Passion: A return to Africa for the Rigby Rising Bite

Jun 7, 2018 | News, Rifles for Africa

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Passion: A return to Africa for the Rigby Rising Bite

“This is now my main rifle. I’m going to use it for everything!” Not many statements could do as much to assure a rifle maker that they’ve succeeded in building a firearm that satisfies, but Adolfo Gutierrez’s words must surely have pleased Marc Newton Managing Director of John Rigby and Company. Adolfo was speaking in the Save Valley, in Zimbabwe, where he had just hunted and killed a mature Cape buffalo. And the rifle? The renowned Rising Bite, the first to be produced from the Rigby workshop in 83 years.

The Rigby Rising Bite double rifle is one of the most iconic of all rifles, and gets its name from the unique vertical-bolt locking system. It was originally designed in 1879, thanks to a collaboration between T. Bissel and John Rigby, with a patent taken out in the same year – the vertical-bolt locking system, one of the most sophisticated ever designed. Approximately 1,000 Rising Bites were built, with the final custom-ordered examples being produced in 1932 for the Maharaja of Karauli. The Maharaja ordered a pair, in .405 Winchester and .350 No. 2 Rigby Nitro Express. Marc decided, in 2014, that it was time for Rigby’s most famous rifle to be resurrected. This was done by reverse engineering an original example made for the Maharana of Udaipur, built in the early 20^th century. Marc oversaw this project, with valuable input from historian Steve Helsley and collector David Peterson. The master craftsmen at Rigby have now built a London Best double rifle using the Rising Bite action, which, in late 2016, made its triumphant return to Africa.

Adolfo was the first person to take possession of the newly revived rifle, which was first displayed at the Safari Club International Convention in 2016. For Adolfo, it was a defining moment: “I own several double rifles, but I’d never taken one on safari with me before. I knew that’s what I wanted to do with the Rigby.” His aim, initially, was to hunt the dangerous-game species, with the exception of rhino, and to take all these animals with his newly acquired Rigby. For this purpose, Adolfo booked an 18-day safari on the Save River, where, on his first day, the mature buffalo was spotted, hunted, and despatched in quick succession.

The first shot at game from the rifle was taken at 30 yards, and while follow-up shots were required. The buffalo, a 40” bull, was, as Adolfo says, “dead on its feet. I took the final shot at 120 yards.” No small feat with open sights. However, Adolfo had been preparing for months: “I shot that rifle every single day, so I knew I was ready.” Adolfo, incidentally, prefers not to use sticks on large game: “They slow you down when you are hunting game that is constantly moving.” The fit of the rifle, for which Adolfo travelled from the US to London five times, is perfect, which makes taking these types of shots, “A dream. That rifle feels like the best fitting shotgun when I put it into my shoulder, it’s incredibly natural. The fit is just perfect.”

Along with excellent fit, the recoil is smooth and, according to Adolfo, “Very straight. It doesn’t throw you off, so your second shot can be dead on, too.” The second barrel is just ¼” out from the first, so 1¼” groups at 65 yards can be achieved, a remarkable grouping for a big-bore double-barrelled rifle. In practise, this meant that Adolfo was able to drop a very old kudu on the spot from 90 yards, as well as a mature eland that immediately fell to the Rising Bite’s report.

“Adolfo passed up the opportunity to shoot a few other animals,” explains Marc, “proving himself a truly selective hunter. He only wanted to shoot mature examples, which is admirable.”

Along for the trip, Adolfo had brought a London Best .416 with a scope, but it remained in its case after the success achieved with that first shot on the buffalo. “This is now my primary rifle, for all big game,” Adolfo said. He’s booked his next trip to Mozambique and Zimbabwe for later this year, “And I’m planning to take it with me on a hunting trip every single year from now on.”

Save Valley Conservancy

The Save Valley is one of the great success stories of a partnership between conservation and hunting. From the 1920s until the early 1990s, cattle ranching was the mainstay of the valley, pushing wildlife to the outskirts of the valley. The habitat, grazed by cattle, didn’t support game animals, while predators attacked the cattle, and farmers naturally wanted to protect their livestock. Over the decades, changing markets, foot-and-mouth, and civil war made farming unprofitable, with the final blow to farming delivered by a drought in 1991/1992. A change was needed, and this led to the formation of the Save Valley conservancy. The huge Devuli Ranch, which had been made up of 750,000 hectares was divided into 15 smaller areas, three of which were purchased by Willy Pabst and now form Sango, which is where Adolfo was hunting.

