The .333 Jeffery and .333 Jeffery Flanged are medium-bore rifle cartridges developed by W.J. Jeffery & Co and introduced in 1908.

Design

The .333 Jeffery and the .333 Jeffery Flanged are both bottlenecked

centerfire Two rounds of .357 Magnum, a centerfire cartridge; notice the circular primer in the center A centerfire cartridge is a firearm metallic cartridge whose primer is located at the center of the base of its casing (i.e. "case head"). Unlike r ...

rifle cartridges. Originally both cartridges were released with two factory loads, one with a bullet of and the other with a bullet of .

.333 Jeffery

The .333 Jeffery, also known as the .333 Jeffery Rimless Nitro Express or as the .333 Rimless Nitro Express, is a rimless cartridge intended for use in magazine rifles. It is derived from the

.404 Jeffery The .404 Jeffery is a rifle cartridge designed for hunting large, dangerous game animals, such as the " Big Five" (elephant, rhino, cape buffalo, lion and leopard) of Africa. The cartridge is standardized by the C.I.P. and is also known as .404 ...

and can be used in both standard and magnum-length Mauser 98 actions. It fires the 250-grain bullet at and the 300-grain bullet at .

.333 Jeffery Flanged

The .333 Jeffery Flanged or .333 Flanged Nitro Express is the rimmed version of the .333 Jeffery, intended for use in single-shot and

double rifle The double rifle, also known as a double-barreled rifle, is a rifle with two barrels mounted parallel to each other. Synonymous with big game hunting found primarily in Africa and India, the double rifle is a purely sporting weapon with no militar ...

s. It is loaded to slightly lower velocities than the rimless .333 Jeffery, firing the 250-grain bullet at and the 300-grain bullet at .

History

Upon its introduction in 1908, the .333 Jeffery firing the 300 grain bullet quickly developed an excellent reputation due to the very high

sectional density Sectional density (often abbreviated SD) is the ratio of an object's mass to its cross sectional area with respect to a given axis. It conveys how well an object's mass is distributed (by its shape) to overcome resistance along that axis. Sec ...

and exceptional penetration of the round. Unfortunately the original 250 grain bullet was a copper-capped hollowpoint that was too fragile to be fired at 2,500 feet per second, making it unpopular and marring the .333 Jeffery's reputation for some time. The .333 Jeffery Flanged never enjoyed the popularity of its rimless counterpart, this has been attributed to Jeffery's initial reluctance to regulate double rifles in this round for the 300 grain loading. The .333 Jeffery was somewhat overshadowed by the arrival of the .375 Holland & Holland in 1912. As with many British proprietary cartridges, the .333 Jeffery was forced into obsolescence when Kynoch suspended ammunition manufacturing in the 1960s, Kynamco resumed manufacture of the Kynoch range of cartridges in the 1990s meaning the ammunition is again commercially available, although no firearms manufacturers make factory rifles in .333 Jeffery today.

Use

The .333 Jeffery was not intended for dangerous game; however, due to the excellent penetration of the 300-grain round, it has been used successfully on all

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

n game species up to and including

elephant Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae ...

. In his ''African Rifles and Cartridges'', John "Pondoro" Taylor wrote of the .333 Jeffery, "Time and again have I driven it the length of an animal’s body, and cut the perfectly mushroomed bullet out of his hindquarters. I have never had one break up." Sir Alfred Sharpe used a bolt-actioned .333 Jeffery rifle extensively for hunting in Africa, using it to hunt elephant and other game. The cartridge was very similar in performance to the .318 Westley Richards. The

.280 Jeffery The .280 Jeffery, also known as the .280 Jeffery Rimless Nitro Express and the .33/280 Jeffery, is a rimless bottleneck centerfire rifle cartridge developed by W.J. Jeffery & Co and introduced in 1913. Overview The cartridge was created by Jef ...

was created by W.J. Jeffery & Co by necking down the .333 Jeffery to .

WWI service

In 1914 and early 1915, German snipers were engaging

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gur ...

positions with impunity from behind steel plates that were impervious to

.303 British The .303 British (designated as the 303 British by the C.I.P. and SAAMI) or 7.7×56mmR, is a calibre rimmed rifle cartridge. The .303 inch bore diameter is measured between rifling lands as is the common practice in Europe which follows th ...

ball ammunition. In an attempt to counter this threat, the British

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from t ...

purchased a number of larger calibre sporting rifles from British rifle makers, including .333 Jeffery rifles. In his ''Sniping in France 1914-18'', MAJ H. Hesketh-Prichard, DSO, MC, stated "I proceeded to try on these plates all kinds of rifles, from Jeffery’s high velocity .333 to heavy elephant guns of various bores, and was delighted to find the bullets from the .333, as well as the elephant guns, pierced them like butter."

References

External links

Cartridgecollector, ".333 Jeffery Flanged", ''cartridgecollector.net''
retrieved 12 February 2017.
Cartridgecollector, ".333 Jeffery Rimless NE", ''cartridgecollector.net''
retrieved 12 February 2017.

, retrieved 7 November 2017. {{DEFAULTSORT:333 Pistol and rifle cartridges British firearm cartridges Military cartridges W.J. Jeffery & Co cartridges