.404 Jeffery project

[fenriulven]

Hello all, it's been a while since I've been on this forum, but I thought this might be the best place to post a question about a rifle project I'm working on. Anyway, here it goes... Currently, I am considdering building a .404 Jeffery on an early WWII German Mauser 98 action (all milled parts, no stampings) and was wondering what modifications will need to be made. The other night when I took the action apart to make some initial measurements, I decided to do an experiment and loaded some dummy 8x57 rounds with a LOA of 91mm, which is almost 2mm longer than the maximum length of the .404. Interestingly enough, they fed and functioned (albeit only one could be loaded at a time due to the short mag box) both feeding and ejecting without a single failure. This made me wonder how much modification really needs to be done to the action. Obviously, the magazine will need work and the feed ramp will need to be shortened by almost 5mm and the bolt face will need to be altered as well but none of these things seem to be major undertakings. Are my initial assumptions correct or am I missing something?
Thanks - Brian

 

[NCsmitty]

Like you said, it will likely require major magazine alteration with the long case. If you want to toss a lot of money or labor into the project, it probably can be done.

The newer 416 Ruger would fit much better.



NCsmitty