All livestock was removed, internal fences were taken down, and wildlife was reintroduced. Anti-poaching teams were brought in and lodges were built, opening their doors in 2003. An astonishing recovery has taken place, with vegetation increasing year-on-year, as well as indigenous wildlife, including predators such as lion and leopard, and also elephant and both black and white rhino. The combination of high quality but low density tourism helps to ensure Sango’s mission: “To maintain the natural biodiversity of the Save Valley Conservancy, on a sustainable basis for the socio-economic benefit of the region using accepted ecological management practices and ethical business principles. Sango is committed not to derive benefits at the expense of and to the detriment of its flora and fauna.” It’s telling that in 2006, Sango won the Edmond Blanc Prize for Sustainable Development, which is awarded by the International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation (CIC). Sango was also ranked as the fifth-best safari in the world in 2009 by the Outdoor Channel. Hunting takes place over an enormous area, and the wildlife is free-ranging.

The Rising Bite

With a deluxe, hand-fitted walnut custom-fitted stock and Rigby pattern full-scroll engraving, and gold inlaid details, the new generation of Rigby Rising Bite double rifles are an example of the finest craftsmanship and artistry. The action is color-case hardened, as is the fore-end iron, while the barrels and furniture are blacked. The barrels are “London Best”, and the ejector regulating switch is inside the fore-end, which has a lever release catch. The rifles have sidelock ejectors, and a traditional full-length rib or a Rigby ¼ rib and front sight block. Rising Bites take up to three years to produce, and are available in .416 Rigby, .450/.400 Nitro Express, .470 Nitro Express, .500 Nitro Express, .577 Nitro Express and .600 Nitro Express. Scope mounts can be customised and fitted, and there is a variety of options for engraving and inlay.

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An unlikely marriage sent hunters afield with the finest bolt rifles of their time – and ours!

Mar 10, 2018 | News, Rifles for Africa

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]An unlikely marriage sent hunters afield with the finest bolt rifles of their time – and ours!
By Wayne van Zwoll

“…Within three yards of the bracken I saw a movement … my first bullet raked her from end to end, and the second bullet broke her neck.”
So died the Talla Des tigress, named, as was the custom, after the village that had endured her predation. Colonel Jim Corbett carried that .275 Rigby rifle, hunting other man-eaters in the Kumaon Division of India’s United Provinces. He noted it was “light to carry, accurate and sighted up to 300 yards.” Its feathery heft counted for more than its reach. While Corbett hiked long miles in difficult terrain, his kit often trimmed to just five cartridges, shots commonly came at mere feet!
Among the most celebrated of hunting rifles is the bolt-action Rigby presented to Corbett in 1907 for dispatching the Champawat tigress, which had reportedly killed 436 people. Today that rifle shows the wear of many trails. Marc Newton, Managing Director of Rigby, “brought it home” a couple of years ago. On a recent visit to Rigby’s shop at Pensbury Place, in a modest industrial district of London, I cheeked this rifle. Slim, lithe, with a nose for the target, it pointed itself, silvered bead in shallow notch.
Corbett’s day won’t return – but the rifle has, in the form of what Rigby calls the Highland Stalker – a nod to UK deer hunters who now climb after stags instead of crawling after tigers. Like its forebear, it features an 1898 Mauser action, a lean version of the single- and double-square bridge Magnum actions in the Rigby Big Game series marking the company’s resurrection.
“We’re re-building the brand,” Marc told me, “not re-inventing it. Pre-war Rigby magazine rifles exemplify the best of British gun-making. Our clients expect fine line and impeccable finish on rifles that shoot accurately, cycle smoothly and endure. We hew to traditional standards of quality, fit and finish.”
Reliable function mattered more to adventurers who carried early Rigbys into jungle and bush. In 1948, after 30 years hunting Africa’s big game, John Taylor wrote: “Time and again have I slammed that bolt back and forth when shooting rapidly; yet never once did [my Rigby] show the slightest tendency to jam …. [There’s no] better or more reliable magazine rifle….”

