.416 Strauss : a .303 wildcat
Piet, a South African, emailed me information about a wildcat he shoots. The .416 Strauss aka. the 416-03 Strauss in named after the inventor, a friend of Piet.
.303 British (left), .416 Strauss (middle, loaded with a 350 gr Speer bullet in a Norma case)
The parent cartridge is the .303 British. It is blown out to .416 caliber and loaded with a 300 grain Barns-X or 350 grain Speer bullet and S265 Pistol powder (a local South African powder). The 350 grain bullet is propelled at 2300 fps and generates 4112 ft/lbs of muzzle energy. The lighter bullet is pushed out at 2500 fps and generates 4164 ft/lbs of muzzle energy.
The performance seems similar to the .375 H&H Magnum. According to Cartridges of the World (11th Edition), the .375 H&H can push a 300 grain bullet at 2530 fps, generating 4265 ft/lbs. The small caliber .375 bullet would have greater penetration than a .416 bullet. The cartridge works about to be about 20% less powerful than a .416 Rigby
Piet uses the cartridge in a with with a P14 (Pattern 1914 Enfield) action. The groups are not all that great as he does not have a custom die set and has to use a .405 Winchester die for seating the bullet.
The .416 Strauss P14 (click to expand)
I think this is a very compelling cartridge. I am surprised I had not heard of .303’s necked up and turned into big game cartridges before. It seems like a good idea as I am sure Africa is has more than its share of .303 surplus rifles.
A big thank you to Piet for emailing me the photos and information.
Very interesting!! A while back I was contemplating a 375 Ruger.
Heath, coincidentally enough Piet is, or was, considering a 375 Ruger himself!
(Did you get the comment by email?)
Please post loading info if you can.
Drew, it is a local powder so it would not be of any use unless you are in South Africa.
Steve,
Thanks for this post. Very interesting indeed! I would appreciate any additional information that you may have and would like to post a link to the NitroExpress forums if you permit me to. As you know, several of our members are professional gunmakers and they would find this a very interesting proposition.
BTW there have been strong rumors of Somchem Powders being on the verge of being launched in the USA after Rheinmetall bought a stake in Somchem/Denel from the South African government. If I hear about their products being available here, of course, I’ll let you know at once.
Best wishes and good hunting!
Steve, I entered a different email address (G-Mail) and I began to get the notifications of new posts!
I just did a quick search for 416 Strauss dies and couldn’t find a thing. Looks like a guy would have to have a custom set made.
Yes, that is what I recommended he do. Lee and Hornaday ship custom die sets overseas (as far as I know)!
How about Redding?? – http://www.redding-reloading.com/pages/customadedies.html
Well RCBS wont – http://www.rcbs.com/general/intro.aspx but did provide a list to their international dealers http://www.rcbs.com/international.aspx
Mehul, thanks for posting it on the forum!
Please do let me know about new powders.
Hi first of all i would like to tell ya all the .303 is what i consider more than enough rifle for the way i hunt. but on the same note i would like to try rounds based on the .303. and this .416 seems like it would be a awsome bear and moose rifle within the range of the round. as i am sure the .303 epps loaded with a 180 for general shots and the 215 just incase a rouge big block chev needs to be tamed. Jus jokin bout the chevy. but to make a long story short i would realy like as much info as possible on the .416 for some reason it just seems like a realy good round.