The .425 Westley Richards is one of the classic dangerous game hunting cartridges.
It was invented by Leslie B. Taylor of the Westley Richards gun making firm in 1909 as a proprietary cartridge for their bolt-action rifles.
Design Details[]
This cartridge is often referred to as the "Poor Man's Magnum" because it was chambered in custom-built, large ring, Gewehr 98-based bolt-action rifles.
The casing was based on the .404 Jeffery, but was given a rebated rim. This design element was to take advantage of stripper clips that had the standard-sized Mauser bolt face of the 7.92Ć57mm cartridge, and by extension, work with a standard Mauser bolt action. This enabled Westley Richards to manufacture big game rifles that provide their users with quick and convenient reloading of the magazine via stripper clips.
To ensure reliable feeding, designer Leslie B. Taylor created a single column extended magazine, which placed the cartridge case head directly in the center of the bolt face, and positioned it higher up than with a standard staggered column Mauser magazine.
Another unusual aspect of this cartridge is that despite its name ".425", it actually uses a .435 in (11.05mm) diameter bullet. In fact, the ".425" refers to the bore diameter.
From a 24 inch (610mm) barrel with a 410 grain (26.6 grams) RNSP bullet, it could attain a muzzle velocity of 2,410 ft/s (735 m/s) with a muzzle energy of 5,288 ft-lbf (7,170 J).
Rebated rim controversy[]
The .425 Westley Richards cartridge is believed to be responsible for the great dislike in rebated rim cases. It was wrongly believed that a rebated rim design was subject to frequent chambering and feeding failure.
The event was the bolt riding over the top of the rim and either jamming into the body of the round or misfeeding it completely.
It has been shown that it was the conversion of used military Mauser rifles with worn and weak magazine springs that were the cause of the suspected problem. These weak springs could not properly support and push up on the much heavier .425 Westley Richards cartridge. The military Mauser magazine spring was designed for the much lighter 7.92Ć57mm Mauser cartridge.
The Westley Richards Best Quality military Mauser action was modified to reflect a single-stacked magazine in concert with clip springs in the top of the receiver to allow the cartridge to ride higher in the receiver than usual so the bolt would positively engage the rebated rim. The only complaint with this rifle was with the standard 5-round capacity magazine, wherein the follower spring would weaken over time and the first in, last out, cartridge might not ride high enough to allow the bolt face to contact the rebated rim, thus causing a misfeed.
The White Hunter Mauser rifle, which Westley Richards produced for the colonial trade, incorporated a non-modified military Mauser action where the large diameter case and rebated rim of the cartridge did not fit well with the staggered magazine box for the standard 7.92mm Mauser cartridge. The White Hunter model is the rifle which gained the poor reputation for misfeeds with the cartridge and the ultimate dislike of rebated rim cartridges in general.
Trivia[]
- Westley Richards had also manufactured double rifles chambered for the .425 cartridge.
References[]
- The Handloaders Manual of Cartridge Conversions by John J. Donnelly and Judy Donnelly