Rigby’s name entered the firearms industry many decades before the Mauser action that earned the brand plaudits in the smokeless era. Born in 1758, the first John Rigby opened a gun shop in Dublin. Two years after eldest son William joined him in 1816, John died. With younger sibling John Jason, the business became William and John Rigby, 24 Suffolk St., Dublin. In 1865 as John Rigby & Co., it opened an office at 72 James St. in London to sell “breech- and muzzle-loading guns, revolvers and ammunition.” In 1879 Rigby announced a double rifle with a distinctive “rising bite” breech. Hand fitting buoyed cost and limited output. Between 1879 and 1932, Rigby would ship only 1,000 rising-bite doubles!
In 1887, as rifles and ammunition transitioned from black to smokeless powder, the third John in Rigby’s family was appointed Superintendent of the Royal Small Arms Factory. A decade later, he sealed for Rigby a 12-year license with Waffenfabrik Mauser, A.G. in Germany, to sell in the U.K. and its colonies the Rigbys with the new 98 Mauser action. It seemed an unlikely union, as European alliances had begun to fray well before the Great War. But both firms profited. When in 1899 Rigby requested a long action for the .400/350 Nitro Express, Mauser delivered.
With gunpowder maker Curtis & Harvey, John developed a powerful cartridge for hinged-breech rifles. The .450 NE 3¼-inch appeared in 1898, its 70 grains of Cordite driving 480-grain bullets to 2,200 fps, for 5,186 ft-lbs of energy. It drew the curtain on ponderous arms whose black powder limited velocity and whose lethality depended on projectile weight – like the 21-pound 4-bore rifle young Samuel Baker commissioned from George Gibbs in 1840. Its 16 drams (437 grains) of powder shoved a 4-ounce (1,750-grain) silk-patched bullet through a two-groove, 36-inch barrel.
The .400/350 Rigby may have brought Mauser’s Magnum action to London, but its rimmed hull was best suited to hinged-breech guns. A superior option for bolt rifles arrived in 1908. The .350 Rigby Magnum’s 225-grain bullet rocketed out the muzzle at over 2,600 fps. Taylor wrote that, “John Rigby was practically forced to introduce this cartridge [due to] demand for higher velocity… after the introduction of Holland’s .375 Magnum.” As the .375 H&H didn’t appear until 1912, that’s an odd claim. But Taylor was keen on both, praising the .350 as “intensely satisfying.” He wrote: “Rigby’s .350 Magnum is easily the most widely used British medium bore throughout Africa.” Since the 1940s other fine cartridges have crowded that podium. Taylor cautioned that fast .35s are not stopping rounds. An acquaintance “attacked by a peevish cow elephant [found] the 225-grain bullet [failed to turn her] … so she got to him …”

A more reliable elephant brake arrived in 1911. The first rifle in .416 Rigby shipped in 1912, as Rigby opened its shop at 43 Sackville St., London. This cartridge, hurling 410-grain bullets at 2,370 fps, carried 5,100 ft-lbs of energy, matching the .450 NE 3¼-inch. It ranked high on Taylor’s list of medium-bores, partly because “Rigby’s splendid steel-covered solids are available for it…”
David Enderby Blunt had similar praise for the .416, when in 1933 he chronicled a career hunting elephants. “The .416 Rigby… I have always used has the same muzzle energy as a .470, but the bullet has greater penetration, and [the Rigby Mauser is] the most perfectly balanced rifle …” Denis D. Lyell, who hunted extensively in Rhodesia, wrote in 1923 that “for body shots [on elephant] I certainly think a .416 or .470 H.V. is more humane [than small-bore loads.]”
The only hunter of great experience to spurn the .416 in print may be John Hunter, who thought it “excellent for lion” but light for buffalo and bigger animals. It’s hard to say if his view was colored by the death of his friend and tracker, killed by a buffalo wounded by a client who’d paunched it with a .416.
Much more effective than its BPE forebears, the .416 Rigby still sells well, thanks largely to the flat arcs and high sectional densities of its bullets. Still, it is not magic. Hunting in Zimbabwe recently, I came upon an aging baobab tree with a plaque noting the death of Alan Lowe. I had hunted with Lowe’s widow, Eleanor, then outfitting from the second farm the industrious couple had carved from the bush. Alan had taken a client on an elephant track late one afternoon. Heading back at dusk, he spotted elephant cows on the trail. Alan sent his tracker and client on a safer route as he held the herd’s attention. Darkness fell. The others found his body by torch-light. An elephant had killed him before he could fire his .416.
Why didn’t Rigby field a rimmed version of the .416 for hinged-breech rifles? By 1910 the safari market was drifting away from double rifles to less expensive but equally potent bolt-actions. The rimless .505 Gibbs and .500 Jeffery would appear shortly. John Rigby’s death in 1916 scotched development of a .33/416 that would drive 250-grain bullets 3,000 fps. (In the 1980s Lapua of Finland and a U.S. company, Research Armament, would take up that thread. Result: the .338 Lapua.)
Burly big-bores didn’t tug Jim Corbett, W.D.M. Bell and others from less violent first-generation smokeless rounds. The .275 Rigby is the 7×57 Mauser with an Anglo name. For 16 years after arriving in Africa in 1900, Bell used it (and the .303 British) to drop elephants with surgically placed brain shots. He reportedly killed 1,011 of the beasts, which brought him $9,000 to $36,000 a year in ivory sales. Bell had a couple of Rigbys in .416, but owned six in .275 – and one in .22 Savage High Power.

