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Jack, I am the one that has the Rodda. It does, indeed, weigh under 9.5 lbs. and balances nicely. When I bought it at Dallas last year, Tony (N.E.450#2) and MacD37 looked at it and remarked on its handling. Mine looks very much the twin of the one on WR, minus the pitting. Without better pictures of the barrels, I am hard pressed to understand the weight they have listed, but they did have the 475 at Dallas this year and it seemed like a "clunker" balance/weight-wise. It seems that Rodda would sell a rifle fit for a Maharaja or a railroad clerk, with I imagine, the bulk going to the clerks! Mine is very much a "working" rifle but shoots well, The Buff that I shot in TZ last Oct. could not read the name on the side, but died nontheless.(great penetration with the Woodleighs) To me, the 400 at WR ought to be priced at less than 6K from the visible pitting I see on it, I bought mine from George Caswell@ Champlins for $7500, and felt it well worth it.

Marrakai, I bought a reprint of the Rodda centenary catalog that has my rifle in it. Rodda claimed they have their own factory in Birmingham. I was surfing the net and came across a sight that had a story on A.A. Brown with quotes from Sr. and JR. and the elder mentioned that many Birmingham factories including Rodda, shut down when they were building a hiway(post war) that cut thru the heart of the gunmaking district and made relocation an expensive proposition. This is not proof positive, and information about Rodda has been hard to come by... It does make me wonder if they might have had a factory!? I have always been curious about the action of my rifle and who, in the trade might have made it, from the pictures at WR, can you shed any light? Thanks, Lee.

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