Rigby’s 250th Anniversary Celebration

[Altitude sickness]

franz, it sounds like the second half of the trip was better than the first

 

[Altitude sickness]

Reading the book Resurrection shows that the decision to put Mark in charge. was a good decision. He put a good team together.

 

[Fixfire]

Great post! Thanks for sharing!!!!
Can’t wait for your report on the 300th Anniversary!!

 

[spike.t]

It has been a couple lovely days in England spending time with some remarkable people, someone who I knew a bit before, and others whom I have admired and now consider friends:

A picnic in the park with @JD Noblin and his charming wife, Mrs. Amanda Nobling:

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Attentively listening to Mr. Paul
Roberts and Mr. Berhard Knöbel discussing their ideas for the development of a new 50 caliber rimmed cartridge:

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Spending part of an afternoon privately with Mr. Paul Roberts listening to stories about his elephant hunts (and heeding his repeated instruction to take something much bigger than a .375):

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Spending an afternoon with Mr. Marc Newton and his family at their home in the countryside:

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Enjoying a train ride with Mr. Gary Duffey (who purposely renamed me Hans):

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Yup Paul has some great stories....heard quite a few...also a total fount of knowledge on the English/UK guntrade

 

[franzfmdavis]

franz, it sounds like the second half of the trip was better than the first

It’s been pretty amazing overall!

 

[franzfmdavis]

I wish they would do a small format version of this book. I’d like to read the story but I’m not going to carry around a coffee table sized book. It’s something that’s frustrates me about many of these large format books.

It is certainly large, but the format really highlights the details in the photography

 

[franzfmdavis]

I stopped at the Rigby shop to see if before they move to their new location. I will add a few pictures when I can for some reason I’m having slow internet at the moment.

 

[Russ16]

It is certainly large, but the format really highlights the details in the photography

I get that but I also want to read the story. I’d be happy with a kindle version.

I have the similarly large format versions on Holland and Churchill and others and find them annoying despite having struggled through reading them.

 

[franzfmdavis]

Here are some of the additional pictures I had hoped to upload earlier:

I ran into Mr. Merle Sampson at the shop and spent part of the afternoon talking about hunting and aviation close calls. Mr. Sampson is also a resident of Minnesota and I met him earlier this year at the airport when I noticed a person wearing a blue Rigby pattern Blazer (the one he is wearing in the picture) and approached him and we got acquainted. He is a very warm gentleman and has been extensively involved with Rigby‘s resurrection. Those who have ordered the book will be able to read about him as well as a lot of the other people I was able to meet.

The artisans at the shop showed me a prototype over-under shotgun (no release date set yet):

I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Nelson Neto, Jr. who worked on the actions of my 2015 Big Game and my 2017 Highland Stalker:

I got to fondle a very old multi barrel Rigby (of Dublin) rifle circa 1838 built by Diggory Hadoke:

Multi Barrel Rigby by Diggory Hadoke - John Rigby & Co.

An ancient oil painting sits above the fireplace in our dining room. The subject is a manLearn more

www.johnrigbyandco.com

I met Mr. Oliver Leclerc who also worked on the actions of my two Rigby guns:

I practiced the “look, but don’t touch” mantra I have been try to teach my three-year-old at the customer rifle rack:

There were a lot of shelves and cases with many things to see (some of it was not in the normal tidy state due to all of the things they had going on over the course of the week).

In the bookshelf, you can see a pair of sunglasses which are made out of Cape Buffalo horn. Any guess how much they cost?

A small list of VIP clients purchased exclusive Rigby rifles made with the original wood from the HMS Victory. They were also all provided with a special sword (you can see the rectangular boxes containing the swords laying in front of the rifle shelf in one of the pictures above).

All these VIPs had all signed the poster below.

The 13-year-old part of my brain wanted to sneak my signature onto it when no one was looking, but the 53 year-old part of my brain convinced me otherwise.

It sounds like they might be moving sometime this year, so I’m glad that I got to see this version of the shop and workspace.

It was overall fantastic experience, and the people who work there are genuinely some of the most friendly and kind of people you will ever meet!

 

[Rare Breed]

Frantz, what caliber is your Big Game? Would love to see some pictures of it!!!

 

[franzfmdavis]

Frantz, what caliber is your Big Game? Would love to see some pictures of it!!!

Show and Tell has been my favorite thing since elementary school

Its a .416 Rigby. Here are a few pictures.

The last one is next to the Highland Stalker (in .275 Rigby).

 

[Rare Breed]

Show and Tell has been my favorite thing since elementary school

Its a .416 Rigby. Here are a few pictures.

The last one is next to the Highland Stalker (in .275 Rigby).

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Absolutely breath taking wood!!! thanks for sharing!!!

 

[KJE81]

Its very nice of you to post all great pictures, almost feels like one is being there for real!

Those rifle slips looks great aswell, trying to get something similar for my rifle, allthought not a Rigby one since mine unfortunately is no Rigby

You have a really nice and very complete safari kit with a beautiful .416 and an equally beautiful .275, I went with a .375 for myself, to do both due to swedish licence requirements, but it would have been nice with those two calibres of yours.

It seems to be a Rigby Shikari in the picture with all the beautiful rifles, perhaps they are starting to be finished for customers, even though I am of the double rifle addiction myself it will be nice to see some pictures when people on the forum start to getting theirs.

 

[franzfmdavis]

Its very nice of you to post all great pictures, almost feels like one is being there for real!

Those rifle slips looks great aswell, trying to get something similar for my rifle, allthought not a Rigby one since mine unfortunately is no Rigby

You have a really nice and very complete safari kit with a beautiful .416 and an equally beautiful .275, I went with a .375 for myself, to do both due to swedish licence requirements, but it would have been nice with those two calibres of yours.

It seems to be a Rigby Shikari in the picture with all the beautiful rifles, perhaps they are starting to be finished for customers, even though I am of the double rifle addiction myself it will be nice to see some pictures when people on the forum start to getting theirs.

Thank you so much! I do believe that some of those rifles are getting finished because they mentioned that those were all completed for customers. A couple of the double rifles had numbers on them, for example, 5 of 20 and 8 of 20 so they may have all been part of one set or one order.

I had just assumed that you had ordered all 20

 

[franzfmdavis]

Absolutely breath taking wood!!! thanks for sharing!!!

Thanks! I bought that Highland Stalker from Mike Schoby (Field Ethos) and it had been featured in the magazine in a story he had written when he was the editor for Guns and Ammo in 2017 (he sent me the magazine with the gun). He was at the launch of the Highland stalker with it in 2017. There is a picture of him holding it in the Resurrection book (he is wearing a tuxedo jacket and a camouflage kilt). I consider it a very indirect and insignificant way of having a small piece of Rigby history. Ha!

 

[Altitude sickness]

Instead of the cross bolt. I’m looking at the filled grain. I am oiling a few gunstocks now and appreciate the time to fill that grain as shown.

It’s hard to believe how far Rigby has come since 2013 and the near fatal California years.