Like Bell, Corbett sometimes had a big-bore rifle at hand, most commonly a .450/400 double. On a beat (drive) for the Champawat tigress, he held a .500, loading two of his three cartridges and pocketing the other for “an emergency.” That man-eater’s tally had by then topped 400 people – half in Nepal, from where she’d entered Kumaon. When the tigress crossed a slot in the jungle in front of Corbett, he “sent a despairing bullet after her.” He’d just charged the empty barrel when she broke cover at 30 steps. He fired both remaining cartridges, striking, but not killing the cat. Abandoning his rifle, Corbett dashed toward the beaters, snatched from one a derelict shotgun and hurried after the tigress. Coming upon her in a thicket, he raised the gun and, to his horror, noticed a broad gap between barrels and breech. He let fly anyway at the cat’s open mouth – and missed! By great good luck, damage caused by the .500 took effect at just that moment, and the tigress died.
On the trail, Corbett preferred the light weight and wand-like handling of his .275. Both would pull him from one of the closest scrapes in his hunting career.
Deeply rutted pads and a cleft across the right forefoot distinguished the prints of the oldest of two tigers. The toes were exceptionally long as well. Corbett had found that track in a field three years after the Chowgarh tigers had begun preying on people. A trio of women cutting wheat there had been saved only when one of the beasts had been spotted and the alarm raised. Retreating into the jungle, the female and her cub would soon hunt again.
A couple of days later Corbett was shown by residents to a ravine where a cow had been killed the previous night. The spoor led into forest, where he spied the protruding leg of the luckless cow 30 yards ahead. It jerked as the big cats fed on the carcass. “… I crawled through the bracken [to a tall rock], looked over, and saw the two tigers.” Judging the light-colored animal to be the older, he aimed carefully and fired. She fell dead. The other cat vanished.
To his chagrin Corbett had shot the youngster. That error would “cost the district fifteen lives…”
By April, 1930, the surviving tigress had killed at least 64 people, and the persistent Corbett was again on her trail. In cover that held vision to mere feet, a pair of rare bird’s eggs caught his eye. He picked them up. Easing around a bend, he suddenly looked straight into the tigress’s face three steps away. The eggs in his left palm, he wrote, checked his reflexive urge to cheek the rifle – action that would have triggered the cat’s spring. Instead, with one hand Corbett inched the .275 across his chest. He felt “the swing would never be completed…” At last the rifle came to bear. His bullet shattered the man-eater’s spine and heart.

In 1951 the last of the Rigby family owners, Theo Rigby, died. The company plodded on. In 1968 David Marks bought John Rigby & Co. and engaged J. Roberts & Son to build its firearms. Paul Roberts acquired the Rigby brand in 1984, later developing the .450 Rigby cartridge on .416 brass. In 1997 Neil Gibson bought the company and moved it to California. A Dallas-based investor group dug up the cash to purchase John Rigby & Co. in 2010. They returned it to London and hired Paul Roberts to run it. Three years later Rigby was owned by the L&O Group, which controlled Blaser, Sauer and Mauser. Bernhard Knobel now manages those plants in Isny, Germany, and supplies Mauser actions for Rigby magazine rifles.
All Rigbys are built at Pensbury Place, where each is London-proofed. Such rifles don’t tumble from conveyor belts. “Between 1912 and 1940,” Marc Newton told me, “Rigby shipped fewer than 200 .416s! Annual production of all rifles hovered near 70. CNC machining has speeded some operations and brought our monthly tally near 70. Still, our rifles show a commitment to quality. At Safari Club International’s 2016 auction, a Rigby .275 sold for $250,000 – highest price paid for a bolt rifle in the Club’s 40 years!” More importantly, he added, each Rigby rifle brings to hand the adventure of another time, in jungle and bush, when hunters faced fearsome beasts close enough to read their eyes.

