The .500 Jeffery is a big-game rifle cartridge that first appeared around 1920, and was originally introduced by the August Schuler Company, a German firm, under the European designation "12.7×70mm Schuler" or ".500 Schuler". When offered by the famed British outfitter W.J. Jeffery & Co, it was renamed the .500 Jeffery so as to be more palatable to British hunters and sportsmen following World War One.

History

The .500 Jeffery was introduced to bring firepower comparable to the

.505 Gibbs The .505 Gibbs cartridge was designed by George Gibbs in 1911. The cartridge was originally known as the .505 Rimless Nitro Express. The C.I.P. refers to the cartridge as the 505 Mag. Gibbs in their publications. It is a .50 caliber (12.8 ...

into a standard-sized 1898 Mauser action as used with the 8x57mm and 7x57mm cartridges. The Gibbs and

.416 Rigby The .416 Rigby is a rifle cartridge designed in 1911 by London based gunmaker John Rigby & Company, for hunting dangerous game. It is the first cartridge to use a bullet of .416 inch (10.57 mm) diameter. The rifles, as built by John Rigby & Co ...

cartridges required oversized magnum Mauser actions. To shoehorn a large round into the 98 action required a rebated rim. When introduced, the .500 Jeffery was technically rated as the most powerful rifle cartridge although in reality not quite up to .505 Gibbs' performance. The .505 Gibbs, with greater capacity, can be loaded far in excess of the .500 Jeffery today.

Ammunition availability

Like the .505 Gibbs, the .500 Jeffery is enjoying somewhat of a renaissance among American shooters and African big game hunters in the early 21st century, almost 100 years after its introduction. As of 2009,

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Kynoch Kynoch was a manufacturer of ammunition, later incorporated into ICI but remaining as a brand name for sporting cartridges. History The firm of Pursall and Phillips operated a 'percussion cap manufactory' at Whittall Street, in Birmingham, i ...

, Mauser, Corbon, and Westley Richards were offering loaded ammunition in .500 Jeffery with ammunition costing $150 for a box of 20 or more.

Rifles

There have been a few rifles chambered in the .500 Jeffery including Jeffery,

Heym Heym is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Georg Heym (1887–1912), German author * Stefan Heym (1913–2001), German author See also * Heym (gun manufacturer) * Chayyim, the basis for this name * Haim (disambiguation) * Hei ...

, CZ-USA, and a few single shots including the

Ruger Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc., better known by the shortened name Ruger, is an American firearm manufacturing company based in Southport, Connecticut, with production facilities also in Newport, New Hampshire; Mayodan, North Carolina; and Pr ...

No. 1, and the Butch Searcy & Co. Mauser offers its Model 98 magnum in the caliber. Its "elephant" model is offered in .500 Jeffery exclusively. In 2011, Sako began offering the caliber in its Model 85 "safari" rifle using a new XL size action, and since 2014 the XL action has been available in the more affordable Model 85 brown bear rifle. Blaser also offers rifles chambered in the caliber. Many of the modern rifles have feeding issues due to the rebated rim. The original Jeffery uses a single-column two-shot magazine to get around the potential reliability problems resulting from a rebated rim.

Criticism

The .500 Jeffery has had a few issues since its introduction. It has a rather short neck length that can make it difficult to seat bullets with a relatively 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. Secti ...

. Also it has a small shoulder. This is not usually an issue but as the .500 Jeffery also has a rebated rim it makes it rather difficult to extract in extreme conditions.

Ballistics

When the .500 Jeffery was first introduced it was loaded to a velocity of topped off with a 535-grain bullet generating of muzzle energy, which made it a pretty good hunting caliber for thick-skinned dangerous game. Since then, reloading capabilities have advanced to be able to launch heavier bullets at higher velocities. Now, with modern reloads, the .500 Jeffery can launch a 600-grain bullet at a muzzle velocity ranging from , generating to Newer reloads made the .500 Jeffery the most powerful production cartridge in the world until the introduction of the

.460 Weatherby Magnum The .460 Weatherby Magnum is a belted, bottlenecked rifle cartridge, developed by Roy Weatherby in 1957. The cartridge is based on the .378 Weatherby Magnum necked up to accept the bullet. The original .378 Weatherby Magnum parent case was ...

. With reloads the .460 Weatherby can reach levels of power of about of muzzle energy. Also the

.600 Nitro Express The .600 Nitro Express is a large bore Nitro Express rifle cartridge developed by W.J. Jeffery & Co for the purpose of hunting large game such as elephant. Design The .600 Nitro Express is a slightly tapered walled, rimmed, centerfire rifl ...

exceeds the .500 Jeffery in

muzzle energy Muzzle energy is the kinetic energy of a bullet as it is expelled from the muzzle of a firearm. Without consideration of factors such as aerodynamics and gravity for the sake of comparison, muzzle energy is used as a rough indication of the de ...

, with 120 grains of

cordite Cordite is a family of smokeless propellants developed and produced in the United Kingdom since 1889 to replace black powder as a military propellant. Like modern gunpowder, cordite is classified as a low explosive because of its slow burn ...

References

External links

African Conservation Foundation on .505 Gibbs and .500 Jeffrey

Norma Ammunition .500 Jeffery page

{{DEFAULTSORT:500 Pistol and rifle cartridges British firearm cartridges W.J. Jeffery & Co cartridges