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The photos are of an original Rigby Magnum Mauser circa 1905 chambered for the Rigby .400/350 in its original loading. The rifle has been fully restored. Dennis Earl Smith AKA The Stock Doctor did a great job of removing over a century's worth of oil and grease from the stock, refinished the stock, and re-checkered it. Although not original to the rifle, the owner requested a cheekpiece, and Dennis added the cheekpiece perfectly to the stock.

Yours truly did all the metal work. Numerous light pits were struck from the barreled action and the metal given a high polish and slow rust blued. The bolt handle had been messed with and a new handle was added. H&H scope mounts were also added. All lettering and logos were removed and re-done. And to top all things off, load development was done with 225-grain AccuBond and Woodleigh bullets to emulate the later Rugby .350 No. 2 loading. The barrel delivered 3-shot groups that averaged about 1.3" at 100 yards. The slanted magazine fed the long, rimmed cartridges effortlessly.

A fun project and a weathered rifle restored to its previous glory. Many of these rifles were converted to .375. H&H, and I am pleased the owner chose to restore this one.

Cheers,
Roger

PS. The photos are by Steven Dodd Hughes. Look for an article about the restoration process in an upcoming issue of Gunmaker, the ACGG official publication.

quote:

Originally posted by RogersGunWorks:
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Thank you for sharing! One of my favorite gun\cartridge combinations

Well done! I love to see old rifles restored like this one was, even though it's more of a resto-mod than a true restoration. Great work. Bravo!

Great looking rifle until that appendage was stuck on top of it.

True that, never meant to be scoped.

quote:

Originally posted by bluefish:
Great looking rifle until that appendage was stuck on top of it.

Wholly agree with you there although presumably that is what the owner wanted. When looking at the photos your eye (well mine does) just focusses on that large scope.
Beautiful restoration on the rifle and adding the cheekpiece only enhances the style and age of the rifle however why go and undo all that good work by plonking a horribly large new age scope on top. Definitely not to my taste but then not my rifle.

Stunning work!

I quite like the modern scopes on old classic rifles… I feel it just gives it that extra versatility and performance.

No scope or mounts ever improved the appearance of a classic rifle. In a perfect world, we would all have 20-20 vision and make 500 yard shots with the parade of folding leaves of British express sights. However, the rifle came to the current owner with thoroughly buggered H&H mounts. Fixing the mounts required welding, new screw holes, new screws and new bases and rings. If it's any consolation, H&H bases and rings are probably the most appropriate for a Rigby rifle. There is nothing I can say in defense of the scope. A smaller, straight tubed scope would have been better, but the S&B is what the owner wanted and its superb optics make accurate shooting so much more possible than the aesthetically correct Lyman 2 1/2 Alaskan.

Roger

The ultimate functional beauty, It brought a tear to my eye!! The perfect hunting rifle..

It would make a nice nest for my 2.5X Leupold Alaskan!! I could easily live with that.

So could most of us, Ray. Sorry, but that periscope wrecks that grand dame. Honestly, it looks like fake tits on someone's granny.

Well you just rained on my parade, but your right, I wouldn't soil her with a scope..

I'd put a scope on that rifle in an instant.

Maybe a smaller one, but a scope, nonetheless.

I would not be willing to limit myself to 100 yard shots with that fine rifle.

That there is a very rare and very valuable Mauser ! Specially built for Rigby by Mauser, the very first Magnum Action by Mauser specially for the 400/350 Rimmed
What defines this action as a very early specimen is the stepped front bridge and the slanted magazine box for the rimmed cartridge. A rare find indeed

Awesome rifle. Looks like xausa's 350 - also a step ring/slant box. Class all the way around.

I guess the cost of replacing the H&H rings would be prohibitive but a low post-war Zeiss/Hensoldt or Nickel (or that Alaskan) would not only look better and be more appropriate but more resistant to recoil on such a calibre.

Finding good examples of such scopes is getting harder, of course, but they are out there.