Captions:

1 – An instant hit world-wide, the ‘98 action showed Paul Mauser’s genius in military, and then hunting rifles.
2 – Mauser’s 1898 action has appeared in hunting rifles of many brands. No mechanism is more reliable!
3 – This Mauser bolt from a Rigby Magnum shows the long extractor, the slot for the mechanical ejector.
4 – Rigby’s Vintage Big Game rifle has pre-war profile, fit and finish. Note retracted cocking-piece peep.
5 – Currently, Rigby actions come from Mauser in Isny, Germany. The rifles are built and proofed in London.
6 – A 9.3×62 cartridge lies beside a lion track. Rigby offers the hugely popular “nine-three” chambering.
7 – Rigby lists its Big Game rifles in .375 (left), the Highland Stalker in 9.3×62, both fine classic rounds.
8 – Marc Newton, Rigby’s Managing Director, is delighted with the svelte, lightweight Highland Stalker.
9 – This early Rigby is bored to .350 Rigby, a cartridge dating to 1908, preceding the .416 by three years.
10 – Bell used the .275 Rigby (7×57), left, on elephants – but with solids. The .416 has more advocates!
11 – This Australian hunter brings his Mauser to bear in buffalo country. Note the rifle’s British profile.
12 – Dating to 1892, the .275 Rigby still excels on plains game. As the 7×57 Mauser, it served infantries.
13 – Rigbys have a fixed open rear sight with two (arguably unnecessary) folding leaves on a quarter-rib.
14 – Elephant hunters embraced the deep-driving 410-grain steel-jacketed solids of the potent .416 Rigby.
15 – The .416 Rigby hurls 2½ tons of punch. After a century, it remains a top-selling “safari cartridge.”
16 – Stopping a buffalo can be harder than killing one. A .275 soft nose is lethal, a .416 solid authoritative.
17 – Rigby rifles are built for the field, but they embody refinements – here, a case-colored trap grip cap.
18 – In thick African cover, hunters after dangerous game welcome Mauser reliability and Rigby quality!
19 – Jim Corbett’s book on hunting India’s great cats is a well-written account of his time and adventures.
20 – The grandson of the Talla Des man-eater’s last victim poses with the cat Corbett killed with his .275.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_gallery type=”image_grid” images=”14190,14191,14192,14193,14194,14195,14196,14197,14198,14199,14200,14201″][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Rigby_African Hunting Guide_January 2018

Mar 9, 2018 | News, Rifles for Africa

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]More often than not, good hunting stories involve a great deal of hard work, no small measure of patience, and then a few moments of peril when all appears to be in jeopardy, before things come to a satisfying conclusion. The very best also tend to be accompanied by a tot or two of strong drink. The stories of the gunmakers who make such tales of intrepid adventure possible are not always as gripping. The tale of John Rigby & Company, however, is guaranteed to go down well. In this and future issues, we will be bringing you the fascinating tale of how the famous British gunmaker came to be where it is now, and what the future holds.

The Rigby story began in eighteenth-century Dublin, where the first John Rigby established the gunmaker that would go on to make his name synonymous with hunting adventure all over the world. The company moved to the heat of fashionable London in 1865, and the English capital became its sole base in 1897, when it closed its doors in Dublin for the last time.

At this point, Rigby was renowned around the world for building innovative, reliable, and devastatingly effective sporting guns and rifles. These included the phenomenally strong Rigby Bissell patented ‘Rising Bite’ action for best guns, and the company’s enormously successful bolt-action collaboration with German giant, Mauser. Rifles from Rigby’s workbenches played starring roles in dramas throughout the British Empire, expertly wielded by the likes of Jim Corbett, Denys Finch-Hatton and W. D. M. ‘Karamojo’ Bell.

