Month: August 2022
The first two decades of the 20th century saw huge advances in cartridge technology, giving us the .30-06 Sprg., the .375 H&H, the .250-3000 Savage, the .416 Rigby and the .45 ACP. While all those went on to become a star on one stage or another, Jeffery’s .404 Rimless Nitro Express was somehow always overshadowed. It was a smart design, matching the ballistics of the rimmed .450/400 3” Nitro Express—already the darling of the single shot and double rifle crowd—in a repeating bolt-action rifle. Unlike the .450/400, which uses a 400-grain bullet of .411” diameter, the original .404 load used .423”-diameter bullets, maintaining the same muzzle velocity of 2,150 fps, for just over 4,000 ft.-lbs of muzzle energy. Should the hunter want to use his .404 on lighter game, a 300-grain load was developed, with a muzzle velocity of 2600 fps.
Being able to be housed in a Mauser standard-length action, the .404 made an economical, effective and sensible choice as an all-around rifle for sportsmen visiting Africa and India a century ago, and though the production numbers—in comparison to the number of .416 Rigby rifles produced prior to World War II—show that it sold very well, the Jeffery never received the accolades that the Rigby did. It certainly wasn’t due to the fact that the Jeffery was in any way ineffective or unreliable as a dangerous game cartridge; in fact many of the Eastern and Southern African countries chose the Jeffery as the cartridge for their Game Rangers, doing the dangerous animal control work. Yet, history is what it is, and by the 1960’s the .404 Jeffery had all but faded into obscurity.
It has all the necessary ingredients to make a perfect all-around rifle cartridge: it is only slightly longer than our revered .375 H&H Magnum, it uses a shoulder angle of roughly 8˚-20’, so it feeds like a dream, it is easier on the shoulder than most cartridges in its class, and with modern bullets the .404 Jeffery is undeniably capable of taking any and all game animals on earth, including the African elephant. And, thankfully, it seems to be making a strong comeback.
It isn’t as flexible as the African industry-standard .375 H&H—which can do just about anything you’d ask of it—but it is undoubtedly a better choice for the truly large game animals. Modern .404 Jeffery loads have an increased muzzle velocity compared to the ammunition of a century ago; 400-grain bullets at 2350 fps put this old girl in the .416 Rigby and Remington class. Even at that higher speed, the Jeffery still makes an easy-shooting rifle.
There are many premium softpoint bullets designed for the Jeffery; The Swift A-Frame, Woodleigh Weldcore, Hornady DGX, Peregrine BushMaster and Cutting Edge Safari Raptor are all available in .423”-diameter, in many different bullet weights from 325 grains to 450 grains, extending the flexibility of Jeffery. The choice of solid (non-expanding) bullets is equally superb, with Nosler, Woodleigh, Cutting Edge and Hornady all making excellent projectiles. Factory ammunition is once again (thankfully!) plentiful, and the prospect of handloading your .404 ammunition is no difficult task.
The .404 also has a respectable group of offspring, being the basis for the Remington Ultra Magnum series, as well as the line of Dakota and Nosler cartridges; all took full advantage of the large case capacity and beltless design of the Jeffery.
I own two rifles chambered to this lovely old cartridge: my favorite rifle of all time, a Heym Express by Martini, and a Legendary Arms Works Big Five. Both are sweet shooting, both are wonderfully accurate, and I wouldn’t hesitate to take either on a hunt anywhere in the world that warranted a cartridge of this performance level. I’ve used the .404 Jeffery to take game animals from warthog, reedbuck and impala, to the tenacious blue wildebeest (often known as the poor-man’s buffalo) to a huge-bodied elephant; all were taken cleanly and effectively. I’ve handed that Heym to a buddy, while we were out on the Zambezi Delta flood-plains, and watched him take a Cape buffalo at just over 200 yards when we absolutely ran out of cover. I’ve also carried that same rifle into the mopane to take my elephant at a mere 16 yards, with no worries whatsoever.
My own pet handload revolves around a good 400-grain bullet—usually a Peregrine BushMaster or Woodleigh Hydrostatically Stabilized Solid—and a healthy amount of Alliant’s Reloder 15, giving me a muzzle velocity of 2280 fps, with groups hanging right around MOA out to 250 yards. If I feel I want a bit more weight, my Heym Express absolutely loves the Norma African PH ammunition, driving a heavy 450-grain Woodleigh Weldcore at 2150 fps. The Legendary Arms Works rifle also loves the lighter 325-grain Cutting Edge Safari Raptor at 2550 fps, and I plan on taking that weatherproof rifle to Alaska one day for a grizzly.
So, why would one choose a .404 Jeffery over one of the .416s or a .375 H&H? Well, because it’s really cool. There’s something about the look of that cartridge that I like a whole lot. It does, in fact, pair well with a .375H&H while on safari, letting the .375 handle the long shots and acting as a backup gun to the Jeffery for the truly large game. In comparison to the .416s, I feel the modern Jeffery loads are the absolute equal, and having used the .416 Remington extensively throughout Africa, I saw no visible difference in killing power between the two cartridges. It comes in a lighter rifle than does the Rigby version, but in the end it’s really going to come down to a matter of personal preference, and I’d happily use any one of the three .40s for any African hunt.
The ,404 Jeffery received its due in John ‘Pondoro’ Taylor’s famous African Rifles and Cartridges, in which he states “The Game Warden of Tanganyika (now Tanzania) who started his hunting career shooting buffalo for their hides in Portuguese East (now Mozambique) with a rifle of this caliber, found it so entirely satisfactory that he has armed all of his native game scouts in the Elephant Control Department with Vickers’ .404 magazine rifles.” If that doesn’t prove the worthiness of the .404 Jeffery, I don’t know what would.
