JabaliHunter,

From everything that the members have told me and all that I have learned, I am in total agreement with you. The .404 Jeffery is the way to go for me in the big bore department. I am confident tht it will handle any animal alive, factory ammo is available, maybe not everywhere, but is none the less available and being a low pressue cartridge the recoil will be less than the other offerings in caliber .416 or larger.

I certainly wish to thank you and all the other members for all the information and imput on this topic as everyone has been very helpful. There is no doub't that everyone's imput has helped me to settle on the .404 Jeffery.

With the problem of caliber settled one would think this issue would be closed. Unfortunately it is not as other doors have opened as to which rifle to modify or use as a basis for building a .404 Jeffery on have opened. Due to my physical build including face, all my rifles are pre-war Mausers. These rifles have far more drop in the stock, which I need to be able to get my face down far enough on the stock to see the iron sites, and are of slimer stock design which I also prefer. One of the things that I have learned through this topic discussion is that the pre-64 Winchester has a longer action than a standard Mauser length action. In fact what I have learned is tht all pre-64 actions are actually the same length with the bolt stop governing how far back the bolt will travel to allow for longer cartridges. Thus less metel needs to be taken out of the pre-64 action than a standard length Mauser action. Here in lies the problem. Should I sell all my Mausers and purchase pre-64 Winchesters or keep the Mausers and build with them. I want all my rifles to be the same and if possible have the same length of bolt through. I only hunt with 3 calibers ( presently the 7x57, 9.3x62 and now the .404 Jeffery ). Which way do the members here think would be the best route to go???