The company stayed on track during the economically difficult inter-war years, and remained in family ownership until the middle of the 20th century. Having sailed past its 200th anniversary in 1975 with comparative ease, Rigby found itself facing the toughest challenge to date as the 21st century dawned. In 1997, the company was bought by an American investor, who moved production to California. Rigby’s sojourn to the West Coast was brief and ultimately unsuccessful. In 2010, two new investors stepped in and returned the business to the UK, with big-game expert Paul Roberts producing rifles under licence at J. Roberts & Co., which had a long history of working with Rigby.

In 2013, the L&O Group bought Rigby, and, under the direction of the dynamic young Marc Newton and the highly experienced Patricia Pugh, things started to look up. Having worked with Paul Roberts for many years, both Marc and Patricia had a deep-seated appreciation of Rigby and its history, and were determined not to let the once-great gunmaker fade away, but instead, to restore Rigby to its former glory. Most importantly, they wanted to build rifles worthy of the name Rigby.

Rigby was back on the trail of success, but there were still sizeable obstacles to overcome. Fortunately, both Newton and Pugh both know that nothing worth pursuing is easy, and their appetite for hard work was almost insatiable. Using a combination of contacts, charm, and the sentimental attachment to Rigby held by many in the gun trade, they assembled a small but exceptionally capable team, and the heart of the old gunmaker started to hammer more strongly as its workbenches came back to life.

“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” says Marc, who has been managing director since 2013, “But once we had the team together, I knew we had a good chance. With Patricia as financial director, along with supremely talented craftsmen like Mark Renmant, and Ed Workman supervising production, we had the ingredients we needed to get Rigby back to where it belonged.”

One of the first things that Marc did was to revive the historic association with Mauser. As with the collaboration overseen by the third John Rigby a century earlier, this venture offered customers high-quality, hand-finished rifles at affordable prices, with barrelled actions being shipped from Mauser’s factory in Germany to London, where Rigby’s gunmakers made them into beautiful, fit-for-purpose firearms. The result of this present-day association was named the ‘Big Game’, echoing the way its predecessors were described in Rigby’s ledgers.

The Big Game was an instant success with the public, and went on to win awards for best new rifle on both sides of the Atlantic. At first, it was available in either .375 H&H, .416 or .450 Rigby, in single or double-square bridge versions, with a modern, ergonomic stock shape, plus a wide selection of upgrades available. Since 2013, Rigby has introduced new models into the range, including the minimalist ‘PH’ and the ‘Vintage’, which has the traditional stock shape and specifications of pre-1940s rifles.

Another early – and momentous – decision that Marc made was to bring back the famous Rigby Rising Bite. Unlike the Big Game project with Mauser, this would need time to come to fruition. To build high-quality rifles on such a strong but technically complex action would take a minimum of three years. “We really needed people to have faith in us for this one,” admits Marc. “It was a lot to ask – even though we knew we had the skills to bring the Rising Bite back. Fortunately, we had some very far-sighted friends who believed in us. We couldn’t have done it without them, and I’m happy to say we now count them among our most valued clients and friends.

“Some of the proudest – and most exciting – moments of my career so far have been accompanying clients in the field as they put their new Rigbys to the test for the first time. It’s an immense privilege to watch as a rifle makes its way from being a collection of raw components on our workbenches to being a work of craftsmanship that’s beautiful, but will still work its socks off in the wilderness. Hunting in Zimbabwe with Adolfo Gutierrez and the first new Rising Bite was tremendous: from seeing the reaction of our guides to the first ‘boom’ when sighting in, to bringing down a Cape buffalo after some hard hunting.”

Before being blooded in Africa, this first new Rigby Rising Bite – a .470 Nitro Express – was exhibited to much adulation in February 2016 at the Safari Club International Convention in Las Vegas. It was the first time a rifle using this famously strong action had been built by Rigby for more than 80 years, and the excitement was intense: the order books practically filled up overnight.

Exciting though it was, the Rising Bite wasn’t the only rifle on the Rigby stand causing a stir in early 2016. Anything less would have been in danger of being eclipsed by the star attraction that year: a pair of bolt action rifles in .275 Rigby.

This pair shared a caliber, and had been built to identical specifications, but were strikingly different to look at. One had belonged to Col. Jim Corbett and had been used to despatch some of the most dreaded man-eating big cats ever to have stalked India’s Kumaon region. It bears a silver plate recording its presentation to the almost legendary hunter and tracker. It had the classic lines and elegance of a Rigby, but wouldn’t have made the cut in a beauty pageant for any other reason: almost none of the original blacking remained on its now silver metal work, and the wood of its stock was remarkable only for the dents and scratches it bore – some of which are specifically described in Corbett’s gripping memoirs. After a bit of detective work, Marc had tracked it down in early 2015, and arranged for the rifle to spend the rest of its days in Rigby’s London museum.

