Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Can We All Stop Calling it the ".275 Rigby"?

Even Craig Boddington is calling the .275 the "".275 Rigby.""

And now the new Rigby company is (delightedly I am sure) actually marking rifles with .275 Rigby, and making headstamped ammo!



.275 Rigby is an imaginary cartridge name that seems to have come around since the internet, mostly by American writers, who I can only assume have confused the .275 Rigby- Mauser rifles sold by Rigby as the first bit of that name being the chambering and the second bit being the rifle. It's incorrect. It's the .275 - while the rifles J Rigby&Co sold were "Rigby-Mausers".

It was never called a .275 Rigby. In the old catalogues, it was just a .275 bore. That's just what they called the 7x57 in England and the colonies. Same as a .303 was a .303.


Their has never been an original Rigby rifle stamped "".275 Rigby"" or a rifle by any other makers like Westley Richards, Holland and Holland or anyone else stamped "".275 Rigby"" and their has never been any ammunition British or German called ".275 Rigby" or any cartridges ever headstamped "".275 Rigby.""

Rigby sold rifles chambered in .275 (and their own ammunition marked for the bore size.) The .275 ammo sold by Rigby was just their own brand of high velocity loading - they never called it by their own name, the ammo boxes were marked .275 bore, Rigby High Velocity cartridges.


I first noticed it sometime around twenty years ago. Somehow this has turned into some kind of internet truth that .275 Rigby is a cartridge name. People make custom 7x57's (or .275's) and have them stamped .275 Rigby. But it's nothing to do with Rigby.

The new Rigby company, is no doubt delighted that American gun writers have mistaken this cartridge for having something to do with them, haven't said a word, even though they have all the old ledgers which show the rifles all marked as ".275 or .275 HV"" (But from photos I've seen of the people at that company, the new Rigby company people they all seem to be hipsters under the age of thirty, so possibly they just don't know any better either.) And surely Craig Boddington doesn't do all his research on the internet.

Can we stop this now. It's just...annoying.

[img]https://i.ibb.co/VM9bLz4/275.webp[/img]

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1021378632

Hornady disagrees.

Sure, If you agree to drop the "aught six" pronunciation for the 30-06 too.

[bleep] it's worse than I thought.

How about "The Elephant Slayer?"
:-)

I like alternate names.

.300 Whelen

.25 Neidner

.250-3000

7mm Express

.243 LBC

6.5 Creedmire

Doesn't bother me a bit.

But call a magazine a clip, all hell's gonna break loose.

I just call mine the 757

mines a 7x57

CarlsenHighway,

I tend to find more important subjects to get worked up over, but still want to thank you--as you've provided another subject for what I hope will be a reasonably interesting historical article.

For the moment, I'm wondering why you didn't object at the same time about why the .416 Rigby is called "Rigby"--when Rigby's catalogs only called it the .416" Bore.

You might also object to the .30-30 Winchester, since Winchester called it the .30 Winchester Center Fire. Marlin came up with the .30-30 designation, apparently because they didn't want to stamp "Winchester" on any of their rifles. Of course, this was before the U.S. government urged the formation of the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers Association in the late 1920s, so various companies would get together to make sure ammo and firearms from various companies would be safely compatible.

275 Rigby sounds cool, but I wouldnt go out of my way to find a rifle stamped as such.

I have no idea where the Rigby craze came from, but it gets on my nerves. Same thing with calling every straight stock with a cheekpiece "Rigby style". Makes my toenails curl up.

Hey! Don't forget the .366 Bock....

Oh that silly goose, Paul Mauser ,had no idea he had misnamed the .275 with that 7 x 57 foolishness after inventing it. And speaking of fools, how about that Ferdinand Von Mannlicher who misnamed the .256 Mannlicher with the ridiculous moniker of 6.5 x 53R after inventing it in 1892. By rights, I suppose the 6.5 Creedmoor should be called the .256 Creedmoor. How 'bout the new .256 PRC?

7mm-08

Zatt iss nodt korrekt. Think bore diameter...hence it should be something like the .358 Otto.

Mine is stamped 7x57.

...and a handsome devil it is.

But is it stamped 7x57 "MAUSER"?

I mean, let's get ultra-correct about all of this....

Why are today's rifles chambered for the .22 Varminter (a term copyrighted by Jerry Gebby) stamped .22-250 "Remington"?

For that matter, why are today's rifles chambered for the .30 U.S. Army now stamped .30-40 Krag?

Why are most rifles (or ammunition) for the 6.5mm rifle cartridge, co-developed by what was then the Combined Kingdom of Norway and Sweden in the early 1890s for their armies, now called the 6.5x55 "Swedish Mauser"? The armies of both nations used rifles chambered for the same round, in Norway a Krag-Jorgensen, while most "Swedish" rifles were made by Mauser.

Why is the .38-55 (a cartridge introduced by the Ballard in the 1870s) now usually called the .38-55 W.C.F.?

Any difference in throating for this exotic beast ?

I've always thought the proper name was 7x57 and all else was marketing hyperbole or a variety of foolish colonial era snobbery. The alternative name makes some people happy, so why not let them use it. I have three 7x57's in my rack, not a .275 anywhere around here.