Thanks much for all the complements and comments about the scope on the Rigby. As I mentioned earlier, the rifle came to the present owner with poorly installed H&H bases. Fixing the problems and installing a new set of H&H bases was the best way to preserve the rifle and not to subject its pristine receiver ring to drilling & tapping.

There's nothing to say about the large Schmidt & Bender scope. That's what the owner wanted. The restoration and installing new H&H mounts were not cheap, and that the owner was willing to restore it & not convert it to a .375 H&H, in my opinion, gives him the right to select the scope.

As for 7/8" diameter scope & H&H rings. That's a pipe dream. I know of only two sources for H&H rings in the civilized world & neither offer 7/8" rings. If those of you who insist on a Lyman Alaskan and H&H mounts on your favorite smoke pole, I'm willing to make custom, one-off rings but will tolerate no whining & moaning concerning the cost. Rather than emphasizing the negative aspects of a too large S&B scope, I submit the more friendly approach would be to applaud the owner for his willingness to accept substantial gunsmithing fees in order to preserve a truly classic rifle.

Cheers,

Roger

PS I recognize unsolicited, unwarranted criticisms are part & parcel of the AR world, but will, for the time being, not burden you with my "casting your pearls before swine" comments until truly antagonized.

The H&H scope mounts on that rifle is actually age appropriate as that was how they were supplied out of factory.
In their modern recreations of the original Rigby 350 Rigby today still use that system.

Roger, illegitimi non carborundum.

And casting pearls before swine is one of my favorite proverbs! (I use it on my children all the time.)

I always disliked that rod between the bases on the H&H system. But I have also always disliked one piece scope mounts of every kind, except Blasers.

Still, it is period correct and fits that rifle to a "T".

quote:

Originally posted by sambarman338:
I guess the cost of replacing the H&H rings would be prohibitive but a low post-war Zeiss/Hensoldt or Nickel (or that Alaskan) would not only look better and be more appropriate but more resistant to recoil on such a calibre.

Finding good examples of such scopes is getting harder, of course, but they are out there.

Utter bullshit

The scope in question appears to be a S&B classic in either 3-12x50 or 2.5-10x56 built on an old fashioned FFP 30mm 4x erector tube
If you want to slag modern optics you can at least draw a line in the sand and admit that the 4x erector has been with us since the 80s and has done the hard yards.
Heavy 6x and 8x SFP erectors are yet to prove themselves.
Now excuse me for not having my Woodleigh manual on hand but I doubt this thing would kick as much as a .338 Lapua, which of course are only ever scoped with Leupold 2.5x ultralights as anything bigger is unreliable

Well, GBE, I can tell you that 4x 'erectors' have been around since at least the 1930s Zeiss Zielmulti 1-4x variables, and soon after WWII Zeiss and Nickel brought out 1.5-6x models. These all had FFP reticles, of course, but that's not what made them strong. Those old scopes had the erector sets lodged solid in the outer tube, not bouncing around under heavy recoil as in your S&B 'Classics'.

All scopes will break down eventually, but you can predict the durability by looking at the designs. Some old scopes had their reticle cells screwed down inside Oldham couplings, others had them captured behind fixed abutments in dovetailed slides, so that recoil was not likely to move them anywhere and even less likely to break a spring.

How much recoil and how many shots it takes to wreck a modern scope depends but Ray Atkinson reckoned a hundred shots on a 458 Lott might see out some respected variables and John Barsness said 10 rounds on a 300 Weatherby could do it - and they're on your side!

So, I will draw a line in the sand. It is where the up-market makers changed to constantly centred reticles based on the articulated erector tube. With Lyman that was about 1960, Leupold about 1964, B&L after 1968, Zeiss and Swarovski c. 1975, Nickel and Unertl maybe around 1990. Pecar held out until the end, achieving the same thing in their fixed-power scopes by simply putting a field stop around their FFP reticle.

Would you like me to clarify and say 4x erector FFP with a constantly centred reticle? Which by your post would be after 1975? Looking here https://schmidtundbender.de/en/company/history.html S&B went to centres reticles in 78 and coupled them with 4x erectors in the 80s (I have a the 2.5-10 x56 clearly marked West Germany, so don’t ask me why they held out making a 3-12x50??)

