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The .416 Rigby and .416 Remington Magnum

By Chuck Hawks

 

Introduction
Until fairly recently .416 cartridges were basically confined to Africa, where they were used primarily on dangerous thick-skinned game. The .416 Rigby was the most popular of the breed, and it was slowly dying. But North American shooters became interested in the .416 Rigby, inspired by the famous gun writer Jack O'Connor. A-Square, Ruger and Federal Cartridge stepped up to the plate to provide rifles and cartridges and the .416 Rigby was revived.

Remington became interested in a .416 cartridge with a standard magnum rim diameter that could equal the performance of the outsized .416 Rigby for use in their Model 700 rifle. The .416 Remington Magnum was the result. Now both of these .416 cartridges are widely distributed in North America and other parts of the world where large animals are hunted.

.416 Rigby
The .416 Rigby is a British cartridge introduced in 1911 for double rifles and custom bolt action rifles built by the Rigby firm on the super-size Mauser magnum action. The British load gave a 400 grain bullet a MV of 2,350 fps and a ME of 5,010 ft. lbs. The cartridge became an orphan when the production of all British metallic centerfire ammunition was discontinued in the 1960's.

The .416 Rigby uses an oversized, rimless, bottleneck case 2.9" long. It has a rim diameter of .59" and a sharp 45 degree shoulder. The overall cartridge length is 3.75". This cartridge is too fat and too long to work through magnum actions designed around .375 H&H size cartridges. The bullet diameter is, in fact, .416". The maximum average pressure (MAP) for the .416 Rigby is 47,170 psi

The late Jack O'Connor, the Lewiston, Idaho gun writer, did a lot to keep alive interest in the .416 Rigby. He had a custom bolt action rifle based on a magnum Mauser action in the caliber. He wrote about developing loads for it, shooting it, and taking it on an African safari. His standard load drove the 400 grain Barnes bullet at a MV of 2,450 fps. He called the recoil "tolerable." He used the rifle to shoot an elephant and a lion. He wrote that it killed well.

Enough demand eventually developed that Federal and A-Square brought out modern factory loads for the .416 Rigby and Ruger started building rifles for it. The .416 Rigby is now offered in the Ruger 77, Dakota 76, and CZ 550 bolt action rifles, the Ruger No. 1 single shot, and the (fairly reasonably priced) Krieghoff Classic Double Rifle. Like Frankenstein's monster, the .416 Rigby had been brought back from the dead.

Federal Cartridge Company loads 4 different 400 grain bullets in the .416 Rigby case. All of them have a MV of 2,370 fps and a ME of 5,115 ft. lbs. At 100 yards the solid bullet is traveling at 2,110 fps and has 4,050 ft. lbs. of energy. A-Square offers their Triad of bullets in factory loads for the .416 Rigby, with similar ballistics.

According to the A-Square Handloading Manual Any Shot You Want loads similar in performance to those O'Connor developed can be achived by the modern reloader using H4831 powder and 400 grain A-Square bullets. 97.0 grains of H4831 gives a MV of 2328 fps, and 101.0 grains of the same powder gives a MV of 2448 fps. The latter load had a maximum average pressure of 47,000 psi. These loads used A-Square brass and CCI-250 primers, and were developed in a 26" test barrel.

Like all elephant rifle cartridges, the .416 Rigby produces heavy recoil. Its big case burns a lot of powder and throws a heavy bullet, a combination guaranteed to rattle the shooter's teeth. A 10 pound rifle shooting a factory load with a 400 grain bullet generates about 58 ft. lbs. of free recoil energy.

.416 Remington Magnum
The .416 Remington Magnum was introduced in 1988 in an attempt to duplicate the ballistics of the earlier .416 Rigby in a modern belted magnum case. The idea was to introduce a .416 cartridge that would work through the existing (.375 H&H size) magnum actions of rifles such as the Model 700. The case of the .416 Rem. is 2.85 inches long, and the overall cartridge length is 3.6 inches. It has a small shoulder with a 25 degree angle and a standard magnum rim diameter of .532". The .416 Rem. Magnum is based on the 8mm Rem. Mag. case necked-up to acccept .416" diameter bullets. It crams .416 Rigby performance into a smaller case by operating at the very high MAP of 65,000 psi.

This high pressure may be the undoing of the .416 as an African dangerous game cartridge. In the sometimes intense African heat there are reports of occasional high pressure spikes from factory loaded .416 Rem. Mag. cartridges. Difficult or impossible extraction can be a problem and even broken extractors, particularly in Remington Model 700 rifles. These are relatively rare problems, but even rare problems cannot be tolerated in a cartridge or rifle intended for use on dangerous game. I have not heard reports of problems with .416 Rem. rifles used in Alaska or Canada.

As I write this the .416 Rem. is offered in the Remington 700, Winchester 70, Sako 75, and Blaser R93 bolt action rifles. Ruger chambers their No. 1 and Dakota their Model 10 single shot rifles for the .416 Rem. Mag.

A-Square offers three factory loads, while Federal and Remington each offer one factory load for the .416 Rem. Mag. The latter uses a Swift A-Frame PSP bullet at a MV of 2,400 fps and a ME of 5,115 ft. lbs. The 100 yard figures are 2,175 fps and 4,201 ft. lbs.

The pointed Swift A-Frame bullet loaded by Remington shoots flatter than the round nose bullets usually loaded in the .416 Rigby. Trajectory is as follows: +1.3" at 100 yards, 0" at 150 yards, -3.3" at 200 yards. This pointed bullet makes the .416 Rem. Mag. a 200+ yard big game cartridge. With a round nose bullet the .416 Remington, like the .416 Rigby, is about a 150 yard cartridge.

For reloaders, Any Shot You Want shows that 72.0 grains of H4895 powder can drive a 400 grain A-Square bullet to a MV of 2251 fps, and 76.0 grains of H4895 can drive the same bullet to a MV of 2403 fps. The MAP of the latter load was 56,600 psi. These loads used A-Square brass and CCI-250 primers, and were tested in a 26" barrel.

Like the other .416's, the recoil of the .416 Rem. Mag. is not for the faint hearted. A 10 pound rifle shooting a factory load with a 400 grain bullet jolts the shooter with some 53 ft. lbs. of recoil energy.

Conclusion

Both of these .416 cartridges have proven entirely adequate for shooting thick-skinned dangerous game like elephant, rhino, and Cape buffalo. They have also found favor with some professional hunters and guides in Northern Canada and Alaska, particularly to back-up clients with less powerful rifles. The .416's offer a useful alternative to the .458 Magnums in Africa and elsewhere.