I'm doing some research on classic British and Mauser rifles before WW II. I'M doing this, partly because I'm a retired history teacher and things like this interest me. Mainly, it's because I'm planning to build one or two replicas of one of the classics. I'm doing this on a budget. It might be better to call it a 'resembles' rather than a replica. Because it/they will be my main hunting rifles, when it comes down to it I will go with function over from. Price will also be a factor. The basis for the rifles will be a Zastava double-set-triggers action, and a FN commercial Mauser from the early 50s.
Questions:
1. I know Rigby made high end guns for the elite. Most show went on safari could afford these. Most soldiers, clerks, etc used Enfields. Did Rigby make lower priced rifles?
2. Did they sell the Mauser made sporters? If they did were they marked 275 Rigby?
3. After 1912, I assume Mauser sold their # 1, 2, and 3 in Britain? Were they marked 7x57 or 275 Rigby?
4. I know Bell used 7x57. Later in life he bought Rigby's. Were his early rifles Rigby's or Mausers?
Thanks captdavid

British stalking rifles were a mix-up BUT with three or four main makes and types that seemed to dominate the scene before WWII.

Other than the "bespoke" makers such as Holland & Holland and semi-besoke such as Rigby there were standad "off the shelf" rifles.

The 6.5mm in its various guises, 6.5x54 and 6.5x53R were popular. In both Mannlicher and Steyr models.

Also, of course, the sporting .303 British rifles made by BSA. These and the Steyrs and Mannlichers can be found with the retailer's name often engraved on them.

Also the odd sporting Ross in either .303 or .280 Ross.

The auctioneer archives of Holt's, Gavin Gardiner, Bonham's will all give an idea of what was popular in the UK before WWI and before WWII.

FWIW
https://huntforever.org/2013/05/06/the-red-man/

A lot of gunmakers built unmarked guns that were sold through the Army & Navy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_%26_Navy_Stores_(United_Kingdom) stores.

Craig Boddington has done quite a bit of African hunting with an Army & Navy double that (I believe) was made by Westley Richards. Not sure how many Mausers Army & Navy sold, but I'd bet there were a lot more of them than doubles.


Okie John

The British Mauser connection starts not with the Rigby Mauser contract but way before that.

Mauser's main steel supplier was Jonas and Colver ( Continental steel works in Sheffield ) in 1885. Not only was there this unique business relationship there was also an effort to get Mauser to build Enfield rifles.

Mauser had meetings with Both Rigby and Westley Richards. The reason for this was that Rigby only dealt in sporting rifles whilst Westley Richards cast a wide net that included handguns and at the time the Mauser Model 96 "broomhandle" was very popular in the colonies.

Rigby became the British importer for Mauser.
Not only did Rigby import actions,which they also resold they had Mauser build rifles on their (Rigby Stock patterns)so that the majority of the first 1000 Transition actions Set up for 7x57 and 8x57 were fully built finished and assembled at Mauser.

Mauser's Rigby builds came in 3 forms.
1. The standard Transition actioned rifle in 7x57 and 8x57
2. The short intermediate 303
3. The step down ring magnum action for the 400-350 Rimmed magnum

The first transition action shipment to Rigby was on October 03, 1898

Westley Richards on October 18, 1889 ( Mauser M96 pistols)

Now Rigby basically only fitted the rear sights. The rest was done by Mauser to their spec.

The Mauser SN's for these rifles ran from 1 to 1000.

here are some pics.

Short Intermediate action Mauser 303 built for Rigby.

this rifle is very very rare: the reason is that it was built for Rigby but never made it to England ! it has no British proofs ! The caliber on this rifle is in Metric ! Speed is of opinion there are less than a 100 of these in existence !


Rigby's No 1 Rifle in 275 Rigby. Now they have no caliber marking and no mentions of the caliber as 275. It does have a instruction manual



The supplied Eley dummy rounds

quote:

Originally posted by thirdbite:
FWIW
https://huntforever.org/2013/05/06/the-red-man/

Nice interesting read, thanks

quote:

Originally posted by thirdbite:
FWIW
https://huntforever.org/2013/05/06/the-red-man/

Thanks for the link. Well worth reading.

I know that FN made military 98 rifles in 7x57. If they are like the Colombian .30/06, you might find one with a clean stock, unadorned with the bolt stripper and recesses of the German ones.

I have sporterised two of those stocks, removing wood behind the pistol hand so they look like a post-war FN sporter, with cheekpiece.

