Actually I must say that I agree with Con in this matter. Technically the old .404 suffers from the fact that it isn't half as easy to apply in existing actions. Either it is too big in certain dimensions or it's not entirely there. The most important thing is that it is designed from the different point of view as other calibers mentioned here. .404 Jeffery and .416 Rigby aren't the easiest calibers from the rifle building point of view, allthought they are classic - that's why I dropped them both. I even consider .416 Rem a bit better in this regard, but somehow I didn't want a rifle of that caliber...

My philosophy here is that, if I can do anything to prevent messing with the action itself, I will proceed accordingly. The savings in work are tremendous and usually one can focus on other things of the gun a bit more.