Just wondering what actions were used for the Rigby London made large bore bolt action rifles prior to the sale to Cali-Rigby. If there was any standardization at all.

A rifle I saw looks like a Whitworth action, same sort of side mounted, two-position safety and curved bolt handle. No thumb cut.

Thanks!

A Whitworth Rigby??? Where's Frank Martinez??? His DREAM rifle!!!

They used BRNO 602 actions for the big bores during the 80s and 90s IIRC.

Paul Roberts used Brno, Ruger and Hartmann und Weiss actions depending upon what a client specified.

I also saw a .458 Lott built on a Champlin's action but it was under Paul's name and not Rigby...

Here's a photo of the action; chambered in .416 Rem Mag

From the horse's mouth so to speak, Paul Roberts wrote to say the rifle is made on an Interarms (Yugoslavian) 98 Mauser action with a 3 shot box; made in 1991.

My rigby .375 from that era has the stripper clip groove, a mauser style swing safety of an original mauser and the little 2 position safety ala brno/interarms/cz etz the same as the above pic.

I think it is an original mauser action and safety, with the secondary safety added because the claw mounted scope, (serial #'d to the rifle) is mounted low enough that it precludes using the swing safety while mounted.


As far as I can tell almost all of the controlled feed actions available were used in that era.

I'll snap a few pics for comparison

quote:

Originally posted by PSmith:
From the horse's mouth so to speak, Paul Roberts wrote to say the rifle is made on an Interarms (Yugoslavian) 98 Mauser action with a 3 shot box; made in 1991.

Mr Smith..

I sure would like to see some full sized side views of that rifle ..

The fact that Paul Roberts, and the old London firm of John Rigby, was building rifles like this one on the Mk X Interarms action, puts the work of the California Rigby into perspective.

Well, I'm going to have an 'everything must go' sale so that I can get my hands on this rifle; when I do I will post photos.

I thought it was pretty cool that Paul Roberts answered my email about the action.

I can't say the .416 Rem Mag is my favorite cartridge (I like cartridges with the words H&H, Rigby, or Jeffery in them) and I wish it had an Oberndorf or FN action, but it is a neat rifle, and the .416 Rem Mag is a good round.

Since it already has the G&H scope mount I won't have to feel bad about drilling holes in it. This should make a great backup rifle to the .500 NE double, if things work out and I get to hunt an elephant bull and buffalo.

Good luck on obtaining the rifle and please do post more photos. You can't look at too many Rigbys.

OK, so here's some crappy pics of mine, sorry for the quality I took them with my blackberry- couldn't find a digital camera last night.
As far as I know it was built in the 80's by Paul Roberts. The address is listed as "London"
on the barrel. The scopes are both west german zeiss daivari's so it was built sometime before unification I guess

It was built for a good friend of mine who hunted quite alot with Alan Lowe, and virtually gave up hunting after Alan's passing. His trophy room is featured in safari press "great hunters and their trophy rooms" series to give you some kind of an idea how much action this one has seen

It has since made its way into my hands to safari again.



Underneath the front claw mount I can see "und berlin". I'm not really gunsmithy enough to take that claw mount off so thats all i can tell you about the stamping under it.
Looks pretty beat up in this pic- not really all that bad.


here's the funny safety I was talking about_ standard mauser swing and the extra 2 position- both have to be in fire to shoot. Either one locks the bolt in position as well.




Some shiny bottom metal.

As an aside- every where on the gun it says "Rigby's .375 magnum". barrel,action and bottom metal all say this.
Only in the tiniest script on the scope rings does it say "chambered for .375 h&h" I guess Paul was loathe to stamp holland and holland on there anywhere. rivalry alive and well at the time? Just tickles my funny bone for some reason

notlim, thanks for posting those.

A beautiful rifle!

What I think you have there is a 1909 Argentine action made by DWM (pre-World War I). One of the best Mauser actions ever made.

Under your Holland & Holland style scope mount (the very coolest!) your action will say:

DEUTSCH WAFFEN-UND
MUNITIONS FABRIKEN BERLIN

which is DWM, meaning something like 'German Arms and Munitions Factory Berlin'.

That is one nice rifle.

Psmith- thanks for the info, undoubtedly you are correct about what it says under the mount- the letters are in exactly the right spots for it to say that.

So I guess further to the original question we can add pre-war mausers to the possible doner action list

Here's a rifle made on the 1909 Argie action showing the DWM stamping. Not a very good photo but it shows the general idea.