With careful planning, you might have enough wood to extend a Prince-Wales grip back a little further than the tight curves I achieved.

I am going to ask two stupid questions.

1) did Rigby stock any of their bolt actions or did Mauser do all the stocking?
1a) if Rigby did stock rifles what model or years?
2) when Rigby had the exclusive distribution of Rigby actions/rifles how did the other firms develop their cartridges such as the 375 HH, 404 Jeffery, 425 WR,or chamber rifles with Mauser actions for the small bore cartridges?

Thank you all

I'm not positive, but I believe a a little of both, but it's my understanding that Mauser sent Barreled actions for the 275 anyway. I suppose if you were WR, or H&H etc, you bought your actions, from Rigby. Rigby, lost its exclusive in 1912 to Mauser relative. Remarkably The 375 H&H in 1912, coincidence? I'm not positive, but believe this is right. Captdavid

Rigby's early rifle stocks were made by Mauser to Rigby's specifications. Various stock shapes were made.

Everything was fitted by Mauser ( also the typical Rigby front sling ring ) excluding the rear sights. It was shipped with the rear sight island in place and Rigby fitted the sight leaves and the peep sight if fitted. ( Source Mauser archives..... a Mauser shop journal shows this )

Rigby's exclusive rights did not last forever they lost it in 1912.

Gun houses like Jeffery had actions and barrels made in Germany by Mauser and Krupp they were then shipped to England via importers and agents.

The error commonly made by many is that Jeffery was simply a reseller of Jeffery branded rifles. this is not true, WJ Jeffery was a gunmaker in his own rights and he also held patents of his own.

He did like everybody else source actions and barrels from other makers and he used importers like Le Personne in Belgium to source actions and barrels. He also employed the services of gun finishers like Thomas Turner Jr and H Lenord to build or assemble the guns.

In other instances he bought completed guns and rebranded them ( Mannlicher's via Schwarte and Hammer the agents for MS) He sourced actions for his single action rifles and double guns from various sources including makers in Belgium like Auguste Francotte.

There is some controversy in the literature regarding the Lenord Spelling because on some of the proof entries the name H Leonard appears.

be as it may the actions were sourced from Mauser, the Barrels from Krupp and the assembly was done in England.

Example:

Jeffery's 500.
There were 24 Rifles built by Lenord ( Leonard)
Single Square bridge magnum actions from Mauser, Barrels from Krupp imported via Belgium via Le Personne

21 of the rifles went to Jeffery and 3 went to George Gibbs ( speaking of rare.... only 3 rifles in 500 Jeffery bearing the George Gibbs Name !!! )

We know this because Jeffery's ledgers ( the one's that survived show this detaille)

The competition all realeased cartridges by 1912: Gibbs with the 505, Holland and Holland with the 375, Jeffery with the 404 by 1904 or as late as 1909.
How did they get Mauser actions to develop these cartridges? Rigby had the distribution until 1912. Theses firms, especially Jeffery, had to have Masuers to develop their rounds even with introduction being 1912?

I do not think Rigby would have provided the competition with actions when they could have starved them out, but I am willing to be wrong.

Rigby sold them the actions ! There was no indication of one starving out the other. It was tough times for everyone though, even Mauser faced bankruptcy! and then off course folks like Jeffery also imported actions via distributors in Belgium.
Mauser's biggest customer for non military guns and actions was Great Britain !

Do you have any idea how many Mauser sporters were sold by Mauser in Britain and her colonies? How many in European countries a n d colonies? Captdavid

The educated guess number of Sporting Mausers ( includes actions) ever built ( Ending 1946) is around 127,000 rifles and actions only.
( important this does not represent their military actions and rifles which number over a million)

Half of this number was in the form of actions or barreled actions.

The majority of imports in Great Britain was during the Rigby contract ie between 1898 and 1912.

I'm assuming these were all military type with the stripper clip 'thingie' and the thumb cut-out? Were these ever/often removed filled in by the factory or major suppliers? Captdavid

According to John Speed's book Rigby only "made"35 Mauser rifles between 1898-1924. That is according to the chart on pages 224 and 225. One of these is a 505 Gibbs from January 8, 1924. It is the last one listed. However, the chapter accompany the chart states this rifle was sold in 1924, but the action was made in 1901! It is noted this was a barreled action ordered by Rigby. Now is this Gibbs in a magnum length action. John Speed does not say. There is no picture.

The chart list four transition actions.

John Speed goes on to state Jeffery established close working relationship with Mauser one Rigby's exclusive distribution expired. It is at this time Jeffery started to build 404s on magnum actions. Again, according to John Speed.

