I have a cousin who owns a company that builds custom bench and varmit rifles, many on CZ actions. Therefore, he is a CZ dealer. A few years ago, he ordered a bunch of big bore CZs for no particular reason other than he has more money than he needs. Recently, he has offered to give me one of his .416s (hump back), or have it converted to the caliber of my choice at cost.

Now, I'm don't need (or more importantly, want) a .416 Rigby, especially a hump back out of the box CZ. But the thought has occured to me that this might well be a good chance to get a .450 Rigby, which is something I would be interested in having.

My question is, would the conversion be a simple matter of rebarreling and chambering? of course, I would want a different stock. I assume he could order one of the upgraded 550 American Stocks and simply drop the action in. From there, we could bed it and cross bolt it, etc.

Also, can .450 Rigby brass be made by reforming .416 brass? If not, where do you get the brass?

I'm starting to realized that even with a "free" rifle to start with, this project may be more problematic and expensive than simply buying one of the CZ "custom" guns already chambered to the caliber.

Send it to dan peddersen for a rebore to 450 rigby. That's the fastest way.

Or rebarrel to 470 mbogo or 550 magnum

jeffe

As Jeffeoso said, you could have it rebored and that would be the cheapest and easiest way to go (and yes, it is the same case necked up to .458) BUT, the barrel might be on the thin side and recoil might be a little worse than having it rebarreled to a heavier barrel. Essentially, it's the .460 Weatherby with a little less case capacity and, I would think, a little easier on the bod to shoot.

CZ uses pretty much the same barrel contour for their 375 H&H and 458 Win Mag/Lott so it will work fine. You're right about giving up a little weight but I think the 375 CZs are a little barrel-heavy anyway.

quote:

Originally posted by Masterifleman:

Essentially, it's the .460 Weatherby with a little less case capacity and, I would think, a little easier on the bod to shoot.

Interesting. Isn't the .460 WBY brass merely .416 Rigby brass with a belt, a strengthened web, and a "shoulder" ever so slightly farther forward? From what I had read, Mark Jamison was upgrading the Rigby's web to the Lapua web, so this may eventually be a non-issue. Then the 450 Rigby could be loaded to .460 WBY specs.

Polish it up and get used to it by shooting 300 rds, or so, and go elephant hunting. It's a more versiatile version of .470NE. Both are big cigars just shaped differently.

Woods,
416 rigby inventer
roy W added a belt and weird shoulder, jacked up the pressure
416 weatherby

necked to 458
460 weatherby

sans belt (1995, btw) normal shoulder
450 rigby

Just got off the phone with Dan Pedersen. I was shocked at how cheap his services are. For $465 (U.S.), he will rebore the rifle, rechamber it and inlet, finish, bed and mount whatever stock I send him.

The only problem is, he does not have a .450 Rigby reamer. He does, however, have a .450 Dakota reamer.

Any reason why the Dakota wouldn't work just as good as a .450 Rigby? Are they not almost identical?

The last time I did this (.375 H&H to 404 Jeffery) I got back a rifle that only feeds rounds from the magazine on Sunday, every other month of the year that begins with the letter "J". I'm still dealing with that little problem four years later (at least Dennis Olson is). Since this is a .416 Rigby, and since the .450 Dakota is nothing more than an necked up .416 Rigby, shouldn't it NOT have feeding problems. I HATE FEEDING PROBLEMS!!!! (especially when you watch your woumded buffalo run off with the heard while the PH is yelling "shoot him again!" But I digress.

What do you think, any reason the .450 Dakota won't work?

You can't go wrong with Danny Pedersen. He is a real craftsman and all 'round nice guy. He has done two 9.3x64's for me and is working on a 10.75x68 at present. His work is first class. Bob

quote:

Originally posted by jeffeosso:
Woods,
416 rigby inventer
roy W added a belt and weird shoulder, jacked up the pressure
416 weatherby

That's exactly what I thought. I "jack up the pressure" on my Rigby, and have seen no pressure issues with my Norma brass.

quote:

Originally posted by VFR1:
You can't go wrong with Danny Pedersen. He is a real craftsman and all 'round nice guy. He has done two 9.3x64's for me and is working on a 10.75x68 at present. His work is first class. Bob

Does he have a website?

Classic Barrel and Rifle works is Dan Pederson's site.

quote:

Classic Barrel and Rifle works is Dan Pederson's site.

http://www.cutrifle.com/