The Mighty .600 Nitro Express

[penpusher]

.577 REWA by Gibbs. This belongs to a PH friend of mine in South Africa and we used it in Mozambique on Buffalo. The beast was lifted off the ground by that Kynoch round

.

For a bullet to lift a 700-800 kg buffalo off it's feet....What was in the cartridge?

penpusher

[Grumpy]

".577 REWA by Gibbs. This belongs to a PH friend of mine in South Africa and we used it in Mozambique on Buffalo. The beast was lifted off the ground by that Kynoch round."
Oh yeah ? Utter BS !

[Grumpy]

"The 30-06 is good enough for firing in India."
At what ?

[Grumpy]

"For a bullet to lift a 700-800 kg buffalo off it's feet....What was in the cartridge?"
Good question. I can`t decide if it was nitroglycerine or rocket fuel !

[mehulkamdar]

Gentlemen,

It's all in the spirit of "the one that got away," and "my gun is as powerful as a nuclear device." This is a guns and pro hunting and conservation forum after all.

Personally, I find the tall tales after a hunt some of the most entertaining things about a hunt. All we are doing here is bringing some of those to an internet forum.

Cheers!

[jonahpach]

One more thing is that if you have ever shot an animal, no matter where you hit it, it almost always manages to let out a lunge. I believe this to be somekind of an automatic muscular or nervous reaction.

This could be the case here and mistaken for the bullet causing the buffalo to get lifted off its feet.

Jonah

[shahid]

A 120 grain load of cordite powder and a heavy bullet. That did the trick. Usually most of the other clients prefer the 300 Weatherby Mag or a .375 H & H on it. Both deliver good results.

A few very good shooters, hard core buffs bring their Austrian made 470 Nitro Express doubles. But this .577 REWA rifle is quite a gun indeed, something around which legends are made.

I was readin the book, The shooting field by H & H last night. Their estimate is that around 80 .600 Nitro Express doubles were made in the world.

Jeffery, a subsidary of H & H made about 26 or 29, the rest by Purdey, William Evans, and Jeffery also delivered some to Army & Navy stores.

Gibbs of Bristol, England, and William Evans also got some made for their clients.

H & H made their last in 1975. It was commenced in 1970 and took 5 years to make. It has the engraving of a lion, elephant and Buffalo on it.

[shahid]

Grumpy such questions are not asked in IFG, What is the 30-06 fired at in India ?

180 grain S & B rounds on Blue Bulls where permission is duly granted by the honourable district authorities who grant it to the land owner to protect his crops.

Most landowners in India whose fields are raided by blue bulls are born naturals at rifle skills and thus take excellent shots based on the number of them allowed in the augustus permit.

they also produce the shot animal's remains to the authorities. The meat remains a questionable property as per the law of a land where refrigation facilities and rural electrification is at a stage of infancy.

Rest of the time the 30-06 is fired at the rifle range of course. And for plinking Rooh Afza Sherbet bottles filled with water.

[Grumpy]

Jeffery, William Evans and the Army & Navy Co-operative never built a gun between them. They all bought in their guns from Birmingham trade makers. Jeffery was not a subsidiary of H&H.

[shahid]

William Evans got his rifles / guns made at various london as well as Brimingham manufacturers.

The book - shooting field published by Holland & Holland calls Jeffery its subsidary company. Who knows what was the stock holding pattern ?

Army & Navy is a store on Victoria street, they of course got their products made from other makers.

Now if H & H says Jeffery was its subsidary it was.

Records at Jeffery register show - 2 pairs of .600 tubes purchased from --- for GBP 17. What do we make of that ?

Will ask John Stevenson, the current Chairman of H & H whenever I see him next.

H & H made about 29 .600. Theiir records suggest William Evans and James Purdeys made 6 each. Anson & Deely were the action patent makers.

Gibbs and a few others also made them. H & H estimates 80 doubles and in all about 100 were the total count.

[mehulkamdar]

Shahid,

You are probably not aware of the fact that Grumpy is a moderator at www.internetgunclub.com which is a forum with the most extensive trade records of the British Gun Trade in existence.

He is also an eminent dealer in fine guns who sells masterpieces of the gunmaking trade all over the world. He would not need to do anything more than log in to the IGC to access the Historical Database with records of virtually every British gunmaker. As far as people in the trade are concerned, he most probably knows most of the prominent ones personally.

[Grumpy]

I knew as soon as I made the statement that W.J.Jeffery were never a subsidiary of Holland & Holland that I would have to clarify it. Jeffery were the first company to offer a .600 NE rifle in 1902. There were over thirty double and about 24 single barrel rifles built under the W.J.Jeffery name.
In 1957 Westley Richards ( Agency ) Co Ltd ( NOT the gunmakers ) bought the W.J. Jeffery concern and moved it to 23, Conduit Street. H&H acquired the Jeffery name in 1959 and transferred the company address to 13, Bruton Street - H&Hs own address. Their acquisition of Jeffery came about as part of the process involving the appointment of Malcolm Lyell as Managing Director and the transference of his personal holdings including Westley Richards ( Agency ) Co Ltd to H&H. H&H did nothing with the Jeffery name - they held the records but nothing else. Those records and the licence to use the W.J.Jeffery name are now held by J.Roberts & Son. Paul Roberts has built guns under the W.J.Jeffery name since selling the Rigby name to a Californian concern. Jeffery was not a gunmaker - he was a shop manager. William Evans was not a gunmaker - he was a counter assistant. The Army & Navy Co-operative were obviously not gunmakers. There are plenty of other concerns who were gunmakers in name only.
Holland & Holland had guns built by Birminhgham gunmakers - eg, the Dominion and Northwood models.
George Gibbs was a gunmaker, and a very good one......I did a great deal of research into George Gibbs about a year ago.
All the above information is in the public domain and most can be found in the Internet Gun Clubs Historical Database.

[eljefe]

Thanks Grumpy,
Am awaiting my rifle details from Cal, by July2007, as per last communication from Roberts.

[Grumpy]

OK Asif, who or what is `Cal`? I`m obviously missing something......or being incredibly dim !

[Mack The Knife]

It's bad enough not being able to read a doc's handwriting but they have now taken it one step ahead and buggered up their typing as well.