.416 Rigby

[deanadell]

Had a buisness aquaintance in South Africa ask me a "bizzarre" gun question yesterday. He wanted to know if anyone produced a semi-automatic rifel in .416 Rigby caliber

I told him as far as I knew, this chambering has only been offered in Single Shot, Double, or Bolt action configuration for the 100 years of its existence.

Furthermore, no one I knew of would attempt to take large dangerous game that this cartidge was designed for with a semi-auto for reliability issues. I mean, there a real good reason they chamber this round in double guns with double triggers....you definitey don;t want a semi to jam on you with a Cape Buffalo or big Bear coming your way in a hurry.

Thought I would post it anyway, you never know, someone may have marketed one in the past that I don;t know about.

 

[svtruth]

Iirc

Barrett now offers a .416 Rigby version.

 

[Scorch]

If a body really had a hankerin' for a .416 autoloader, I would start with a BAR and a good custom gunsmith . . .
The Barrett is a monstrous bolt action weighing 27 lbs, hardly a field gun.

 

[ClarkEMyers]

Barrett offers a .416 bore but it has a .50 Browning bolt face/case head.

Barrett offers a .416 bore but it has a .50 Browning bolt face/case head. A fascinating long range cartridge that keeps a 400 grain bullet supersonic to past 2000 yards and is currently California legal. Ed Brown did a necked up to .50 Browning bullet on the Rigby/Weatherby case in a bolt action for a while.

It would be straightforward to do a semi-auto .416 Taylor on the various semi-auto .338 Win or .458 Win and it may have been done.

Seems to me there is no ballistic reason to build a semi-automatic to take the .416 Rigby case given that equivalent ballistics can be achieved at higher pressures with a smaller case - the true .416 Rigby is a hangover to allow low pressure and high performance.

 

[ClarkEMyers]

A semi-auto accounted for the biggest african game bag I know of.

A semi-auto accounted for the biggest African game bag I know of - in the 5 figures. Of course it wasn't sport hunting. The rifle was a Garand with military ball.

I can't vouch for it but I'd bet an awful lot of the big 5 have been taken in recent years with assorted Kalashnikovs as well for use of automatic weapons on African game.

Nothing to do with the .416 Rigby of course.