1899 Rigby keyhole wobble

Adam Stevens

Adam Stevens

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Finally got around to shooting my 1899 .275 Rigby Mauser. The previous owner had never shot it.

IMG_9473.jpeg


Wound up getting some 175gr federal round nose soft points 2390fps which should be what the gun was regulated for "173gr"

First three shots at 60 yards. Nothing. Moved alittle closer. 2 more nothing. Hmmmmm I'm not that bad lol.

Moved to 25 yards away and first hit. Far right of Center and perfectly keyholed sideways. I've never even see one in real life haha. Eye opening for sure.

After 11 rounds. Only 1 fired where I aimed and true. Everything else went hard low and right. I later picked up my target and saw 3-4 rounds had hit the dirt and ricochet.

IMG_0860.jpeg


I will eventually try a lighter bullet, 140gr but will need to reload for it to lower fps for pressures in this intermediate action Mauser. But I figured the 175gr and slower was what it was regulated for.

It's going next week to a gunsmith I've used to give it a once over. It had decent rifling majority of the barrel but last 1-2" and crown could be the issue. Even he said it's odd to keyhole that quickly and bad. Maybe ammo.

IMG_0870.jpeg
 
You are correct on the 173gr. RN for original regulation. The bore on a .275 Rigby of that era was .287 or .288 as compared to .284. Not sure if that could make a difference by itself to such a dramatic result, but coupled with the crown damage it may exacerbate the issue. See what your 'smith says, but it may be a combination of bore difference and crown damage. I would like re-crown and see how she flies.
 
Adam Stevens said:
Finally got around to shooting my 1899 .275 Rigby Mauser. The previous owner had never shot it.

View attachment 794076

Wound up getting some 175gr federal round nose soft points 2390fps which should be what the gun was regulated for "173gr"

First three shots at 60 yards. Nothing. Moved alittle closer. 2 more nothing. Hmmmmm I'm not that bad lol.

Moved to 25 yards away and first hit. Far right of Center and perfectly keyholed sideways. I've never even see one in real life haha. Eye opening for sure.

After 11 rounds. Only 1 fired where I aimed and true. Everything else went hard low and right. I later picked up my target and saw 3-4 rounds had hit the dirt and ricochet.

View attachment 794075

I will eventually try a lighter bullet, 140gr but will need to reload for it to lower fps for pressures in this intermediate action Mauser. But I figured the 175gr and slower was what it was regulated for.

It's going next week to a gunsmith I've used to give it a once over. It had decent rifling majority of the barrel but last 1-2" and crown could be the issue. Even he said it's odd to keyhole that quickly and bad. Maybe ammo.

View attachment 794074
Click to expand...
Very cool rifle! It will be interesting to see what your smith can do to improve the performance of that 127-year-old gem. Thanks for sharing!
 
Tdsmith517 said:
You could have it counter bored possibly. They did it on a lot of surplus rifles and they shot much better.
Click to expand...
Yes this has been on my mind. It wouldn't effect factory barrel length or the front sight. I been searching other counterbore since yesterday.

I'd prefer to do the least amount of change or work on this but as it already doesn't have the factory stock at this point I just want something that can shoot decently and be as close to original.


RIGBY said:
Very cool rifle! It will be interesting to see what your smith can do to improve the performance of that 127-year-old gem. Thanks for sharing!
Click to expand...
I hope he can, he's also regulated a few doubles so I'm hopeful in his abilities. I just want this to be a decent shooter and I'll be over the moon. Love the rifle as is
 
I have shot some rifles with very rough bores and they shot alright. The crowns were good and rifling didn't disappear towards the end of the barrel. Crown first, then counter bore if crown alone does not fix it.
 
Im kinda thinking out loud here. Im not ruling out a bad crown. But, if the groove dia is large, you may not be building enough pressure (blow by around the bullet fired) thus resulting in lower velocity thus resulting in a lower bullet rpm (spin), which results in key hole. Kinda like using a heavy long VLD style bullet in a slow twist barrel.
 
Truly surprising just how off the bullet were. I mean at 20-25yards to be already hitting 6-12" low and ricocheting even.

It's like it comes out of the muzzle and the gasses are so un even on one side pushing the bullet instantly down.

But I'd need to chronograph them to see what I'm getting to rule that out too
 
It would be neat to play around with it to see the whats and whys….if the rifle were mine Id have it rebarreled to the exact profile it is now, use the same iron sights if possible, and have the smith try and match the natural wear you see. But thats me
 
RR 314 said:
You are correct on the 173gr. RN for original regulation. The bore on a .275 Rigby of that era was .287 or .288 as compared to .284. Not sure if that could make a difference by itself to such a dramatic result, but coupled with the crown damage it may exacerbate the issue. See what your 'smith says, but it may be a combination of bore difference and crown damage. I would like re-crown and see how she flies.
Click to expand...
Was thinking about this. I doubt this is the problem. When Ruger first brought out their No 1 in 303Brit the bore was a round .315 or .316 from memory and the 303 bullets are .311 to .313 and the bullets slugged up at the rear on firing and didn't let the gas past. If it did let gas passed it was very little as my chronograph showed velocities to match the reloading manuals.
 
LeftySixgun said:
It would be neat to play around with it to see the whats and whys….if the rifle were mine Id have it rebarreled to the exact profile it is now, use the same iron sights if possible, and have the smith try and match the natural wear you see. But thats me
Click to expand...
Eventually might be the route I have to go. Kills me alittle to do it, but I want a functioning gun end of the day.

Then I think about what I paid vs a 7x57 I could of made so any changes plays in my mind
 
It would look great hanging on the wall in your trophy room. That barrel looks toasted to me.
 
The crown and bore may be bad for accuracy but the keyholing suggests it's not stabilizing the bullet. As noted above, Id slug the bore to see what you're dealing with, and drop to lighter bullet (maybe step down to 160 before going to 140). Even bad bore and crown usually hits paper w/o keyholing. I wasnt sure whether the velocity you gave was factory or chrony, but if bore is oversize, you may be losing pressure and velocity, which would compound problems stabilizing heavier bullets and keyholing There are a few bullet makers like Hawk that could custom size bullets if necessary.
 
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