POTD: Dakota Model 10 in 330 Dakota – Magnum That Skipped the Belt

Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Here we have a Dakota Model 10 falling block, and the real story is what is stamped on the barrel. Don Allen founded Dakota Arms in Sturgis, South Dakota in 1986 building high end custom rifles, and in 1992 he rolled out a family of house cartridges. He did not chase the Weatherby route of bigger and faster for its own sake. He went after efficiency.

The idea runs like this. Belted magnums headspace on the belt, which is a holdover from the 375 H&H and does nothing useful in a modern bolt gun. Allen argued that headspacing on the shoulder centers the round in the chamber and lines the bullet up with the bore better. So he took the 404 Jeffery, a fat rimless African case from 1905 with a 545 thousandths head, chopped it to about two and a half inches, and necked it down. That buys you magnum powder capacity in a case short enough to feed through a 30-06 length action instead of demanding a magnum receiver.

The 330 Dakota is the 338 of the bunch. It holds roughly five grains more powder than a 338 Winchester Magnum and six less than a 340 Weatherby, and it runs at 60,000 psi. Allen got there years ahead of Remington, who built the Ultra Mags off the same 404 case in 1999. In my book the Dakota line deserves more credit than it gets for pointing everybody in that direction.

Most of our POTDs utilize images from our friends at Rock Island Auction Company, the premier firearms auction in the United States. Take some time to browse their current auctions – who knows, maybe you’ll find a piece of history to take home!

“Dakota Arms Model 10 Falling Block Rifle in .330 Dakota.” Rock Island Auction, www.rockislandauction.com/detail/4097/462/dakota-arms-model-10-falling-block-rifle-in-330-dakota. Accessed 14 Sept. 2026.

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