I know the first bullets were FMJ 170-175 Round Nose as a military round not too long after this it was changed to a 140 spitzer. Mauser then introduced a commercial load and rifle using 140 exposed lead spitzers. Low and behold Rigby offered their Rifles and ammo in their very similar (wink) rifle and ammo. Dose anyone have dates on this? Also when were 150-54 and 160 introduced? thanks captdavid

1910

The origen of the "Rigby 275" name is something of an enigma as the first Rigby's were not marked as 275 !
They were marketed as 7mm Rigby Mausers and they sold with 7x57 ammo !

The 275 designation only comes about in 1901
and now we see rifles marked as 275 and 276 !
The 275 and 276 designation starts around serial number 1231 to serial number 1370

Cap'n:

Just took a quick look through the reprints and photocopies of old cartridge catalogues that I accumulated in the '80s.

The Kynoch 1902-03 price list only has the listing as "7m/m Mauser". It lists 178 gr. as bullet weight for the illustrated RN FMC. However, it also states: "Sporting Pattern Bullets for above, same price as .303". For the .303 it listed 8 different sporting bullets; 4 variations of RNSPs weighing 215 gr., the "Patent Pegged" bullet at 209 gr, the "Express Copper Tube" and "Soft Nose Hollow" at 195 gr., and the "Hollow Nose Express" at 192 gr. There are no weights given for the lighter 7mm bullets, but assuming the weight reduction is comparable to that for the .303 the 7mm "Hollow Nose Express" should have weighed in the range of 155-160 gr.

The Eley 1910-11 price list lists the cartridge as "7 mm (.276) Mauser". In addition to the 173 gr. RN FMC, it also illustrates a "Marksman" version of the cartridge loaded with a pointed FMC of unidentified weight, and notes that "Copper Pointed" bullets are available. The pointed (Velopex) bullets for the .303 were listed as 150 gr., so the 7mm equivalents may have been around 140 gr.

The Nobel Industries (Kynoch) 1925 catalogue now lists the cartridge as in the above Eley price list. Loads with 4 different 173 gr. bullets were available, plus a couple of 140 gr. bullets, a pointed FMC and a "Copper-pointed".

None of these catalogues makes any mention of a .275 Rigby. The ".275 Rimless (Rigby)" is listed in the 1955 Nobel Industries catalogue. Interestingly, the Rigby 173 gr. load is listed at 2400 fps (28" barrel) and the equivalent 7mm Mauser load is listed at 2300 fps (29" barrel), while for the 140 gr. loads the Rigby is listed at 2750 fps and the Mauser at 2900 fps.

The oldest copy of a European catalogue that I have is a G. Roth Aktiengesellschaft (Austria) from 1920. It just consists of tables illustrating cases and bullets. It lists 7 different bullet weights of 7.2mm diameter: 139 gr., 154 gr., 162 gr., 165 gr., 171 gr., 173 gr., and 184 gr. FN SP. The photocopy quality is not great, but it appears that the 3 lightest weights are FMCs, of either pointed or very pointed (Spitzer) shape; the 165 gr. is a semi-pointed SP; the 171 gr. is a FNHP; the 173 gr. is a RNSP with a small amount of lead exposed; and the 184 gr. is a FNSP with lots of exposed lead (about a 1/3rd of the bullet length).

My oldest copy of a German catalogue is the DWM for 1926. It lists 3 bullet weights for the 7x57: 147 gr. RN FMC and RNSP; 154 gr. PSP, pointed FMC, and FMC boat-tail; and 173 gr. RN FMC, RNSP, FNSP, and HP.

Hope this answers some of your questions.

Cheers, Al

I did have some 173 gr. milsurp 7x57 bullets many years ago, must have been the Eleys mention in a previous post..The were definatly military stuff at 30-30 velocity..I shot them up on a few deer and antelope at the ranch, didn't work well of course so shot up the Jack Rabbit population with the rest..Should have kept them for collectors..

https://i.imgur.com/SA5eCBc.jpg?1

Some boxes I have picked up several years ago.