doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Always wanted a Sterling Davenport Big Bore - 500J

I always wanted a Big Bore by Sterling Davenport - a 500 Jeffery custom

The rifle has been purchased, by its not yet in hand. I can hardly wait. A Sterling Davenport Custom has been on my want-list radar for many, many years. And finding one in classic 500 Jeffery caliber is wonderful. Here's the early specs - more info to follow when I get it in hand. This will be my second 500 Jeffery. You may recall my post earlier this year about my Custom AHR 500 Jeffery. https://www.doublegunshop.com/forum...Words=jeffery&Search=true#Post627374


http://www.buckstix.com/buckpics/sterling-000.jpg

I just learned that this rifle was the very last rifle built by Sterling Davenport before he retired. In addition it was "built for - and hunted by" Michael Fell, the well known East African Professional Hunter. I am hoping to get some photos from Michael that show him using this rifle on one of his hunts.

*** UPDATE ***

I got the rifle in hand today, and its even better than I expected. The rifle is virtually mint with only a very few handling marks showing that is was used in the field. I added a bunch of pictures showing all the features. Also pictured pictured are the Timney Trigger and the large forward recoil lug added to the bottom of the barrel, with the entire action and barrel being glass-bedded. Notice that I removed the unnecessary scope bases. It is very interesting that Sterling built this rifle with a unique designed internal vertical stack magazine with special feed-lips to guide the cartridge into the chamber. Another unique feature of this rifle is that the magazine is intended to be loaded from the bottom - not from the top. The rifle holds 1-up and 3-down for a total of 4 shots. This design feeds 100% flawless. To load, you drop a round into the chamber, close the bolt, and open the floor plate, and drop 3 cartridges into the action, and close the floor plate. The 3-position safety keeps everything safe while loading. I have owned other 500 Jeffery rifles that had standard staggered magazines that would fail to feed reliably. Such a feed-failure can be a life-threatening draw-back when hunting dangerous game. Only my AHR 500 Jeffery also feeds reliably from its vertical stack magazine. I'll be adding field test data and targets next week.

http://www.buckstix.com/buckpi...terling-features.jpg

I’ve never seen one that loads from the bottom of the magazine. It sounds like an extremely high level of craftsmanship. Let us know how it shoots!

With Sterling's system loading from the bottom, you have 1 in the chamber, and 3 in the mag, for a total of 4 shots. And if 4 isn't enough, and you need another shot, you can always flip an extra round into the chamber and close the bolt - because the extractor snaps into the cartridge's extractor groove.

Here's my first field test - a couple FUN LOADS that won't beat you up.

http://www.buckstix.com/buckpics/STERLING-TARG-2.jpg



http://www.buckstix.com/buckpics/STERLING-TARG.jpg