I had a bit of time this morning to go to the range, with all of 10 400 grs Noslers loaded over 88 grs of IMR 4350, in Norma brass. Only 10 since I was doing the barrel break-in thing and I figured I'd be bored cleaning that barrel after ten times. And I was.

I'd never shot anything bigger than my 9.3x62, and a lot of this Cyberspace has been filled with recoil discussion of late, so I was a tad apprehensive.

I was pleasantly surprised. The first shot missed the target (open sights, 50 meters), but didn't hurt me. I shot 8 shots off hand, standing at first and sitting later to chronograph a few shots, the last two I shot from the bench.

Yes, there was recoil, but certainly the difference the recoil calculations show between my gun isn't perceived in real life, at least not by me. I'm a small guy, maybe I roll with the shot easily. I can imagine that prolonged bench session will not be staged though.

Got five shots in somewhat of a group (2" wide, but 3" low and 2" right of center), a pair a bit to the left, one low, two disappeared. I guess I need some practice with open sights. I was trying to aim through the tiny window of my chrony too....at least that is my excuse ;-)

I'm going to load up a few more, with some more powder...I think I will have fun with this gun, at least now I'm motivated to "tweek" it into a slicker, more reliable gun. Who knows, maybe even Africa one day. For next year, moose beware!

Frans

what kind of velocities were you getting?

I would think that that load was extremely mild for the rigby.

Thanks for sharing.

This is a really mild load, bump the velocity up to about 2650-2700 fps with the 400 Nosler and let us know what you think of the recoil then. It seems to me like there is a bunch of difference in recoil between my standard load 105 grains of H4831SC which goes 2530 and 108 gr of RL22 which goes 2700 fps. The .416 sure as hell won't kill anyone with recoil, but it does teach you the basics of holding a rifle properly if you aren't already.

Frans,
Don't ever load that rifle faster than 2400 fps. That is just a bit faster than the classic Rigby load that has killed everything on the face of the earth many many times over.
96-98 grains of H-4831 should get you there.
Keep rolling with the rifle, you will do fine.
They are a lot of fun to play with.
JCN

Oh, on average the velocity was 2270, 88 grs being the starter load for that powder/bullet combo. That said, I've never been able to determine much difference between recoil for min and max loads according to the manuals in any caliber. And I have no intention in going much beyond the 2400 fps. With this powder I still have some 4 grs to toy with before reaching max according to the Nosler manual. Before I start cutting off inches of the 25" barrel I'd like to see how easy I can reach that value. Up until now, I've never been very successful in duplicating manual velocities.

Frans

The max loads I found for the 416 rigby went over 100 grains with imr 4350.

Of course you should work up the loads. But I knew that 88 was light for a 416 rigby.

I load 95 grains into my 375 ultra and that case is not as big as the rigby case.

I load 102 gr of AR2209 (Oz version of imr4350) behind the 410 gr woodleigh. It is a nice load and I do not have a chrono but it would be doing around 2500 fps I would think given that 98gr in the book gives 2350 fps.

[quoteIt won't be a huge difference with your 416 Rigby if you stay around 2400 though. Get that puppy cranked up to 2600 and you'll definitely feel it!

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That makes sense. Every fps extra goes times 400 grs, instead of e.g. time 285 in the 9.3 or times 180 in the .300 WM, hadn't thought of that. For now I'll aim for 2400 and have fun with that. Should kill a moose, shouldn't it ;-) Since I can't hunt bighorns next year I need a different challenge. A 60" moose would do me just fine ;-)

Frans

They were 400 grain bullets.

http://stevespages.com/page8a.htm

This is not commercial data so work up carefully.

I have found the data on stevepages to be very helpful.

Any masochistic load that works in a .416 Wby will work in the Rigby. The internal dimensions of the cases are the same because that's the case that Roy designed his line of super (stupor?) magnums around. I used light Wby loads to make decent .450 Rigby loads and they work just fine, thank-you. As JCN said, anything over 2400 is wasting powder and, IMO, showing off. Pointless! Boy some moosie is in for a surprise!