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Gouse Freelance Firearms Engraving completed the metal engraving project by adding a Cape buffalo on the magazine floor plate.

The .500 Jeffery/

.500 Schuler Controversy

BY JAMES TUCKER

Sifting through the sands of time is a daunting task! In this case, and I do mean case, I’m referring to an eighty-year-old controversy over the cartridges we know today as the .500 Jeffery and the 12.7X70mm (.500 Schuler).

In books and articles that I have read over the last thirty years, most of the controversy seems to be over who originally developed the cartridge. The year 1927 is when Schuler and Jeffery introduced their cartridges to the public. The first mention of August Schuler Waffenfabrik’s new cartridge appeared in a German gun magazine that year. They named and promoted it as the .500 Schuler. It wasn’t until 1940 that RWS renamed it the 12.7x70mm. The records of the firm W. J. Jeffery show that they sold their first .500 in 1927.

While this is of interest to many with a historical outlook, those who build and shoot the Schuler/Jeffery cartridges need to know that they are NOT the same cartridge. They are two separate cartridges although nearly everything in print says they are the same. Having worked on six rifles chambered for the “.500 Jeffery” and been involved with two others, I can tell you that the two cartridges are definitely different.