The Rafiki is also referred to as the 700/500 being the traditional designation used in England essentially a .700 case necked down to recieve a .500 bullet. A few years after delivering this rifle we were asked by the same customer to make a similar rifle but with the bullet in .577 calibre. We had Woodleigh make us a 900 grn. 577 bullet in both soft nose and solid. This variation was named the Sahar 700/577 after Rafik's son Saad.
The .500 Rafiki and .577 Sahar Cartridges.
The Birmingham Proof House Test results for the 700/577
Unfortunately Rafik Hariri never saw the completed rifle as he was assasinated in Bierut in 2005. We have recently completed a second 700/577 for the Hariri family as part of a set of 16 shotguns and rifles.
Our second .577 Sahar rifle, serial number , a further 2 rifles are in production.
richard hill on June 8, 2014 at 3:21 pm
what is the controlable weight of the 700/577, and can you obtain the 900 gr. bullets
Simon Clode on June 8, 2014 at 7:25 pm
The weight of the rifle needs to be 19lbs. The 900 gr. bullets are available, we had Woodleigh make them for us.
Simon
harvey schur on June 22, 2016 at 7:22 pm
I had the privlede of having a 577 westly-richards that my father bought for me used from the fine store abacrobe and finch in 1955 when I was 15 years old it was a double rifle with an extra set of fireing pieces in a beautiful leather case wich I than took to angola west Africa and shot a rino with it the first day the rifle had about 80lbs of free recoiland almost took me off my feet as I was only 115lbs at the time I went back to Africa the folling year but this time I went to Kenya and got me an elephant and a cape bufflow 2 of the big 5 you can google me im in flordia now 75 years old and I feel very bad that I killed allthose magnifasint animals I was also in gus magazine that same year. but enough said. the 577 wasthe best rifle I ever owned my father paid 1600.00 dollars for it in 1955 I sold it to james dimond 5 years later for 2000.00 cash boy what a mistake that was...