The second .275 had been crafted by Rigby’s current team to commemorate the original’s return and as a tribute to its esteemed owner. Featuring an exhibition grade Turkish walnut stock reminiscent of the rippling fur of a tiger padding through the forest, plus stunning engraving of animals, maps and scenes from Corbett’s adventures, it was a thing of exceptional beauty. It was Rigby’s offering for the SCI auction that year. It went on to sell for a record-breaking $250,000, making it the most valuable bolt-action rifle ever sold in more than 40 years of SCI auctions. It was bought by husband and wife, Brian and Denise Welker, who are both life-long Corbett fans.

Following a world tour and a visit to the Indian villages where it delivered so many from the menace of marauding big cats, the original rifle has been enjoying a rest in London, but will be making a special guest appearance at SCI Convention 2018. Corbett fans visiting the Rigby booth will also have an artistic treat, as up-and-coming sporting sculptor Jenna Gearing will be on the stand, working on a bronze of the great man facing down the dreaded Chowgarh man-eater.

The Corbett commemorative rifle represented the finest example to date of the third type of rifle available to clients of the reborn Rigby (at that time): the London Best. “The London Best is where Rigby really shines, and having had the creative freedom to make the Corbett tribute rifle for SCI, really gave our gunmakers an opportunity to show the world what they can do,” explains Marc Newton. “The Big Game is an essential part of what we offer – but if you want something bespoke from stock blank to scope mounts, it has to be a London Best. It’s always exciting for us to work so closely with a client and build a rifle to fit his or her needs down to the finest detail, and we’ve built some amazing rifles as a result.”

Since 2013, Rigby has specialised in finding promising young gunmakers and engravers from all over Europe, and giving them a chance to prove themselves. The current in-house team incudes a glut of Francophone talent: factory foreman Olivier Leclercq, gunmakers Brice Swieton and Martin Levis, and engraver Geoffrey Lignon; it also includes talented Slovak stocker Vlado Tomascik, plus English apprentice gunmaker Jamie Holland. This mixture of youth and experience has paid dividends at the company’s purpose-built factory in Pensbury Place, London.

Each rifle is a team effort, and the quality of the firearms leaving the workshop shows how well the team is working together. One of 2017’s highlights was the ‘Elephant Gun’, a .450 Rigby featuring exquisite hand-engraved elephant hide on every inch of exposed metal, which took more than 2,000 hours to complete.

With the Big Game, Rising Bite and London Best to choose from, you’d think that Rigby customers would be fairly well-satisfied, but you can never have too many rifles on your wish-list – so, in 2017 Rigby added a fourth line to its catalogue: the Highland Stalker. Like the Big Game, the new rifle is built on barrelled actions from Mauser and hand-finished by Rigby’s craftsmen in London. Available in .275 Rigby, .308, .30-06, 8×57, 9.3×62, it was inspired by and based on the rifles used by the likes of Bell and Corbett.

“For a while, people had been asking if we had plans for a smaller-caliber version of the Big Game,” Marc admits. “We have always been keen on the idea, but wanted to get it just right. We’re confident that we’ve done that, and it’s very satisfying to receive glowing reports from the field from those customers who’ve waited so long.”

Ideal for hunting deer the traditional way in the Scottish Highlands, the new rifle was unveiled to the sound of bagpipes at IWA in March 2017, and was officially launched to the sporting press later in the year with a stalking trip of appropriately Victorian vigour at the splendid Atholl Estate in Perthshire.

With so much achieved in such a short time, it’s hard to predict exactly what the coming years hold. With so much enthusiasm, energy and talent, the odds are that whatever it is, it will be good. Fortunately, Rigby has also recently created its own exclusive 18-year-old single malt Scotch whisky and Gunpowder Gin – both are available via its online Shikar Store – we suggest that, for now, you pour yourself a dram, and watch the future unfold.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_gallery type=”image_grid” images=”14183,14184,14185″][/vc_column][/vc_row]

The Writer and the Dean

Mar 6, 2018 | News, Rifles for Africa