The .425 Westley Richards (11x67mmRB) is one of the classic African big-game rounds. It is a cartridge invented by Leslie Bown Taylor of

Westley Richards Westley Richards is a British manufacturer of guns and rifles and also a well established gunsmith. The company was founded in 1812 by William Westley Richards, who was responsible for the early innovation of many rifles used in wars featuring t ...

, a gunmaking firm of

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

in 1909 as a proprietary cartridge for their bolt-action rifles. Since before 1912 Rigby were Mauser agents in the UK and managed to persuade Oberndorf to develop and produce special Magnum actions for them, other British companies who wanted to compete with their .400/350 Nitro Express big five game hunting rifles had to improvise and use standard-length

Gewehr 98 The Gewehr 98 (abbreviated ''G98'', Gew 98, or ''M98'') is a bolt-action rifle made by Mauser for the German Empire as its service rifle from 1898 to 1935. The Gewehr 98 action, using a 5-round stripper clip loaded with the 7.92×57mm Mauser ...

actions, which only allow approximately 84 mm cartridges to fit into the magazine (a bonus was having a shorter bolt throw). The round was the first in Great Britain (and the first major in the world) to have a

rebated rim A rim is an external flange that is machined, cast, molded, stamped, or pressed around the bottom of a firearms cartridge. Thus, rimmed cartridges are sometimes called "flanged" cartridges. Almost all cartridges feature an extractor or headspaci ...

, one that is smaller in diameter than the case body, an invention which Taylor patented in 1908. This allowed it to be used in converted G98 rifles with standard bolt faces and not have them weakened by widening. However, it complicated the magazine design: when the cartridge is pushed forward and the bullet rides up the

feed ramp A feed ramp is a basic feature of many Breech-loading weapon, breech loading cartridge firearm designs. It is a tightly machined and polished piece of metal which guides a Cartridge (firearms), cartridge from the top of the Magazine (firearms), ...

, smaller diameter rim dives down and tends to slip under the bolt face (especially in absence of special measures to ensure reliable feeding), which may cause a serious jam. To solve this problem, Taylor developed (and patented in 1909) a proprietary single-stack magazine akin to

Belgian Mauser The Belgian Mauser can describe many Mauser rifles used by the Belgian Armed Forces or produced by the Belgian plant of FN Herstal. * The Model 1889 rifle and carbine, including Turkish Model 1890, Model 1916 and Model 1899/36 variants, all chamb ...

, which similarly extended below the stock. However, many rifles were and are nevertheless produced with standard G98-type flush double stack, double feed magazine, which works quite well as long as the spring remains strong enough. The rebated rim also allows government game officers and authorized hunters to use standard stripper clips for rapid reloads when culling rogue animals.

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A picture of a cartridge
Pistol and rifle cartridges Rebated rim cartridges British firearm cartridges Westley Richards cartridges {{ammo-stub

See also

References

External links