AFRICAN PERSPECTIVES VOL 8#1 - HuntNetwork

African Perspectives
THE AFRICAN HUNTER’S BI-MONTHLY BULLETIN
After having owned several factory
made rifles in cal .375 and .458 I found
them deficient in terms of stock fit,
unpleasant recoil, and various other
minor details, and I decided to start a
new hobby and build my own.
I was at the time living in Holland and
used to come on holiday to Zimbabwe
on a regular basis to visit the family and
get some hunting if the opportunity
arose. One day when I visited Herstal,
the Mecca of the firearms industry in
Belgium, I bought six M98 actions and
a corresponding number of barrel
blanks from Canon Delcour, as well as a
couple of stock blanks from a merchant
supplying the FN factory. Fortunately
the Belgians had a more liberal attitude
to this trade than the ridiculously
The Mauser 98
.460 Short
By Jan Rijkers
The Author’s home-built rifle on a standard K98 action.
restrictive Dutch authorities and the
goods were supplied without any
controls, and at wholesale prices, which
would not even buy you a cheap factory
rifle. I carted my precious supplies
home, obviously without making any
declarations at the border, and started
with my new hobby.
The first rifle I built was a .458, which
required only minor modifications to
the action, and turned out to be a
manageable project for a novice with
limited tooling. When in 1986 I moved
to Zimbabwe, I legally imported my
firearms and the various components
into that country and continued my
hobby there.
I used my .458 with satisfaction on
various hunting camps and did not
I
really need anything heavier for the
hunting I did occasionally, however I
always had in mind to build something
more substantial. Whether real or
imagined the .458 was considered by
those in the know as a marginal
cartridge for the biggest game and this
has become more evident with the
increasing popularity of various
wildcat cartridges such as the .458
Watts/Lott/Ackley.
In 1975 I had a custom .375 H & H rifle
build by the firm Dumoulin in Herstal
and when visiting the factory I had the
opportunity to admire some of their
other work. One of the items that left an
impression was a beautiful .460
Weatherby on a magnum Mauser
action. Unfortunately these actions

African Perspectives
C U R R E N T
A F R I C A N
Left to right - the .460 Short, .460 Weatherby Magnum,
.458 Win Mag and the .458 Lott
were no longer available and even
second hand were virtually impossible
to obtain.
Being awash in standard M98 actions I
therefore decided that I had to use what
was available and choose a cartridge
that would function in this action.
The action chosen is a military Mauser
coded 243 (Erfurt) and made in 1940.
Interestingly it probably saw action in
the second World War and also has a
small Star of David on the receiver ring
indicating that it was used by the Israeli
army in the first Arab war of 1948, in
both cases obviously in caliber
8x57mm.
At first I considered a wildcat based on
the 404 case but found the cost and
hassle of getting a chambering reamer
and custom die set too much of a
deterrent. I then decided to shorten the
.460 Weatherby so that it could be made
to function in the standard length
action.
Although it is possible to modify the
M98 action to accept a .375 H&H or
similar length cartridge I believe this
practice weakens the action
considerably as most of the gain comes
from removing material from the rear of
the bottom locking lug area.
I therefore settled on a case length of
2.6" (66mm), which is 0.1" longer than
the .458 and 0.32" shorter than the .460,
and requires only minor metal removal
from the critical area of the feed ramp.
As the .460 Weatherby case has only
minimal body taper it proved possible
to use a standard chambering reamer.
Similarly reloading dies can be made by
shortening the standard dies, recutting
the belt recess, and polishing a radius at
the bottom of the sizer die.
After contouring and chambering the
barrel, and making some dummy
cartridges I could start work to modify
the action to function with this large
diameter cartridge. This proved to be
more of an obstacle than anticipated and
after a fruitless search for a suitable
magazine/floorplate assembly I
eventually had to make my own, which
turned out to be the most time
consuming part of the whole project.
I do not believe in the necessity of an
opening floorplate, which is further
reinforced by the vivid memory of
being charged by an enraged elephant
and having the contents of the magazine
dumped at my feet. Therefore the
floorplate was made solid, which also
simplified the machining.
After enlarging and deepening the bolt
face and adjusting the extractor to fit the
case rim, and removing material from
the guide rails I eventually got the
action to feed from the magazine.
With hindsight it would have been a
better solution to remove the belt from
the cases which would improve feeding
and make adjustment of the action a
little easier, however as I had already
chambered the barrel and modified the
dies I decided to leave this mod for the
next time.
Fitting the frontsight ramp and a banded
rearsight base with an integral recoil lug
completed the metal work.
The stock was made from imbuia, also
erroneously known as Brazilian walnut,
II
C A R T R I D G E S
and which is substantially heavier than
walnut, and fitted with the largest
available pachmayer recoil pad.
When developing the load I found that
the case would hold a maximum of 105
grains of powder, and I have recorded
muzzle velocities of 2560 with a 500
grain FMJ. However, for regular use I
have settled on a load of 100 grains of
Somchem powder giving 2350 ft/sec, at
very moderate pressures, and long case
life.
A variety of cast bullet loads were tried
out but I found that only a 600 grain
from a self made mould would shoot to
the same point of impact. The load I
found useful for cheap practice consists
of 65 grains of S335, which gives this
bullet a velocity of 2000 ft/sec.
When designing a rifle, or any other
object for that matter, one tries not to
imitate the regular monotonous factory
product, with its real or perceived
shortcomings, but to produce
something that the cartridge is a
wildcat, by having a stepped barrel, a
rear sight base with a large barrel band
and integral recoil lug, and a stock of an
unusual timber that is designed to fit the
user and is very comfortable with the
heavy recoil.
The down side is that, due to the heavy
floor plate and high density of imbuia
stock, the rifle is at 11 pounds a bit
heavier than intended.
Although I am more than satisfied with
the results, and the cartridge is a
substantial improvement over the .458
Lott/Ackly and does not require a long
action, I do not recommend this project
to any due to the amount of work
involved. A much more sensible
solution would be to get hold of the
large BRNO action, or even scrap a
good rifle for this purpose, and build a
rifle for the .460 Weatherby. And for
those amongst us who consider even
that as not enough gun I recommend
necking up of the Weatherby case to .50
caliber.
WARNING
Handloading is potentially dangerous -
the loading data contained in this article
is offered as a reference only, and relates
to an individual weapon. While it may be
safe in that weapon, it may not be in
others. Neither the author, nor Mag-Set
Publications are responsible for the use
or abuse of this data, or the
consequences thereof.