As for the beautiful rifle at hand, the .350 was described in John “Pondoro” Taylor’s book “African Rifles and Cartridges”:-
“It is a splendidly effective shell and at ranges of up to at least 150 yards, kills as instantaneously as the .375 magnum. In addition, it has an appreciably lighter recoil.”

Factory loads were a 225g at a claimed 2600fps, as I stated earlier, far milder than a 250g at 3000 from a Lapua which from memory Accuracy International and others have been fitting S&Bs to. Be happy to have you list the patent numbers for the recoil handling improvements S&B made to the PM series which those shooting rifles recoiling less than a .375 probably don’t require.

Given there’s no great stockpile of classic Nickels etc perhaps you want to move that line somewhere forwards to include scopes in current production?

Back to the OP, where is the owner located? The .350 and that big S&B would be a dynamite combo for boars in the moonlight

Dear Mr. Sambarman,
You certainly know a lot more about the internal mechanisms of scopes than I. So, let me posit a theoretical question or two: What, exactly, is the modern rifleman to do when it comes to sighting equipment? Are we relegated to plain iron sights or is it possible to select a current production scope that won't fail after a box of ammo?

Not trying to be a wise ass. Just wondering what scopes meet your expectations.

Cheers,

Roger

quote:

Originally posted by GBE:
Would you like me to clarify and say 4x erector FFP with a constantly centred reticle? Which by your post would be after 1975? Looking here https://schmidtundbender.de/en/company/history.html S&B went to centres reticles in 78 and coupled them with 4x erectors in the 80s (I have a the 2.5-10 x56 clearly marked West Germany, so don’t ask me why they held out making a 3-12x50??)

As for the beautiful rifle at hand, the .350 was described in John “Pondoro” Taylor’s book “African Rifles and Cartridges”:-
“It is a splendidly effective shell and at ranges of up to at least 150 yards, kills as instantaneously as the .375 magnum. In addition, it has an appreciably lighter recoil.”

Factory loads were a 225g at a claimed 2600fps, as I stated earlier, far milder than a 250g at 3000 from a Lapua which from memory Accuracy International and others have been fitting S&Bs to. Be happy to have you list the patent numbers for the recoil handling improvements S&B made to the PM series which those shooting rifles recoiling less than a .375 probably don’t require.

Given there’s no great stockpile of classic Nickels etc perhaps you want to move that line somewhere forwards to include scopes in current production?

Back to the OP, where is the owner located? The .350 and that big S&B would be a dynamite combo for boars in the moonlight

Dear GBE,

I appreciate your comments, especially those related to the Schmidt & Bender scope on the Rigby .350. You asked where I live. The rifle's owner lives in Alabama in the south eastern US. The primary target for the Rigby will be whitetail deer which have the very annoying habit of not showing themselves until just before dark and long after the most ardently optimistic of iron sight shooters have retreated from the field.

I had the privilege to develop a load for the .350 with 225-grain Woodleighs the replicate the Rigby .350 No. 2 loading. The old girl still shoots well, even with the crappy S&B scope, and I hope to field test the rifle this November on the owner's farm. For a gunsmith who enjoys old rifles and hand loading for long-obsolete cartridges, the restoration of the Rigby was is good as it gets.

Cheers,

Roger

Sorry GBE, I don't have information on S&B patents. The German patent info is not as friendly as Google Patents' US ones and didn't appear to show the drawings when last I looked.

However, by 1978 the original Weaver and Redfield patents would have lapsed, so S&B could have used their concept with impunity.

The recoil of the 350 Rigby magnum was certainly light compared with some of the elephant numbers Pondoro used but, having just fired about 40 shots from my 338WM, 35 Whelen and 9.3x62 one day last week, I can say that 225 grains at 2600fps is not to be sneezed at. I know you feel no recoil when shooting at big game but a scope's mechanism doesn't have adrenalin to distract it.

