What's the deal with 416 Rigby brass.....cheapest I can find it on the net is $180/100!!!!

That's enough to keep me from buying a 416 Rigby rifle!

I think it's mostly supply & demand. Not everyone has a .416 Rigby. Everyone has a .375h&h. .416RM, .458lott, etc. are made from the same basic brass. Not much else but the Lapua on that case head & look @ the price of .338Lapua brass! Really, 100 cases will probably last you the rest of your life anyway.

Gonhuntin-Buck-eighty each is a good price.
Proper sizing will get a couple thousand shots
out of the 100.Or more.Ed.

GonHuntin,
Mast has 416 Rigby formed brass for $159 per hundred. Here is the link http://www.bellammo.com/caseprices.htm
That's pretty reasonable.
Take care,
Dave

GonHuntin--Got to use DB ball-powder and decent
barrel length.Resize just for a tight headspace,
so brass don't stretch so much.Rigby load under these parameters will give very moderate pressures
with the hunting velocities(400g@2300fps).Oh,they
can go much faster, but brass life will be only a
third as much.My cartridges go forever with same
conditions, but you hop then up and brass stretches fast.WW slow ball powder.ed.

GonHuntin,
I use the 416 Rigby cylindrical brass by Mast Techmonolgies for my 470 Mbogo and I've loaded some of my brass 12 and 15 times and it's still going strong. The lower pressure loads are the reason. Your 416 Rigby loaded to 2400 fps is a low pressure load and your brass life will be very good. If you partially resize you only work the neck of the brass and this will extend your brass life. One hundred brass will give you a ton of shooting.
Take care,
Dave

In answer to your original question, I have generally been told that the reason the brass is so expensive is due to the steep shoulder angle. While not large, it is really steep and this is hard to form with a lot of lost cases. Rigby brass used to also be prone to neck cracking. If this is a problem, periodic annealing should handle it.

Cabela's has it for $77.99/50 in the unbeatable Norma. That's $156.00/100.

Go to

http://www.cabelas.com

click on "hunting" from the left side bar, then
"reloading" ... "components"..."norma"

They offer .338 Lapua Brass from Lapua for $189.99/100, and that has a 20 degree shoulder. You can find the Lapua .338 Lapua Magnum brass for less than $150/100 from other sources, like Midsouth.

I think the main factor is volume of sales and production, and mass of quantities bought by suppliers for resale. As more come to realize that the .416 Rigby is the greatest big game cartridge ever, the limited production will increase, and prices could improve. But it will never be as cheap as .416 Remington brass, because it is BRASS: "a whole lot more and better" brass.

Hmm, well, if you haven't already bought into the beautiful, classic, elegant (beltless!) .416 rifle and cartridge, perhaps you could consider .510 JAB, .500 Jeffery, or maybe .510-.505 Gibbs? Yes, it is true that the brass is somewhat more expensive, but you can save what you would have spent on bullets by shooting economical milsurp .50 BMG pulls (.225-.25 each) when you are not hunting.

A check of the Midway catalog shows the .416 350 gr. Speers for .40 each. Wouldn't you really rather make your delivery with a 650-grainer and spend less to put a stamp on it (airmail, yup)?

Is there a .416 RUM yet? How does it do compared with .416 Rem, Rigby, Weatherby, etc.?