4seventy what you have added to my postings is perfectly true and good to debate these things. One of the problems that surfaced with some of the English manufactured .404 rifles were variable bore diameters even down as small as .418". This was not a problem in early days as the bullets were all cup and cores and generally thinner jackets so the bullets swaged down fairly easily and with the low pressure loadings gave no problems in the rifles of the day. I think in deference to this the modern bullet manufacturers have provided reduced diameter bullets. The 10.75 x 68 was only ever produced by the Europeans and standardised at the true.423". My supply of RWS 400gr bullets for my .404 are .423" so the Germans never compromised on diameter for the .404.

As to the .404 making its name on the original ballistics, this is a hard one to debate I think because even in the original Jeffery catalogue of 1905 advertising their new model .404 magazine rifle they speak of a loading up to 2400fps with new flat strip cordite. Kynoch did load to the 2125fps level but also early on loaded to 2225fps. The early German DWM loads were 2300fps with this velocity level being continued into the later RWS loads. When the .404 became famous as elephant control rifles in the hands of some game departments in Africa which John Taylor mentions in his book published in 1948, I would imagine that a good deal of the ammo used could have been of German manufacture as he also mentions other hunters using German .404 ammo.

No doubt the .404 did well at the velocity level of 2125fps but perhaps its name has been embellished most with ammo at the higher velocity levels. Who knows?