I was recently in London and had an opportunity to visit John Rigby & Co.. A highlight of the visit was being able to handle Jim Corbett's 275 Rigby Mauser.



Lee

baumgartknives@gmail.com
http://baumgarthandmadeknives.blogspot.com/

Wow!

What a legendary rifle.

What a great experience to handle that legendary weapon!

Did you hear the panther rasp and the tiger roar!!!
Would have been a great experience to do as you have and handle such an historic rifle and hopefully visualize one of those so famous maneaters in its sights. I'm truly envious.

I'm flying to London on Saturday. I'd love to see all the old gunmaker's shops but this is Wifezilla's vacation and I'm just going to carry bags and drive.

Corbett wrote that he purchased a new .275 made by Westley Richards at Manton's shop while on a trip to Calcutta. Manton's manager explained this rifle had a "double pull off" and one had "to pull the trigger a second time to release the striker". Is he describing a set trigger? Is this rifle known to us?

quote:

Originally posted by 7kongoni:
Corbett wrote that he purchased a new .275 made by Westley Richards at Manton's shop while on a trip to Calcutta. Manton's manager explained this rifle had a "double pull off" and one had "to pull the trigger a second time to release the striker". Is he describing a set trigger? Is this rifle known to us?

I would assume it had a two stage trigger.

The terminology used back then confuses the issue but it was just the standard two stage Mauser trigger which Corbett obviously had no experience with up to the point of attempting a kill shot on a man-eater.

A great man and hunter but like many back in those days very much dyed in the wool in traditional attitudes. He believed the sales people that the rifle was accurate to 300 yards therefore happily shooting at long range when securing meat for his men and villagers before even checking the rifle on target. Possibly with the open sights it had been shot in to be "accurate" at the factory but how many today would venture out and not shoot in their rifle to their satisfaction with the ammo they will be using.

He also relates in his books about a couple of instances where he only took a few cartridges with him and ran out when things didn't quite go to plan. He sort of calculated how many he thought he would need but got it wrong. One doesn't want to be seen with ones pocket full of cartridges do we old chap, three is more than enough for this man-eater.

He admitted that some of his fundamental mistakes did cost quite a few lives as the man-eaters went on to kill before he got the chance to finally switch their lights out. He did seem genuinely remorseful in these cases and not just treat it as a case of disposable natives for the cause.