I have recently purchased a 416 rigby mainly for hunting buff. I would also like to use the 416 on plains game and any advice on bullets and velocity to load to, assuming the rifle to be accurate at varing velocitys, which would cause the least amount of meat damage would be appriciated

I have carried the .416 Rigby as my only rifle on an elephant hunt in the Zambezi Valley and used it on warthog, bushpig, and grysbok. I shot the 410 grain Woodleigh solid in the Federal Premium line of ammo and had no problems collecting any of my animals, including elephant. I imagine I was pushing that bullet at 2300 to 2400 fps but I have never chronyed that load. At medium ranges your .416 should be fine on plainsgame...others here may have handloaded some of the 350 grain bullets and gotten a bit flatter trajectory however. I am sure they will chime in shortly.

Chime! I feel totally comfortabl with my 416on plains game out to 250 yards and 400gr Swift A Frames. Out of my 24" barreled Ruger, I get about 2380 fps using 90.2gr of IMR 4350. good luck! jorge

FWIW I used a borrowed .416 Rigby on a warthog @~30 yds and an impala at a bit over 100yds. I was shooting handloaded Swift A Frames (400 grs), no idea about the powder/velocity. Meat damage was trivial. I remember thinking at the time that it would make a good 1 gun battery for buff and PG. However, given this was on the first few days of my first and only safari, I don't give my reccomdations on this topic too much weight.

Dean

Those big bullets will punch a big hole...and do minimum damage to hide...But I can assure you will be able to drive that bullet from stem to stern and beyond on any plains game....
I would not change bullets weight...Get to know how that rifle shoots that "Bullet" intimately.. Aim small miss small...

Mike

ghundwan

Mike has given you some very good advise. Particularly if you are hunting buffalo and plains game on the same safari. Use your buffalo load for everything. Messing around with multiple bullets and loads is dangerous and unecessary.

Mark

One of the major benefits of using a .416 is that you get a relatively flat-shooting cartridge which is also good for DG up close.

Use solids if you want to minimize meat (and hide) damage.

George

.416 Rigby with 350 grain Barnes TSX, F215/GM215M primer, Norma or Federal brass, start at 95 grains charge weight of H4350 Extreme, and work up to 2700 to 2750 fps at somewhere over 100 grains grains of powder, depending on your rifle and you. See what shoots best.

The 370 grain North Fork soft point (combined with CUP and FP for DG) is also an excellent choice. So would be the 350 and 400 grain Swifts and the 400 grain Nosler.

Those will do the job on cape buffalo too if need be, but a 380 grain GSC FN would be best for DG, even for elephant brain shooting. Just take care not to kill more than one buffalo with your first shot.

The 400 grain TSX with 105 grains of H4831 Extreme (SC or Long Cut) would be good for everything (if you range well and know your trajectory), except Elephant, and get you somewhere around 2500 fps with the Rigby.

105 grains of H4831 is the Jack O'connor load for 400 to 410 grainers and seems to be extremely accurate with any 400 grainer I have tried.

With H4350 for the lighter bullets or H4831 for the heavier bullets, within 95 to 105 grains, you can find a good load.

Would also consider the GSCustom 330gnHV. Here are the vel/energy figures:

yds0 2800/5746
100 2677/5254
200 2557/4791
300 2438/4357
400 2322/3951
500 2207/3571

As said above, combine 105 grains of H4831 and any 400 grain bullet and you are good from Elephant to Grysbuck out to 250 yards.

I carried a 416 Rigby loaded with 400 grain Barnes X's on a buffalo/plainsgame hunt in Chewore North, Zimbabwe (thick cover, under 100 yard shots). Used this rifle to take an eland and an impala, both dropped as if hit by lightning. Also used it on my buffalo, but he took 2 shots before he went down.

Tim

Name: 416 Cal, Barnes XLC, 400 grn
Ballistic Coeff: 0.546
Bullet Weight: 400
Velocity: 2483
Target Distance: 175
Scope Height: 1.500
Temperature: 70
Altitude: 500

Ballistic Data
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Range Elevation Velocity Energy ETA Drop Max Y 10mph Wind Deflect
0 yds -1.50 in 2483 fps 5475 fpe 0.000 sec 0.00 in -1.50 in 0.00 in
25 yds -0.13 in 2445 fps 5309 fpe 0.030 sec 0.17 in -0.56 in -0.01 in
50 yds 0.87 in 2407 fps 5147 fpe 0.061 sec 0.71 in -0.42 in 0.08 in
75 yds 1.51 in 2370 fps 4989 fpe 0.092 sec 1.62 in -0.19 in 0.29 in
100 yds 1.75 in 2333 fps 4834 fpe 0.124 sec 2.92 in 0.15 in 0.59 in
125 yds 1.59 in 2297 fps 4684 fpe 0.157 sec 4.62 in 0.59 in 1.00 in
150 yds 1.01 in 2260 fps 4537 fpe 0.190 sec 6.74 in 1.15 in 1.50 in
175 yds 0.00 in 2224 fps 4394 fpe 0.223 sec 9.29 in 1.83 in 2.11 in
200 yds -1.45 in 2189 fps 4254 fpe 0.258 sec 12.28 in 2.62 in 2.80 in
225 yds -3.35 in 2153 fps 4118 fpe 0.292 sec 15.73 in 3.55 in 3.58 in
250 yds -5.72 in 2118 fps 3985 fpe 0.327 sec 19.63 in 4.61 in 4.46 in
275 yds -8.56 in 2084 fps 3856 fpe 0.363 sec 24.01 in 5.81 in 5.42 in
300 yds -11.88 in 2049 fps 3729 fpe 0.399 sec 28.88 in 7.14 in 6.46 in
325 yds -15.69 in 2015 fps 3606 fpe 0.436 sec 34.23 in 8.63 in 7.58 in
350 yds -20.14 in 1982 fps 3487 fpe 0.474 sec 40.22 in 10.30 in 8.94 in
375 yds -24.94 in 1948 fps 3369 fpe 0.511 sec 46.56 in 12.09 in 10.20 in
400 yds -30.35 in 1914 fps 3255 fpe 0.549 sec 53.52 in 14.07 in 11.63 in
425 yds -36.41 in 1882 fps 3144 fpe 0.589 sec 61.11 in 16.24 in 13.24 in
450 yds -43.13 in 1849 fps 3037 fpe 0.629 sec 69.37 in 18.62 in 15.00 in

Other than this is a farily large example of oerkill, I can't see any reason why not.

Can I ask why you plan to use this on plainsgame isntead of a 30-06, 308, or 9.3x62?

Thanks all all the detailed info. The only reason I want to use the 416 on PG is to avoid taking two rifles into the bush and being able to take what I see when the opportunity arises.

There's no question that you can hunt plains game with a 416 Rigby. You can also hunt doves with a 12 ga 3.5 magnum. I wouldn't worry about anything except chosing the right bullet for buffalo and leaving it at that.