Rolland's recent post here reminded me that I had not tossed up any pics of the marvellous Jeffery .256 that has resided in my gunsafe these past 7 or 8 years. It has had a couple of outings: one was chasing Red Stags in the Cressbrook Valley, but alas the onset of heavy storms that Easter drove the deer off the niece's property into the hills where I had no access at the time. That has since been rectified, BTW!

Mostly it has held a good account of itself in Classic Light Nitro events at our Big Game Rifle meetings, and is an absolute joy to shoot despite the need to carefully manage the number of cartridges in the en-bloc clip!

Anyway, the rifle is nothing special by the standards of a century past, but today is a delightful example of the skills and class of British gunmakers over a hundred years ago. While several members here have custody of similar Steyr-Mannlicher sporters and have preceded me with photo-essays, every one is subtly different and well worth the posting IMHO. Hope you enjoy the pics!

Close-up of the action:

Here's the Steyr marking with date of manufacture:

...and the maker's London address on the barrel:

And here's a pic of the bit that modern gunmakers just don't get: Jeffery's ability to capture classic elegance through austerity and minimalist design: the buttstock is barely an inch thick!