This may have been (probably has been) posed here before, but what is involved in converting a 416 Remington into a 416 Rigby? Thanks.

depends on the action and what you are willing to spend.

mauser 98 -- IMHO, ca't be done sasfely with today's sue happy world, but it has been done

700 remington - not a chance

m70 - this COULD be done, and was offered as a custom shop gun for awhile, but not anymore (i think)

cz602 .. yes, there were some done in 416 rem... best candidate...

Price?
here's the rub.. a NEW cz in 416 is 800 bucks. if you sell your 416 for a MINIMUM of 600, you are in the cz for 200 and shipping/transfer.

let's assuming you have a suitable action and barrel...
$150 rechamber and boltface
$150 bluing
$100 misc parts
$ 300 FEEDING and custom work.

that's 700 on top of what you have in the original.

for, frankly when loaded to factory, zero gain in performance. Yep, you can load the rigby up and the remington wont have the panache for about 80 years.

jeffe

Hmm... It requires a longer action. Therefore you need a new action, new stock and a barrel reamer. In other words a different rifle altogether. You might could use the same barrel. Some others here with more experience than I maybe could come up with another solution but just buy a CZ in 416 Rigby and sell the Rem 416 is the easiest conversion. Truth be known the rem is a more practical cartridge. For nostalgic reasons I chose the Rigby version. Good hunting. D

But, any rifle chambered for the .416 RemMag could be rechambered to the .416 Dakota. Barrel would have to come back a bit since the RemMag has a shorter neck and longer body, but as long as the gun does not have a quarter rib it would not be a big problem. Som inletting around the thicker end of the barrel, but nothing a pro can't do.

If you want to build one, check out the Montana Rifle Company long action which should be easier. It comes with a 3.65" magazine length and since the Rigby case is 2.9" (Rem is 2.85") it should work.

It can be done in the Winchester M-70s and Mod 98 Mausers, Holland and Holland, Westley Richards, and a few other English and German gun makers did it, and without any problems what so ever....but its akin to a blivit IMO, that's 10 pounds of ca-ca in a 5 pound bag!!

The main question is why would anyone even consider the conversion as the 416 Remington is basically and identical round balistically and nothing would be gained other than the Rigby operates at a lower pressure, but the 416 Remington operates within specs and the same as a 270 or 300 Win mag...and none of the 3 have ever been a problem except when some expert overloads them...I have hunted for years in Africa with the 416 Rem and survived it without incident...

The rigby is cool no doubt, and I think its the best thing sinse stripped tooth paste, but if a guy has a 416 rem, I personally don't see a rechamber to Rigby, just can't really live on the difference, yeah the Rem maybe higher pressure, but when you overlay the velosity, its splitting hairs.

.

Alf: I hate to suppose to answer for Ray, but I think what he was saying was those were actions suitable for the Rigby, not that they had been specifically converted from the rem. Yes the rem is a very young cartridge relatively speaking and most of the guns he listed were never (will never) be built in the rem.

"It can be done in the Winchester M-70s and Mod 98 Mausers, Holland and Holland, Westley Richards, and a few other English and German gun makers did it, and without any problems what so ever...."

ALF,

Ray can speak for himself of course, but I think he meant that H&H, etc. have chambered rifles in .416 Rigby in actions such as standard Model 70 and Mauser 98 actions. Meaning smaller than true magnum (ie: Magnum Mauser size) actions.

-Bob F.

Edited to add: Dang! I just saw that wolfrum1 beat me to it!

Thanks for the feedback all. I am in somewhat of a quandry. I purchased a CZ 416 Rigby over 10 months ago. Shot 10 rounds for fun and then took the gun in for various modifications: trim barrel to 24", add new front sight and barrel band, install Brockmans laminated stock, polish action, and install Khales 2X7 scope. After 6 months I was contacted and told the rifle was ready, went to pick it up and wanted to see how smooth the action would cycle.....jammed every time!!! Needless to say I was rather pissed and made quite an issue. Well after several more weeks they sent the rifle back to CZ. Initially I was told that CZ was just going to replace my rifle with a new one, well after they had it for almost 2 months they send it back and say no, the rails have been modified. Now the smith is still trying to fix it (almost another month gone by. My most recent conversation with them was that they are going to either make sure the rifle operates perfectly, or they are going to buy me a new rifle. Given all of the problems with the CZ and all of the chatter lately with quality problems with the new CZ's, my thought was that maybe I should just have them get me a Win 416 Rem and them convert to Ribgy (for some reason, I like the pedigree of the Rigby). Regardless, my rifle has been "gone" for almost 10 months and my patience is worn thin!

quote:

Originally posted by Bent Fossdal:
But, any rifle chambered for the .416 RemMag could be rechambered to the .416 Dakota. Barrel would have to come back a bit since the RemMag has a shorter neck and longer body, but as long as the gun does not have a quarter rib it would not be a big problem. Som inletting around the thicker end of the barrel, but nothing a pro can't do.

I have done this: get a Winchester M70 Classic in .300 RUM and rebarrel to .416 Dakota.

It just requires the bolt face be opened up a bit.