The modern S&B seems to have a good reputation but I must say the ones I've had in my collection of old scopes bought for research had more faults than any other Germanic brand I've seen. One had strange distortions in the picture, a yellowish tint from gone-off lens cement and the mechanism had seized up, perhaps from never needing to be adjusted. Another one appears good but has an eyepiece meant for a scope of much-shorter eye relief, whereby sunlight often shines off the bezel in use.

The number of old, reticle-movement B. Nickels on the market is certainly diminishing but I would say there are still more different models of his scopes on eBay than any other European brand. I've had no trouble gathering 10 or 11 but I'm sorry, they're not for sale.

RGW, if you have time, trawl the Internet for still-good, reticle-movement scopes of the brands I mentioned, plus Hensoldt, Kahles, S&B, Meopta, Kaps etc. Some American scopes had no internal adjustments at all, which is good if you can find the mounts to go with them. Then, spend the money you've saved getting a competent gunsmith to mount it. I think Burris Signature rings are the best mounting idea I've seen. Scopes with rails can be a problem but Recknagel, Rusan et al do make the dovetail fittings needed.

I'm not too wrapped in the modern scopes but Swarovski Z5 or Z6s have helical erector springs, likely to be better than the usual leaf springs. Leupold 2.5x compacts may hold together longer than most variables and I respect the concept of the Burris PosiLock, though one AR member says they can be wrecked, too.

This is my .350 Rigby Magnum, assembled by Lon Paul,using original Rigby parts, all but the barrel. The action is a slant box, step receiver ring Mauser action built especially for Rigby to accomodate the .400/.350 Rigby cartridge, which is a Magnum length cartridge with rim, originally designed to be used in a single shot or double rifle. [IMG]Rigby .350 Magnum 001.jpg[/IMG] [IMG].Rigby .350 Magnum 002. jpg[/IMG]

Sorry I can't see your photos, Bill, but glad to see you've posted. How are things with you and yours?

Well, that is one darn finely restored/shaped and finished rifle there all around. H&H style scope & mount design aside, the custom work is all top shelf. Cool caliber too.
Contratulations to both you Roger and Steven.
Wow.

ABeautiful rifle,Sell done Please tell me about the safety.
Thank you

quote:

Originally posted by ChiefR53:
ABeautiful rifle,Sell done Please tell me about the safety.
Thank you

The safety, other than the highly scrutinized H&H mounts & scope, is the only unoriginal part on the rifle. It's a Buehler safety & was installed due to the scope. This type of safety has been around for years and is also used o0n then M1903 Springfield.

Roger

quote:

Originally posted by sambarman338:
Sorry I can't see your photos, Bill, but glad to see you've posted. How are things with you and yours?

Sorry I took so long to reply, but I;ve had a lot of distractions. We're doing fine, have kept more or less isolated and although several of our close friends have been infected, we have escaped so far. I'll try again with the photos:

xusa pictures

XAUSA,

Love the looks of that rifle, thanks for posting.

What a beauty, xausa! Among the very finest of English rifles.

Glad to hear you’re going strong.

XUSA’s 350 Rigby is one of my favorite rifles. Function and elegance collided to make this one rifle I would love to hunt PG in Africa with.

Beautiful wood in that rifle, Bill, with as much grain as I like to see.

Glad to hear you're well. We've avoided covid so far, too, though a couple of the kids have had it. I still wear a mask when going into shops, partly in respect for the staff who used to have to wear them all day.

quote:

Originally posted by boom stick:
XUSA’s 350 Rigby is one of my favorite rifles. Function and elegance collided to make this one rifle I would love to hunt PG in Africa with.

It is absolutely my favorite rifle. I’ve stared at it more than i care to admit. Truly class all the way around. Perfection.

Er a I have a small box full of 7/8" rings, Talley QD, old Redfields, Weavers, Buehler, a couple that I don't know the orgin.. and a few 3/4" tossed in, and some Pachmyer detachable flip overs in 7/8" complete with bases..I think I have a set of old Brownells that look like a finer finished Talley QD, may be customized? beautiful set..

Beautiful gun, is it