Rigby, of Harry Selby Fame

African Professional Hunter Harry Selby was one of the driving forces in popularizing the .416 Rigby.

We often hear the story that the .270 Winchester was a cartridge made successful by one man, Jack O’Connor. Well, I think that is a bit of an exaggeration.

There is no question that O’Connor’s writing about his experiences with the cartridge helped it along immensely, he didn’t “make” it. The cartridge was good enough to make it on its own, O’Connor just speeded up the process.

Another cartridge that has been very successful in the game fields of the world whose success has largely been attributed to one man is the .416 Rigby cartridge and African Professional Hunter, Harry Selby. How that came to be is an interesting story.

Like all self‑respecting Professional Hunters in Africa, Harry Selby used a heavy caliber English double rifle for his work. On one safari, his trusty double managed to get run over by the Land Cruiser, causing enough damage that it had to be returned to England for repairs which would take several months to complete.

In the interim, Selby visited a gunshop in Nairobi and purchased a John Rigby made Mauser rifle chambered for the .416 Rigby cartridge. It worked so well for him that even after his double was repaired, he never went back to it and remained with his .416 magazine rifle.

Here’s what John “Pondoro” Taylor had to say about it in his iconic book African Rifles and Cartridges, “John Rigby clinched his reputation as African gunsmith when he placed his .416 Mauser on the market for heavy and dangerous game. If for any reason you prefer a magazine rifle to a double, there is no finer or more satisfactory weapon for all‑around use against dangerous animals than this .416.”

He also wrote, “This was Blunt’s favorite rifle, and the weapon with which Daly shot most of his elephant.”

The cartridge was designed by John Rigby & Company in 1911 as a magazine rifle suitable for use in India and Africa. At about the same time, Jeffery came out with its .404 cartridge and Westley Richards with its .425, all designed for magazine rifles. These three cartridges were made possible largely due to the development of Cordite smokeless powder and mauser’s great 98 Mauser action. Both the .404 and .416 became very popular in Africa – the .425 less so.

The .415 Rigby was the choice of professional hunters who were looking for a magazine‑fed rifle.

The original loading of the .416 Rigby used a 410 grain bullet at 2300 fps. This was later standardized with a 400 grain bullet at 2400 fps. Even at the higher velocity, the big cartridge is really loafing with about 47,000 psi chamber pressure. Compared to some of the newer .416 loadings, they reach the same general ballistics as the Rigby, but at much higher pressures, well over 60,000 psi.

The downside to the large case is that, in general, a large magnum action is needed to house it. It was designed around the Mauser No. 5 Magnum action. Most Rigby‑made rifles used this action. However, a few were made on standard length 98 Mauser action by milling away a lot of metal. The one used by Harry Selby was one of these rifles.

In its heyday, the only viable source of ammunition for the big .416, along with most of the other large bore cartridges of British origin, was from Kynoch. After the end of WWII, for numerous geo‑politial reasons, the demand for large bore rifles and ammunition decreased substantially.

Ultimately, Kynoch ceased production of all ammunition, including the big Rigby .416. As a result, most of the English express rifles withered on the vine. It remained that way, with African hunters switching to cartridges that were still being manufactured.

Winchester came out with it’s Model 70 chambered for the .458 Winchester cartridge. Many professionals, including Selby, made the switch. Initially, the .458 had some growing pains, but they were finally sorted out.

This was the sad situation until a young American by the name of Jim Bell came along and started a company called B.E.L.L., standing for Brass Extrusion Laboratories Ltd. His small company literally resurrected the large bore rifles from premature deaths, by providing the means to produce ammunition for them. The .416 Rigby is among those resurrected.

Chapter 14

6mm/.244 Remington and the Name Game

The 6mm/.244 Remington traveled a twisting road on its way to gaining a foothold in the shooting world.

The 6mm Remington cartridge dimensions, and the .244 Remington cartridge dimensions, are exactly the same. However, rifles chambered for the cartridge and factory loaded ammo for each usually differ a bit.

The reason for this anomaly, at least to me it is an anomaly, makes an interesting story. Remington has done it at least once more that I’m aware of, and perhaps more than that. More later on this issue.

In 1955, both Remington and Winchester introduced similar 6mm cartridges to the marketplace. Winchester’s version was the .243 Winchester, and Remington dubbed their version the .244 Remington. The two cartridges were quite similar. Winchester made theirs by necking down .308 cases to 6mm and chambered its Model 70 and Model 88 lever action rifles for the new cartridge.

Many other manufacturers began chambering for the cartridge shortly thereafter. Winchester developed the cartridge as a combination varmint round using lighter weight bullets, and a light deer/antelope rifle using 100 grain bullets. Winchester fitted their rifles with a 1:10 twist barrel, which would stabilize all bullet weights suitable for both purposes.

Remington, on the other hand, saw their .244 cartridge as a varmint/predator cartridge and discounted any demand for it as a deer/antelope rifle. Therefore they fitted their rifles with a 1:12 twist, perfect for the 80–90 grain bullet weights, but wouldn’t always stabilize the 100 grain and heavier bullet weights that hunters wanted to use on deer and antelope. As the old adage goes, the rest is history. Winchester’s .243 became a very popular cartridge and Remington’s .244 almost withered on the vine, even though technically it offered slight advantages over the .243.

Remington finally saw the error of their ways and in 1963, they changed the twist from 1:12 to 1:9, which would stabilize all available 6mm bullet weights available on the market. Since they realized that the damage had already been done to the .244 Remington, they changed its name at that time to the 6mm Remington. With the head start of the .243, the 6mm Remington has never caught up with the popularity of Winchesters offering, but it has, as best I can tell, become a reasonably successful cartridge offering for Remington, as well it should.

The 6mm Remington has become a popular hunting round, effective on varmints up to deer.

As mentioned earlier, it offers a slight ballistic advantage over its Winchester rival. Remington chose the 7×57 Mauser cartridge as the parent case for its 6mm offering, which gives it a slightly greater powder capacity than the .308 based .243. It also provides a slightly longer cartridge neck, which most handloaders prefer, including this one. Practically speaking, however, if that is permitted these days, they are ballistic twins. What one will do, so will the other and equally well.

And now, as the late Paul Harvey used to say, “the rest of the story!”

I mentioned earlier that Remington had changed cartridge names at least one other time that I am aware of. In that case, it was with the .280 Remington, the 7mm Remington Express, and back to the .280 Remington again. You’d think they would learn. The cartridge never changed, only the name, and for different reasons than the .244 vs. 6mm Remington debacle.

Winchester introduced the .270 Winchester in 1925. I’ve written about it here in this series as it is one of my designated “greatest cartridges.” Remington did not have a really similar cartridge offering so in 1957, they introduced the .280 Remington (which had been around in a slightly different guise as the 7×64 Brenneke for even a bit longer than the .270 as it was introduced in 1917.)

The .280 is basically the .30–06 case necked down to .284" with a couple slight modifications to prevent a .270 cartridge being chambered in a .280 chamber. The resulting cartridge is a very good one, in some ways a bit better than the .270, but it has never caught up with the .270’s head start.

In an effort to boost sales, from 1979 to 1980, Remington cataloged the round as the 7mm Express Remington, which did nothing for sales and confused the hell out of a lot of folks! Again, they saw the error of their ways and went back to calling it the .280 Remington.

Chapter 15