500 Jeffery or 505

**dritz** · 18-01-2013, 15:23

I have a CZ 550 Magnum action in the safe at home waiting for a project. Now i have been trying to decide what to build and i want something big and scary. the two choices i am stuck on right now are the 500 Jeffery and the 505. Anyone shot both of these or anyone own one of these who can give me some advice. Pros and cons to both. I am leaning towards the 505 but i really like the 500 as well. it will be used as a trail gun and probably become my Eland Rifle until i can afford to go for Elephant.
i currently own a .375 and a .416 so i want something that is quite far away from either of these two. I am going to use SABI to make it up for me.

**Tetelestai** · 18-01-2013, 15:45

No advice from me but seriously cool armoury you will have there.

**Maroelas** · 18-01-2013, 15:48

Originally Posted by Tetelestai

No advice from me but seriously cool armoury you will have there.

Indeed!

**marshy** · 18-01-2013, 16:11

Pop along to bigbore.org and have a look at the threads

**414gates** · 18-01-2013, 17:37

Not much difference between the two ballistically. The Jeffery has slightly longer legs than the Gibbs.

The Gibbs has a longer case and more case capacity, but rated to a lower pressure.

The Jeffery has a rebated rim, so it supposedly needs extra work to get it to feed properly from a staggered magazine.

Brass for the Jeffery is hard to find, expect to pay around R100 each. Dies are around R3000 from RCBS. Frontier makes a .510 570gr at a reasonable price. A bit of S355 and you're good to go.

Components for the Gibbs in.505 are more scarce, and therefore probably more expensive.

**Rudib** · 18-01-2013, 18:37

Fat cases, and ones with rebated rims = feeding issues. My honest opinion based on experience.

The 416 rigby case is about the biggest that i have seen that feeds reliably.

**Clint357** · 18-01-2013, 20:27

I'd go 505! Your action is long enough why not use it to it's full. As far as the 500goes, I like the history behind it and there for feel that they should be on m98 actions. But again that's my opinion if I were to be in your shoes. Nice collection of big bore's

**dritz** · 19-01-2013, 08:17

Originally Posted by marshy

Pop along to bigbore.org and have a look at the threads

thanks Marshy, i shall be doing that right away

**Vic Moller** · 22-01-2013, 13:53

You cant go wrong with either of the 2 choices in terms of performance - both are crunchers. IMHO the deciding factor will be determining which of the 2 has the most accessable and affordable cases. And as for having Magnum Arms build a SABI for you - best choice you can make. They built me a .458 Lott on an M98 action as a charge-stopper some years ago, and it is a sweet thing to behold - it just floats up to your sight line and settles where your eye is looking.

You know when you pitch up at a braai with a large pack of biltong - all your buddies keep on coming back for more until you have none left for yourself? Well with a big-bore, your buddies MAY take 1 shot with it, and then leave you the rest for yourself...

**SFourie** · 26-01-2013, 07:38

If you go 500 Jeff, there is loads of packets of solids in Magnum Arms. The solids are monolithic round noses with a good helping of driving bands. They were made specially for Magnum Arms by some bloke (can't remember the name). Have a look at them. They are on the counter above the Woodleighs if I remember correctly.