Did Rookhawk steer a fellow right?

[grand veneur]

Speaking of Boddington………one of the surveys he did in “Safari Rifles” turned up a PH that used a .460 Weatherby ONLY, for everything. Whether it was a Mark V or one of the Weatherby’s made with a Mauser action wasn’t mentioned. Not sure if the Mark V was exclusive when the .460 debuted, either.
One other tale from that book involved a client who went against his PH’s advise and fatally blasted an elephant with incredible ivory at 200 yards with his .460 Weatherby, figuring it was no different that sticking him with a .458 Winchester at 20 yards.
Not taking sides here, just serving up a couple of oddities.

The external and terminal ballistics of a top loaded cartridge 460 Weatherby Magnum make in theory such shots feasible. Heavy dangerous game is game like any other and a perfect shot placement is important, no matter from what distance it is placed. Very important is the terminal ballistic, but this is no longer sufficient at longer distance for the majority of the big bore cartridges. Another problem, if you want to be absolutely accurate, is the shooting position, which in such cases must be the same as the one you use to shoot other game species at longer distances, but with rifles of smaller calibers. Freehand shooting or even resting on a tripod is not the safest position for perfect long range shots in general. This all can be quite difficult to do with a rifle with very strong recoil. No matter how, it remain very difficult to discuss such things from an armchair. Decisions have to be made on the terrain.

 

[VertigoBE]

Krish, a fellow member here did offer one, but I ended up buying a factory new CZ550 receiver he had with a 416 Rigby bolt face. I knew in my heart that it wanted to be a 450 Rigby when it grew up.

View attachment 683790
Kenny Jarrett is building my rifle, and he, along with the Rigby Co. developed the 450 Rigby. Kenny worked out the reamers, dies and built the first rifle in this caliber. The drawings for the cartridge were provided to Kenny by Paul Roberts, who owned Rigby at the time.

I asked Kenny about the 450 Rigbys performance on game, and he spent the next 30 minutes describing his hunting experience in Africa with it. It archived total penetration on all broadside shots, including brain shots on Elephant. In his words, there is a noticeable difference between the 458 Win, and the 450 Rigby.

View attachment 683864
I also talked briefly with Craig Boddington at the SCI this year about the rifle Kenny was building for me. His opinion is that all Dangerous Game responds to higher power levels, IF the shooter can handle the recoil, IF the bullet is adequate for the higher velocity, and IF that bullet is placed where it needs to go. He has a very favorable opinion of the 450 Rigby for Dangerous Game.

View attachment 683865
This is my PH Christo Van Dewnter, owner of Alpha Pride Safari's and one of his rental rifles is a factory CZ550 in 450 Rigby. I've discussed DG hunting with him at length and when I asked him specifically about the added power level of the Rigby his response was yes, there was clearly a difference on game. With the Swift A-Frame or the Barnes X, he believes it to be a true stomper on Dangerous Game.

The problem with many rifles, especially the Weatherby's is rifle weight vs power level. The factory Weatherby MKV in 460 is listed on their website as 9.5 pounds. It should weigh at least a pound heavier, and an added 2 pounds would make recoil less severe. The problem is most of us don't want to carry an 11pound rifle very far if we don't have to.

Which brings us to this ...
View attachment 683874
My 450 Rigby rifle currently under construction. With the Swaro Z8i it will weigh over 11 pounds. Will it be the finest Dangerous Game rifle in Africa? Can it cure all the faults of the 460 Weatherby and MKV rifle combination as @grand veneur stated in his post? I believe it will. Stay tuned for future hunt reports.

Is that a muzzle break at the end?

 

[Philip Glass]

Sounds good to me!

 

[skydiver386]

Is that a muzzle break at the end?

Part of the build package. It will also come with a treaded cap.

 

[skydiver386]

W

Is that a muzzle break at the end?

What I should have mentioned in my last post is it's a Jerrett Professional Hunter model.

PROFESSIONAL HUNTER | Jarrett Rifles

Legendary among “Big Five” hunters for its accuracy and dependability, the Professional Hunter is simply superb for big game. In the African hunting tradition, it features a solid quarter rib, banded front sling stud, and a hooded, banded front sight.

www.jarrettrifles.com

On the Jerrett website is a page of "Pet calibers". Unbeknown to me when I approached Kenny about building the rifle, the 450 Rigby is one of his pet calibers.

From the Jerrett website.

.450​

Rigby​

465 gr. bullet ......... 2442 f.p.s.​

500 gr. bullet ......... 2370 f.p.s.​

Because of a trip to Africa in 1994, I thought about doing a good .45 caliber cartridge. I also felt the .458 was slow, never really liked it, and wanted something with a little more zip. On our way to Africa, my hunting partner wanted to stop in London and pick up a used Rigby double rifle in .470 Nitro he’d purchased. I mentioned the possibility of necking up the .416 Rigby to .45 caliber to Mr. Roberts, the owner of the rifle at the time. Mr. Roberts said he had been doing some work along those lines. While he didn’t have any performance data because he hadn’t made one yet, he produced a reamer print, along with his blessings to make the .450 Rigby.

I changed the lead angle on the front and had a reamer made. The .450 Rigby has gone beyond our expectations in every category. The greatest surprise was the accuracy of such a massive cartridge. The field reports from everyone who has used one in Africa have been stellar! These folks so impressed me with their comments that I used one on my next trip to Africa! In 2007, I took two elephants in the Kilwa region of Tanzania with a .450 Rigby and using a solid, actually produced an exit wound on the off side of one of them! In our Professional Hunter, this cartridge is the ultimate we could offer anyone. It’s a dandy, no question about it!

 

[PerH]

In Europe, the Weatherby MarkV rifles caliber 460 Weatherby Magnum are sell for an average of 1000 Euros to 1500 Euros,...if a buyer can be found. There is no good market for these kind of rifles, not even for custom models of this caliber. Years ago, I tried to sale my custom rifle caliber 460 Weatherby Magnum built with a Brevex Magnum action for approximately the amount quoted above. I never found a buyer.

A Brevex in .460 for 1000 euros could have gotten some Nordic interest then , but the paperwork and cost of it would be the real cost factor . As it’s a good cartridge to load up and down , and in a large Mauser action even better than a MkV .

 

[Daniel Cary]

I have a question ..