I recently stumbled across an old image of an atomic age soldier with a messy caption describing the image as “Future G.I. Concepts, 1959.” Although I can’t seem to find the exact origin of this specific image, there are several color photos from Life magazine from way back when that show some of the gear it contained in living color. Literally. Their take on the equipment of the Future G.I. is quite fascinating, and well worth exploring through 2021’s lens.
There is an atomic age character to the gear and setup. I mean that literally. The Future G.I. would fight on an atomic battleground radiated by nuclear destruction! Or so they thought. That idea drives a lot of the gear chosen, and we’ll explore why
Helmet Radio Antennae and Microphone
While I don’t think transistor helmets ever came to be, there are certainly way more comms within a squad today than ever before. Communication can be the key to victory, and the better a team or platoon can communicate, the better they can execute a plan. Modern squad comms allow for easy inter-squad and platoon communication, and offer more powerful radios for communication with higher.
Beyond radios, we’ve seen the development and use of tablets to send pictures, maps, and more to Marines with the Marine common tablet. The Future G.I. program knew comms were critical but likely couldn’t conceive how advanced they would become.
Infra-Red binoculars
I’ve never seen Infrared spelled infra-red, but SIC and all that. The Infrared goggles or binoculars are night vision! In 1959, night vision had existed for quite some time, but the problem was the size, clarity, and power sources required for them to function. Despite all that, the Future G.I. concept really nailed what future night vision would look like.
It’s helmet-mounted, portable, lightweight, and would give the average infantryman the ability to own the night. Those pesky Russians would never see it coming!
Face Mask And Goggles
The face mask makes the soldier look a bit terrifying but was reportedly a heat-resistant mask. The heat of a nuclear explosion might be a bit much for even this piece of kit, but I imagine this wasn’t a constant piece of worn PPE. I do appreciate the goggles. These days, eye protection isn’t just a must-have but a necessity when you step outside the wire.
Goggles were issued when I was in, but the most common eye protection were simple ballistic glasses. The goggles were quite handy in dust storms, and a nuclear desert would present some sand you surely didn’t want in your eyes.
Layered Nylon Vest…and Diaper
The layered nylon armor didn’t necessarily predict the rigid, rifle-proof ceramic plates we’d have today but wasn’t too far off from traditional soft body armor we’ve seen in service for years. The Future G.I. and his armor would be frag and shrapnel resistant and potentially capable of stopping handgun fire. Layered nylon works a lot like Kevlar, but Kevlar proved to be the most resistant to perpendicular pressure, and therefore better for the future of warfare.
But layered nylon offered the soldier ballistic protection as well as radiation resistance. That’s not to say that Kevlar doesn’t offer the same radiation resistance. It just wasn’t developed until 1965, which would have been little if a nuclear war kicked off in 1961. The vest also included what appears to be some kind of crotch protection as well. I have a kevlar crotch protector on my issued plate carrier, so I guess it’s not all that off, at least until circa 2013ish.
Image Metascope
An Image metascope is a non-IR, passive form of night vision that was somewhat revolutionary for the time. These little systems are fascinating, and shrunk night vision down to a much more portable form than the infrared systems of the day. They had very limited range and very low visibility, but they were better than nothing. The metascopes served in Vietnam, but not too much longer after that.
Molded Plastic Gloves
Like goggles, gloves have also become a necessary piece of PPE for the deployed G.I. The Future G.I. clearly knew the value of protecting one’s hands. Plastic doesn’t seem like the best choice since it tends to melt, but I’m betting it was meant to resist radiation, rather than fire and explosions.
M14 Rifle
Nope, the M14 was the shortest-serving service rifle for a reason: it mostly sucked. This pic would have been much more appropriate with a AR 10 or even the earliest of AR 15 models, which had just hit the market in 1959.
“Welded “Combat Boots
When they say welded, they don’t mean welded in the way you think. What they mean is molded combat boots. Directly molded soles were much stronger than stitched soles and much stronger than glued soles. This was relatively new and fancy at the time and made for super tough boots. We’d begin to see molded boots become the standard in Vietnam, so I guess this prediction was dead on.
Jump Belt
I did some digging and assumed this was some form of airborne thing my Marine self just didn’t understand. Boy, was I wrong! No, you see, this belt would attach to a jump pack… or what’s essentially a jet pack! Oh man, the defense engineers in the 1950s ruled. Sadly, we don’t have jump packs or jet packs of any type quite yet, though the British Royal Marines have been experimenting with them for things like ship interdiction. That doesn’t mean the Future G.I. concept was wrong. We just haven’t gotten that far yet.
Explosive Fox-Hole Diggers
My favorite piece of this getup is the explosive fox-hole diggers. I don’t know how they work and assume they would be heavy, and also loud… oh and super dangerous. But dang, I hate digging fighting holes.
If I could just plant a bomb and blow up my own, I would happily do so. Maybe weirdest of all… I remember an SOI instructor saying these were coming out soon when I went through training. I guess they’ve been in development since 1959!
The Future G.I. Meets the Modern G.I.
While the Future G.I. wasn’t entirely accurate, the themes were there. Troops would be armored, carry radios, see in the dark, and wear both modern eye and hand protection as well as super-tough boots. It’s fascinating to see what they envisioned in 1959 and how it aligned with 2021. I wonder what we’ll see in 2051. Maybe I’ll get my jet pack.
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SMG Rate of Fire & Controllability
