The .404 Jeffery is a rifle cartridge designed for hunting large, dangerous game animals, such as the "Big Five" (elephant, rhino, cape buffalo, lion and leopard) of Africa.

The .404 Jeffery was popular with hunters and game wardens in Africa because of its good performance with manageable recoil.

By way of comparison, the .416 Rigby and .416 Remington Magnum cartridges fire .416 in (10.57 mm) bullets of 400 gr (26 g) at 2,400 feet per second (730 m/s) with a muzzle energy of approximately 5,000 foot-pounds force (6,800 N⋅m).

These cartridges exceed the ballistic performance of the .404 Jeffery but at the price of greater recoil and, in the case of the .416 Rigby, rifles that are more expensive.

Originally the .404 Jeffery was very popular with hunters in Africa and saw significant use in both British and German colonies.

[citation needed] A more recent development by Norma of Sweden has been the introduction of 450 gr ammunition under their African PH banner.