even the Jeffery has problems with them !

I suppose I don't need flat noses for bears anyway.

As they say, "all of a piece". What needs to be there is there, and what doesn't need to be there isn't there. Did the owner specify the left hand safety?

Lindy: Yes, that's what he wanted.
f
458: Those flat noses can be a real bitch, but just gotta get done. Try timing so the nose just enters the chamber mouth and then modify the rail so the rim snaps under the extractor at that moment. Now...the round is captured both front and back

I love the ZG47 inspired rear sight! Overall, very nice Duane!

Very nice Duane. Thanks for sharing.

Lee

Wow, beautiful as usual!

Deceptively simple. The rifle does not look too deep through the magazine for four cartridges.

Great weight for a 404J.

Thank you for sharing, kudos.

I really like the safety location on the "other" side of the bolt sleeve. I've always thought of that as the ideal "natural" place for it to minimize thumb movement.

Hi Duane.

What is the extra little lever on the safety?

Recknagel safety?

Extra tab on the Recknagel safety has to be depressed to move the lever to "fire"

The idea is to avoid an accidental disengagement.

Some like it.... I find it awkward when on the L.side R. side..I could live with

Nice rifle.
Wouldn't that large rear sight block a lot of the field of view?
IMO, a simple fixed blade with a small notch, especially one that is straight or has not been filed down much, would be most desired.
It seems also that the lign on the blade is not aligned with the V.

quote:

Originally posted by shootaway:
Nice rifle.
Wouldn't that large rear sight block a lot of the field of view?
IMO, a simple fixed blade with a small notch, especially one that is straight or has not been filed down much, would be most desired.
It seems also that the lign on the blade is not aligned with the V.

When you have Duane build you one, you can ask for the sight blade any way you want it.

quote:

Originally posted by z1r:

quote:

Originally posted by shootaway:
Nice rifle.
Wouldn't that large rear sight block a lot of the field of view?
IMO, a simple fixed blade with a small notch, especially one that is straight or has not been filed down much, would be most desired.
It seems also that the lign on the blade is not aligned with the V.

When you have Duane build you one, you can ask for the sight blade any way you want it.

I don't agree.
I have had custom rifles built and I do practice a lot of open sight shooting.What it comes down to is does the rifle maker know open sights and open sight regulation or not.

Shootaway

I doubt very much that Mr. Wiebe used a view camera to take his photos. And he probably does not have swings and tilts on his camera. That being the case, there is going to be distortion in the photos he takes.

Go outside and take a few photos of a tall building with your regular camera. You will notice that it looks like it is falling backwards due to distortion. The very same type of thing happens horizontally as it does vertically unless it is corrected by swings and tilts.

So, what looks like that sight being off a bit is more than likely distortion. It would not show up if the photo had been taken straight on.

quote:

Originally posted by shootaway:
Nice rifle.
Wouldn't that large rear sight block a lot of the field of view?
IMO, a simple fixed blade with a small notch, especially one that is straight or has not been filed down much, would be most desired.
It seems also that the lign on the blade is not aligned with the V.

HA! Does look that way, doesn't it? You're actually seeing the top of the blade, sorta blends into the vertical face. The blade is no wider than is common.

The shallow"V" is very easy to obtain a rapid sight picture and has been the preferred configuration of DG hunters and PH's for decades

quote:

Originally posted by surefire7:
Beautiful rifle! How long is the barrel?

My 404 Jeffery also weighs exactly 8.5 lbs. Perfect weight for this caliber IMHO.

Thanks for sharing.

24" barrel

lindy2,

You talk about view camera swings and tilts only to,once again,make yourself sound like an expert. When was the last time you saw any color transparency film for a 4x5. Are you suggesting that Duane should shoot black and white?

I've been told that Fuji is or will be making a color slide film. In which case you could use a Nikon PC (perspective control) lens to control distortion. The only problem here is to find a lab that still does the E-6 processing for slide film.

I suggest that most color photos on AR are done on I-phones. Except for Wink who appears to have a lab and has mastered slide film.

Dave Wesbrook

Man.... If only it had a nicer piece of wood!...

MM

Now that has the lines I like. infact, i just had one built almost identical with Vardy walnut, same RECHNAGEL front site and Walter barrel. Just no scope mounts.

quote:

Originally posted by Duane Wiebe (CG&R):

quote:

Originally posted by shootaway:
Nice rifle.
Wouldn't that large rear sight block a lot of the field of view?
IMO, a simple fixed blade with a small notch, especially one that is straight or has not been filed down much, would be most desired.
It seems also that the lign on the blade is not aligned with the V.

HA! Does look that way, doesn't it? You're actually seeing the top of the blade, sorta blends into the vertical face. The blade is no wider than is common.

The shallow"V" is very easy to obtain a rapid sight picture and has been the preferred configuration of DG hunters and PH's for decades

I just love those old BRNO type rear sights left beefed up on the sides for strength

quote:

Originally posted by Sagebrush Burns:
I really like the safety location on the "other" side of the bolt sleeve. I've always thought of that as the ideal "natural" place for it to minimize thumb movement.

Your Bottom metal works well to allow placing extractor claw on top of forth round and cliping the fifth to drive home

quote:

Originally posted by Duane Wiebe (CG&R):
Extra tab on the Recknagel safety has to be depressed to move the lever to "fire"

The idea is to avoid an accidental disengagement.

Some like it.... I find it awkward when on the L.side R. side..I could live with

Had one on a 9.3 once and promptly had it removed

Your scope claw bases are great

quote:

Originally posted by ozhunter:
Your Bottom metal works well to allow placing extractor claw on top of forth round and cliping the fifth to drive home

No rocket science here...Just a magazine with proper stack and the floorplate a bit thicker to allow a 150" cavity

Beautiful rifle Duane. One happy rifleman will spend many evenings sitting with this rifle in his lab only looking foreward to go shoot and hunt anywhere.

Just an outstanding example of a hunters rifle..

This is a beautiful rifle as usual and I really like the rear sight

quote:

Originally posted by jens poulsen:
One happy rifleman will spend many evenings sitting with this rifle in his lab only looking foreward to go shoot and hunt anywhere.

Huh?

Duane's created a beautiful rifle that's meant to be hunted hard with.

Sitting in your "lab" at night in front of a roaring fireplace and just droolin' over it, ain't the same as hunting with it.

Here's a proper .404J rifle that deserves to be something other than a rich guy's Safe Queen.

Nice work as usual Duane.
I do have question on re-case hardening of the receiver if you don't mind sharing that information.
How hard is the new case.
How thick is the new case.

Very very well done!

quote:

Originally posted by Timan:
Nice work as usual Duane.
I do have question on re-case hardening of the receiver if you don't mind sharing that information.
How hard is the new case.
How thick is the new case.

Sorry I missed this. The receiver was sent to Blancchard...I sent along the poop sheet to the client. Should have kept a copy

That's ok.
I really just wanted to compare notes.
I've been using Blanchard as well.

quote:

Originally posted by Timan:
That's ok.
I really just wanted to compare notes.
I've been using Blanchard as well.

Well, what have you been getting for case hardness and depth?

I've been going 37 to 40 rc with a case depth of .015
Blanchards metal processing.
Good results

Do you ever get any warping? Do you have the bolts done as well?