Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only 416 Rigby vs. 416 Ruger: Competition or Coexistence

The basic difference in the 416 Rigby and the 416 Ruger is simple in that you can get an easy 2700 FPS in the 416 Rigby with 400 gr. bullets, and I even know some hearty lads that get 2900 FPS..I read their chronograph and I know they been using those loads for years!!!

The 416 Ruger will get 400 gr. TSXs to 2412 FPS average of 5 shots, I just shot them in the .416 Ruger that I sold to a local client, I shot the 400 gr. Barnes X in the rifle..It has a 20 inch tube, a long magazine and throat however..the loads were max but safe. I don't know if you could do it in the Ruger..the load was certainly compacted and not something I would care to take to Africa but no more so than most 458 Win loads, but again I much prefer the 350 gr. monolithic in any 40 caliber magnum...

I have had no problem at all getting 2400 FPS plus with 400 gr. Woodleighs, 380 gr. GS Customs flat nose and HPs, 380 gr. North Fork flat nose & cup points, Noslers, and Swifts..I accuracy tested all of these bullets prior to selling the gun. Most of my testing was done with RL-15...

When you are dealing with dangerous game - class and tradition are only words and not worth a bucket of warm spit - I'll take performance anytime.
Especially when equal performance is now availabe in a shorter, quicker package.

Plus, my experience is that 100 fps doesn't make a heck of a lot of difference with a 400-grain .416 bullet. In fact the original loading of the .416 Rigby was around 2300, not 2400 as has been repeated so many times. Despite that "handicap" it did quite well for itself. I have also shot a few animals with a 400 at 2300 from a Rigby, because that is the load that "regulates" with the fixed open sights on my CZ, and it does quite well on big animals.

So what if a 400-grain TSX can't be loaded to 2400 in the .416 Ruger? It will still work quite well. My guess is that it can be loaded to 2400, with the right powder. But so what if it can't?

Personally, since I started this thread, I'm going to buy and own and shoot and enjoy both.

My "justification" such as it is, will be that the Ruger will be scoped and the CZ 416 Rigby (or a Rigby on an Enfield action if I ever find one) will be iron sights only, set for 400gr at 2300fps.

Can't much counter what MD & Phil have said and I don't think anybody here was "arguing" the efficacy of either cartridge to kill. jorge

Thats the IDEAL solution to any " which gun should I buy?" problem.
Ingwe

That may be the ideal, but since I already have a .416 Rigby and a .416 Remington, one with a classic walnut stock and the other a stainless-barreled synthetic rifle, I think I'll pass on the Ruger. I'm too old to be an idealist anymore!

I have neither, but am old school. The heavier rifle would be an asset to me, not a liability. The lower pressure 416 Rigby appeals for reliability, and extraction. Confidence is as important as any other factor, and really debating effacacy of the two rounds is splitting hairs. Remember that the Rigby was rejected as some new wonderkinde when John and Company first chambered it.

I shoot my 338win at starting loads and in all the game it has downed, only one bullet has been recovered. I agree that 2400 ft/sec is only theoretically better than 2300 ft/sec, indeed Kevin Robertson unequivically states a sectional density nearing .300 traveling no more than 2300 ft/sec will be the most disruptive to organ tissue resulting in massive systemic shutdown and stopping effect. He defends the 2150 ft/sec of the old African cartridges as being better for penetration and thus stopping efficiency. He has shot over 600 cape buffalo, I have shot zero. I'll take his word.

Dang! That means I will have to find someone else to buy a used one from when they get tired of it .

That does it...I'm going to buy another .375 African and have it rebored to .404 Ruger instead... !

Dennis

Mule Deer PM'd me asking for references, and in so doing, I discovered I had misread the Barnes #3 manual online. It states in reference to the 9.3x62,

"In fact, my
current rifle in this caliber, a BRNO ZG 47, now has well in excess
of 600 Cape buffalo to its credit, the majority of which were taken
with solids."

At no time was it stated Mr. Robertson had shot 600 cape buffalo, only that his rifle did. I was not trying to deceive, just not reading clearly enough. My apologies, and thank you Mule Deer

Randy

Dennis, great minds think alike! Welcome to the 404 Ruger band of loonies - stuck in the glories of the past but fascinated by the promise of the future.

Yes...but you've actually done it, while I but dream of it! Though the dream comes closer, as other matters are cared for and completed... .

Dennis

Yeah, I gotta admit I have a 416 Rem., a 404 Jefferys and just sold my 416 Ruger custom that I built... I need another 40 caliber like I need a hole in my head..but I sell them off like wildfire and then when it comes time to go hunt DG in Tanzania, I usually have to make a quick big bore out of whatever parts I have on hand in the shop..come up with some pretty shabby stuff that way or sometimes I just take my old .375 English bolt gun...