Hi All,

I am building a 416 Rigby and I need some help with the appropriate barrel twist rate, I will be predominantly using 400gr Woodleigh projectiles. I believe the original twist rate was 1:16.5 but it seems 1:14 is very popular. Appreciate your input.

I put a one in 10 on my 416T shoots like a house on fire.

IMHO faster is better.

either will work just fine

If you're planning on shooting long bullets like the 400 Gr. Barnes TSX go with the 1:14 twist.

I built a .416 Dakota, chose 1:12", like George Hoffman recommended for any future builds,
though all of his past builds had been 1:14".
If George is still building .416 Hoffman rifles in THE HAPPY HUNTING GROUND, hope so, he is using 1:12".

The .416 Barrett uses a 1:12" twist, even though it does 3250 fps with 400-grainers, since they are long VLD brass bullets.

Weatherby chose to use 1:14" twist with the .416 Weatherby Magnum, preferring monometal bullets in their factory ammo offerings.
Ruger and Remington .416s are all 1:14".

The CIP .416 Rigby's 1:16.5" twist might be better with cast bullets than the long monometals.
It seems to be fine with jacketed 400-410-grainers and monometal 350-grainers.

My Ruger RSM .416 Rigby with 1:14" twist is a "most accurate" rifle with any bullet I have tried in it.

Do not worry about twist rate affecting pressures or velocities anywhere in the range of 12" to 16.5" twist rates. Irrelevant.

1:14" is most flexible for widest bullet selection.