416 Rigby (Big Bore) - To Crimp or Not to Crimp

[BryceM]

I've always crimped my .416 Rigby loads. 400 gr TSX and BBS. It hasn't seemed to hurt accuracy in my CZ550 - right around 1" at 100 yards. YMMV.

 

[Rare Breed]

I am looking for some wisdom on crimping of Big Bore Calibers. I just returned from South Africa where I had the opportunity to speak with several PHs about reloading. The consensus was that they do not crimp .416 Rigby. In fact I was able to inspect several of their reloaded rounds, and they were all uncrimped.

My previous practice has been to crimp, because of the, perhaps only perceived, potential for recoil to move the bullets in the magazine. The PHs said that they had never seen this to be a problem.

I am going back for Buffalo in 2 months, and need to get to work on reloading 416 Rigby. Please let me know your thoughts / experiences. Thank you.

Any big bore in a bolt action I am always going to crimp. For my DRs which has drawn criticism on our forum I do not crimp and have had zero problems

 

[Lone Star Bluegrass]

Light-medium crimp.

 

[Frederik Badenhorst]

Here is a cautionary tale for the non crimpers. I hunted my first elephant recently in the Caprivi. I was using my VC double in 450 NE. Shooting 480 gr CEB’ at 2150 fps. I crimped them using a Lee Factory Crimp die, but also never had issues with non crimped ammo in the past , so the crimp was only applied out of an abundance of caution .
I however crimped the bullets on the driving bands and not in the grooves of the canulure, because I didn’t think it would be a problem. I shot hundreds of rounds during practice without any problems.
On the day of the hunt I shot the bull with a perfect side brain shot from my right barrel. It went down and I put in an immediate insurance shot into the shoulder with my left barrel. I reloaded and the ph said hit it again in the shoulder as it was toppling down, I did so.
I then broke open my double reloaded the right barrel only and ran to the front to put another bullet in the chest of the elephant from between the legs. I broke open the gun again, reloaded the right barrel again and ran to the back of the elephant,which was now laying on its side and at the PH’s behest gave it another one through the top of the head with the right barrel.
When the dust settled I broke open the gun but was hard pressed to remove the left sided cartridge. It was stuck. I pried it out of the breech with a pocket knife and ended up with an action full of gunpowder. The bullet was firmly lodged in the left barrel. Nobody at camp had a cleaning rod and I had to wait to get back home before I could drive it out with a dowel and a rubber mallet.
It was never an issue during practice because I always fired a right and then a left, never being alarmed at the effect of recoil on a bullet in an unfired chamber after multiple shots.