A .404 Jeffery Stalking Rifle-Part 1

A .404 Jeffery Stalking Rifle
by Dennis Daigger

FROM THE BEGINNING
Having had a longstanding interest in owning a .404 Jeffery, I finally got serious about finding one two years ago.

Most of the rifles available are used British made and by well know makers. The prices were exorbitant. I did find one Walter Locke that appeared to be original (I don’t like cobbled guns) and before initiating negotiations with the seller on price I considered what I would have if I purchased the rifle.

It is a rifle that is somewhere around 100 years old. The drop at heel is excessive. The barrel interior dimensions are unknown and sellers are seldom willing to slug a bore. Chamber dimensions at that point in history were hardly standardized and some jerry rigging might be necessary for handloading. An alternative was to build the rifle I wanted.

The Bottom Line-$6,500
The price of the Locke was posted at $6,500 so that was the dollar amount I used to total component prices against.

GATHERING THE PARTS
I would need:
action, estimated $3,500
barrel, estimated $300
scope rings, estimated $150
scope, estimated $500
front sight ramp, estimated $150
rear sight base, estimated $75
rear sight, estimated $75

I had:
Turkish walnut blank, purchased from Hunterbid some years ago at $540
Pachmayr pad, $28
leather for pad, $15
3/4″ sling hardware, $30

labor:
threading and chambering a barrel, estimated $350
engraving, estimated $750

Since the stockmaking and metal finishing would be done my me these costs were not included in the total estimate. From this exercise of pricing components it seemed feasible to build a rifle to my exact specifications for the cost of the lowest priced .404 Jeffery available that I might be happy with and that is the direction I took.

The Action-Final cost $3,450
The action seemed to be the hardest component to find. Although I’m not a commercial gunmaker I don’t build guns for myself anymore without an eye to a sale down the road. I wanted an iron sighted stalking rifle but a rifle built for iron sights has a wider appeal if it accommodates a scope even if the scope is a secondary sighting method. I wanted to price a modern production action and narrowed the search to a double square bridge of some type to allow scope mounting. As an aside, worldwide there are few makers of such actions.

After researching what is available I called Satterlee Arms. Following a lengthy phone conversation with Stuart Satterlee I had a much better idea about what I wanted for an action. He explained that his actions are hand finished to high tolerances so that there was little to no final polishing I would have to do. The amount of time needed to finish custom actions seemed to be a consist complaint by professional gunmakers on forums and not being able to find critiques of Stuart’s work, I would have to take him at his word.

At the time I talked to Stuart he had nothing available so I was still looking. About a week later he called to say that he was starting a production run of actions suited to the .404 and one was available if I wanted it. Be aware that these actions, no matter who makes them, are not cheap and they are not on-the-shelf, immediately available products either. My 50% deposit for a $3,450 action was sent in Nov 2011 with an estimated deliver time of eight months. This was to be his standard large ring magnum action. I specified a Winchester Model 70 style trigger and a standard magazine box as I do not like drop boxes on anything. The logic continues to elude me about needing five to six rounds in a magazine rifle when the reputed king of dangerous game rifles is a double rifle. I wanted the most svelte rifle possible and the standard box would allow for a nice profile for comfortable carry and reduced weight. I planned to load to the original cartridge specifications so didn’t fuss about the rifle being too light.

The Barrel-Final cost $267.75
Although the .404 bore is no longer the rarity it once was for barrel makers, it is simply not available from everyone. Additionally, I wasn’t sure what I wanted for a contour. A final barrel length of 26″ was about the only specific I had when I started the search. I had ordered a contoured short-chambered 9.3×62 barrel from Lothar Walther earlier and its finish was extraordinary. Looking through their profiled barrel list I ran into the #5130 “Mauser Type E” 26″ listing and I looked no farther. A check for the barrel and shipping was sent in Oct 2011 and it was to be drop shipped to Satterlee Arms for fitting when the action was ready.

However, that was not to be the end of the barrel story. I got a call from Stuart a month after the barrel was ordered, saying that he had received the barrel but that it was a .416 barrel. I had no interest in a .416 Rigby so the barrel was returned. It would be months before Lothar Walther resolved issues with ATF and got the correct barrel to Stuart.

The Scope Rings-Final cost $129.99
Does it get any better than the claw mounting system for a scope? Probably not, but there is a system that I found that is so close that the additional issues with getting the setup right with claw mounting is hardly worth it and it is an excellent cost effective solution compared to the claw mounting system. These rings feature a 1/4 turn on and and a 1/4 turn off setup, they are high precision and they are truly quick detachable.

I have a set of Len Brownell quick detachable rings I installed on a pre-war Model 70 in 1976. While they can be reliably removed and installed without moving the impact point, they are tedious to remove and install because of the rotations required of the levers and the need to engage the teeth properly and in the same place. All the other quick detachables currently available that I could find suffer the lever rotation handicap except Alaska Arms LLC rings. These are modeled after a Burgess design and simply require 1/4 of a rotation to install or remove and are made with the CZ base dimensions which is ideally suited to installation on action bridges. This setup is truly fast to install or remove. Additionally, they are nicely profiled and I could visualize my hand profiling that would adapt these to a highest quality custom firearm. A set of CZ low rings was ordered from the webstore www.alaskaarmsllc.com and arrived soon thereafter. The CZ base dimensions would be cut into the bridges when the action arrived.

The Scope-Final cost $374.98
The original plan was to use a 1.5-5 Leupold scope on the rifle but the trend to shorter and shorter scopes leaves long action applications like these on the edge. I like my rings solidly centered on the bases which stubby scopes make difficult. A friend told me that the Leupold custom shop was again making the 3x long tube scope. I ordered one with a German #1 reticle and the 3×20 Big Bore scope arrived a month after placing the order.

The Sight Bases-Final cost $285
Recknagel components are the mainstay of custom gunmakers needing accessories and the Lothar Walther barrel was profiled for the sweat-on Recknagel rear base band. NECG did not stock that specific item I needed nor the front ramp that I wanted. The front ramp is the one that is straight on the front and has a level ramp. These were ordered and it took about three months to get. The front ramp had to wait for the next scheduled production run. A one-standing and one-folding leaf rear sight, the front bead and the sling hardware was in NECG stock and arrived quickly.

I now had everything ordered and when the barreled action arrived I’d be ready to get started.

Next–Part 2 THE METAL WORK

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