Selous Inspired .425 Take-Down

Such was the case with this new-build .425 Westley Richards, finished in June 2025. It was modeled on the rifle we built in 1911 for Frederick Courtney Selous, the British adventurer, soldier, professional hunter and conservationist, whose whose extraordinary life ended in battle a few yards from where he is now buried under a tamarind tree in Tanzania.

Selous was the inspiration for a generation of schoolboys who hoped to live the Edwardian dream of an adventurous life in the Empire and he was an exemplar of the generation who brought the ‘scramble for Africa’ to its conclusion and began to realize that the great continent required conserving, rather than pillaging, if the wonders it contained were to survive further European colonial expansion.

His resting place is now, quite rightly, in the game reserve which bears his name and his bust adorns the staircase of the Natural History Museum in London, to which he supplied taxidermy examples of numerous African beasts.

Selous last ordered from Westley Richards on 20^th October 1911 and we supplied him with a .425 WR, ‘White Hunter’ model of our famous big-game oriented magazine rifle.

Selous’ rifle is No.37798 and it appears in the order book as a ‘.425 Mauser action WR Mag. Rifle' at a cost of twenty-seven pounds, two shillings. He supplied teeth from a rhino he had killed to be used in the construction of a bead for the foresight.

Trigger likes to refer to the .425 WR as the first short magnum. It was designed to provide the power of the .450 NE in a cartridge suited to a magazine rifle. Sportsmen of the day appreciated the lower price of these rifles (about half that of a double) and their multi-shot capacity. Selous’ rifle could be loaded quickly with a stripper-clip, and the big box magazine holds five cartridges, plus one in the chamber.

This famous rifle still exists and it remains in good condition. A very enthusiastic Westley Richards collector bought it at SCI in Las Vegas in 2016 and we exhibited it in Dallas in 2022 and 2023, where it drew a steady stream of admirers hoping to shoulder the great man’s rifle and feel history in their hands.

Like Jim Corbett’s Rigby Mauser .275, the Selous .425 is a magnet for sportsmen with a love of history and a sense of nostalgia.

Rigby have made one exact copy of Corbett’s rifle, down to the last detail, with the chequer and metal finishes made to look as if worn in the same places and to the same degree as the 1906 original (though they did not go so far as to polish out the rifling to resemble Corbett’s, which is well beyond useable). They have also made two exact copies of the same rifle, but as it would have looked when new.

This is the idea the customer initially brought to us for the construction of this version of the Selous rifle. However, having taken the original and meticulously noted every aspect of its build, we started a conversation as to exactly what features he wanted to remain true to the 1911 rifle and what improvements we have made in the years that followed that he might like incorporated.

Having started with Selous' rifle as template, we have, we think, built the rifle he would have ordered had he been offered those options at the time.

The original rifle featured a 24” barrel with traditional clip-type foresight, island rib rear sight with four leaves, a thong-type sling eye, traditional, side-mounted take-down catch, a bayonet fix take-down joint, an extended box magazine, standard Mauser action with flag safety but without spring-loaded side-clips, a plain steel grip cap and a red Silver’s pad on the butt, which has a cheek-piece. It weighs 9lbs 3oz (barrels are 4lbs, stock & action 5lbs 3oz).

The ‘White Hunter’ model Selous ordered came without the spring-loaded side clips that feed the straight-walled cases securely into the chamber. They were a feature of the higher grade version and are of real benefit. Therefore, we opted to include them in this build.

Also, the walnut stock of Selous rifle is of lesser figure than modern customers are prepared to pay for so an upgrade to ‘super deluxe’ was applied at the start.

Selous’ rifle was largely un-engraved and finished in black all over but we decided to scroll engrave the action and magazine floor plate to make this worthy of the build cost of the overall rifle. Case colour hardening has also been employed to lift the appearance.

We did match the Selous style exactly in relation to the stock shape, the shape and spacing of the sights, sling eyes, pistol grip and take-down system. The latter is a new version of the bayonet type used on the original. However, we have improved that significantly. Westley Richards dropped the bayonet fixing in favour of a screw-thread in around 1912 and have used that ever since.

The original bayonet fitting was made in separate parts and brazed into place. We now machine everything from a a solid steel billet so it is one-piece, perfectly and precisely machined for optimum accuracy. The bayonet fixing is now an option again and better than it ever was.

A great deal of thought was put into the best way to mount a ‘scope and the quick-detach fittings on the 24" barrel in a way that did not interfere with the clean lines of the rifle.

Another update was the use of our latest Deeley-catch inspired release button for the take-down mechanism. It is neater, easier to use and carries forward the look of our doubles into the magazine rifles.

We have achieved, with this interesting build, a nice, clean outline with proportions and style very much in the vein of the original Selous rifle but updated to make it into a really efficient, best-quality, modern version of the old workhorse.

Regulated to place three consecutive shots of Kynoch 410-grain softs or solids (traveling at around 2,200 fps) into a clover-leaf pattern at 50-yards, it is accurate enough to shoot with the utmost precision and achieve perfect shot placement in the field.

This Selous inspired project has been an interesting journey into the desire to take all that is good in a classic Westley Richards model and sympathetically upgrade every detail to make it as beautiful and functional as possible without losing its original character and charm.

We leave readers now to examine these beautiful photographs and consider how well our gunmakers have met that challenge.