doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Keeping up with the times.....

...Which I haven't been. I'm looking for rifles in .416 Rigby and I suddenly find rifles in calibres like.416 Remington Mag and .416 Ruger.

When the heck did this happen, or more to the point: Are either of these a genuine improvement on the old standby .416 Rigby?

Neither of the new ones are based on the original. They both have been around for quite some time. I'm sure you could find out their birth dates on the web.

By the way I sent you a PM

I'm not entirely sure , but from what little i have read and heard they are supposed to deliver the ballistics of the old rounds with the advantage of being a shorter overall length, same applies with the .375 ruger.

The .416 Rigby is one of my favorite cartridges and a classic pre-war gun by one of the great gunmakers really gets me excited. I own several by Griffin and Howe and they're incredible guns. I also have a Griffin and Howe that was originally built in .375 H&H in 1963 that I purchased from the original owner. He sent it back to G&H in the early 1990's to have rechambered in .416 Remington and subsequently took it to Africa to take a Cape buffalo. I've hunted Africa and Cape buffalo with it myself because I was a bit to nervous to chance something happening to my pre-war guns on the trip. The .416 Remington is a good cartridge and I'm reasonably sure the buffalo didn't know the difference but none of the newer versions (Remington, Ruger, Taylor, Hoffman, etc.) have the mystique of John Rigby's original. In the 102 years since it was developed, it's been immortalized by Ruark and many others and pre-WW2 magnum Mausers by the best makers command big money. I have a double square bridge in perfect condition that is one of the finest big bores I've ever seen. Unfortunately, I'll probably never have the nerve to actually take it to Africa. Even if I could insure it for its true value, I could never replace it if it was lost or damaged. It's a shame, because I'm sure an old Dagga Boy buffalo would be honored to be shot by it.

Gun companies probing the market for something that will sell. There is tremendous redundancy in available cartridges, but of all the areas that are way over done, the calibers considered specific for African hunting are among the most redundant. Just the .416's alone strain credulity. All part of the fun.

I wonder how small the percentage is of those rifles chambered in hard kicking-hard killing 'African' cartridges actually ever get used in Africa (or any other place where there's heavy dangerous game). I think it's mainly the mystique, or a macho thing, that drives the majority of purchases of said guns.

I suppose that if I were standing nose to nose with a riled up Cape Buffalo or a wild-eyed rogue elephant, nothing I held in my hand would seem powerful enough. But, sadly, that is beyond my purview. Perhaps Walter Mitty-ish dreams are sufficient reason to arm myself thusly!

New 416 Rigby ammo and cases are avaliable now.Not many years ago, you had to use old berdan cases or turn the belt off 460 or 378 Weatherby.Also larger actions were needed.This is what caused the interest in the other 416s using common brass and in some cases standard length actions.The funny thing is,this renewed interest in 416s seems to have brought the Rigby back to life.It's all good.BTW, any of them should make a good deer cartridge with a cast bullet at 1400-1500fps.
Mike

Its amazing but most of the american , british and german rounds of 100 years and more ago have never really been improved on, they did exactly what they were designed to do. Rounds such as the .375 H&H , 470 n.e , .30-06 etc. The problem is they cannot be released with great fanfare in the shooting press as new rounds by the marketing men.

True. 9.3x62 came out in 1905 and still sets the standard for what can be done in a medium length action. That story's not exactly going to move your stock price.

Can one fit a .416 Rigby in a P17 Enfield or Rem. M30/720?