John Speed confirms Rigby did sell to other firms during is exclusive period. I did not doubt Mr.Alf, but it is nice when the preacher matches the Bible.

On page 243, John Speed states a total of 127k model 98 rifles and actions with more than 82k being built sold before WW1. He states a large percentage was absorbed by the British trade.


Mr. Alf are you John Speed?

Thank you everyone this made me reread John Speeds book. For the OP, the indexs in the book list the serial numbers for all the rifles/actions identified between 1898 and 1946 and which firms got that individual unit. I am not going to count every entry, but this is where John Speed gets his numbers.

I hope all this helps.

LHeym500:

Ah but now we have cross references !

We have the Mauser Archives which Speed published as his third book on the Mauser which essentially is a look into the surviving shop and factory documentation from Mauser. This to an extent supplements his first work and in some instances give clarification to what was premised on Mausers links to England.

He has for instance the first Mauser order sheets for both Rigby and Westley Richards
He goes on to site the first 1000 ( numbered from 1 to a 1000 Transition actions and Transition based Rifles set up for the 7x57 and 8x57 all bound for Rigby.

he further corroborates via a shop journal entry
The fact that Mauser made stocks in house for their Rigby rifle orders to pre determined Rigby Specs

But more importantly we have the Rigby Ledgers and they are complete ! So now we see exactly by the number what Rigby built and Rigby will at a fee give owners of original rifles insight into pages of those ledgers.

Further cross reference comes from the ledgers importers of guns and off course other sources like the ledger entries at the Birmingham Proof House

As an example:
I have here a original 500 Jeffery
for this over time I have procured copies of the original Jeffery ledger entry for the rifle, the ledger entries at Abercrombie and Fitch in New York and finally the ledger entries at Griffin and Howe where the rifle finally ended up after some years of sitting in the respective shop shelves..... not to many takers for a 500 Jeffery at the time in the USA.

Thank you Mr. Alf. I need the second book. I do not want to tell anyone how to spend their money, but the OP really needs to invest in one, if not both of these references. I got my copy for 100 dollars, but I bought it as a set from a book dealer at a gun show. Still, it would not be that expensive when compared to a rifle build he is anticipating. Also, if a particular builder holding himself out as a Mauser maker did not have at least one of these references, he would not get my money.

I am not trying to be confrontational. But you would not hire someone to build a specific classic car who did not have the best references on that you wish to build.

I have found that good reference material is the key to any endeavor. Over the years I have collected stack and still use them all.

To answer the OP's question Rigby sold Mauser built actions badge Rigby in both 275 Rigby and some that were marked 7x57. For evidence of this statement I refer all to pages 433 and 435 of John Speeds first book two Rigby rifles,actions are identified with Mauser proof marks and serial numbers as Rigby rifles in 7x57.

All Rigby Mauser's wore Mauser SN's !
The Rigby's like Jeffery's had two SN's one a Mauser and the other a Rigby or Jeffery usually on the trigger guard.

Further this they also wore dual Proof's One set German and the other British as per British Proof law.

This further a method of cross referencing source and date.

So here is an example:

this is a short intermediate action 303 built for Rigby.

This is evidence of pure Mauser !
The SN with B proof on the stock


The bottom of action and barrel with Metric designation in mm as well as barrel dimensions in mm





The British proofs on the 500 Jeffery



This rifle also wears a Mauser SN with BU proof

Another example:

a 375 H&H Jeffery of circa 1926: all the parts like the bolt stop, bolt root , safety wing all wear matching numbers as does the stock. The last 3 numbers of the mauser SN as well as the weapons inspectors number.

A WR 318 WR with Brit proofs



The Mauser numbers on the "bits"

All these are fingerprints we use to identify the rifle

It appears there are a few folks who really know there 7mm Rigbys. Guess that's not quite correct. How about .275 Rigbys?

What reference(s) would you recommend to someone wanting to essentially clone the Number 2 or 3 High Velocity Rifle from Rigby?

The 275 Rigby ( 7x57) in Transition Mauser action form is very well covered in John Speeds book the Mauser Archives.

As per the Rigby book: Rigby: A Grand Tradition Feb 2012
by Silvio Calabi , Steve Helsley and Roger Sanger the No 2 only came about circa 1924 ?

The various Rigby catalogs show the rifles
the only difference being the rear sight leaf setup also the initial versions did not have the usual Rigby inscription on the barrel just in front of the fore ring.