Rigby 450 PH

[mms45]

Well I’m happy to report I joined the rigby familey today, I picked up a big game PH model in 450 rigby. I can tell you this rifle exceeded my expectations in person and man the stock feels just right much better than my M70. Much like red leg I think the wood is better looking than its grade 2 would lead you to believe and is icing on the cake.

Now if only Norma would make a run of brass and some ammo!

Let’s hear everybody’s pet loads to give me some starting places.

 

[Jagerrand]

Welcome to the 450 Rigby club. Your gun is beautiful.
My gun like 103 grains of H4350 under a NF 450 grain ss. Recoil is manageable, velocity is 2360 fps. Please start low and work up, safe in my gun is not necessarily safe in yours.

 

[Wildwillalaska]

Nice wood for a PH. Is the bolt handle black or chromed? Looks like it’s blued in the photo which would typically indicate it’s the regular big game rifle vs the PH which has the tell-tale chromed bolt handle. Could just be the lighting though.

Nice toes by the way. Always makes me laugh how many of us are bare-footed when snapping a photo of a new rifle.

Love the gun, it’s on my want list so can’t help with pet loads…even for my 416 BGR since it loves factory Barnes ammo so much I never messed with hand loading for it. I will have to ask for your findings someday soon unless I stumble into a 375HH BGR first.

 

[mms45]

Nice wood for a PH. Is the bolt handle black or chromed? Looks like it’s blued in the photo which would typically indicate it’s the regular big game rifle vs the PH which has the tell-tale chromed bolt handle. Could just be the lighting though.

Nice toes by the way. Always makes me laugh how many of us are bare-footed when snapping a photo of a new rifle.

Love the gun, it’s on my want list so can’t help with pet loads…even for my 416 BGR since it loves factory Barnes ammo so much I never messed with hand loading for it. I will have to ask for your findings someday soon unless I stumble into a 375HH BGR first.

Bolt is chrome strange that the lighting made it look black. It’s almost a tradition to have bare feet in the photo lol

 

[BJH65]

Congratulations! Beautiful rifle and very impressive looking wood for grade 2. You’ll have some serious horsepower for the larger DG. Do you plan on putting optics on it? Maybe a red dot or LPV.

 

[Razorback]

Congrats! Beautiful rifle and you’ll love the 450 Rigby.

I have had really good luck with RL-17 powder. I’m using 98.0 grs of RL-17, Norma brass and Fed#215M primers with the following 500 grain bullets: CEB Solid, Northfork SS and Northfork PP.

 

[Razorback]

Some data from Northfork.

 

[mms45]

Congratulations! Beautiful rifle and very impressive looking wood for grade 2. You’ll have some serious horsepower for the larger DG. Do you plan on putting optics on it? Maybe a red dot or LPV.

I do plan to put an optic on it but have not decided what yet. My go to is nightforce on my other hunting rifles for reliability but that doesn’t fit here. I may go red dot.

honestly it shoulders with such perfect alignment to the irons is making me question that.

 

[mms45]

Congrats! Beautiful rifle and you’ll love the 450 Rigby.

I have had really good luck with RL-17 powder. I’m using 98.0 grs of RL-17, Norma brass and Fed#215M primers with the following 500 grain bullets: CEB Solid, Northfork SS and Northfork PP.

Thank you! Midway has A frames in stock was thinking about starting there but I have never used northfork

 

[Razorback]

You can’t go wrong with an A-frame. Especially when you can find them in stock. This data will work equally well with them. That case has a lot of room left on the upper end.

 

[Frederik]

Congrats on a thumper you can do what a 458 Lott can do on a mild load or you can even chase 460 Weatherby.

Then if you really feel like having enough gun there is the option of 600gr bullet at 2300fps or more.
Thats breaking the 7000 ftl/lbs mark !!!!

Hope you can easily find cases bullets are easier to find.

 

[PCC600]

View attachment 781847View attachment 781848


Some data from Northfork.

Just remember the Rigby PH has 22 inch barrels so velocities will be a bit lower than on this table . A 500 grain bullet at 2300 fps is easily achievable and not unpleasant to shoot

 

[Tintin]

Lovely. Nice PH timber.

 

[Aussie_Hunter]

Beuatiful PH model, fantastic rifle. In mine I was using 550 grain Woodleigh RNSN, with 103 grains of 2209, giving me an average of 2240fps. Hits buffalo like a freight train.

 

[PCC600]

Well I’m happy to report I joined the rigby familey today, I picked up a big game PH model in 450 rigby. I can tell you this rifle exceeded my expectations in person and man the stock feels just right much better than my M70. Much like red leg I think the wood is better looking than its grade 2 would lead you to believe and is icing on the cake.

Now if only Norma would make a run of brass and some ammo!

Let’s hear everybody’s pet loads to give me some starting places.

View attachment 781817
View attachment 781818
View attachment 781819

That is a really nice rifle but very different to my Rigby PH 450 . Mine is a single square bridge with a heavier 22 inch step down barrel . Timber much plainer than yours . In the photo it is the rifle on top .

 

[Accidental Villain]

I do plan to put an optic on it but have not decided what yet. My go to is nightforce on my other hunting rifles for reliability but that doesn’t fit here. I may go red dot.

honestly it shoulders with such perfect alignment to the irons is making me question that.

Welcome to the club! The open irons on the Rigby BG are truly great are they not!))

You can very well put some very capable optics of your liking on top of that rifle. BUT, optics on a DG rifle is a potential weak spot..they can be whacked out of zero easily.
Chased by a rhino over really rough terrrain (been there, but maybe not likely to happen these days), but, accidents do happen.
With a Rigby BG..you are in the «so fckn what» league.. kick the optics off and go in with open irons with confidence.

Very nice wood on your rifle. It is guaranteed several 100’s of years old Ruglans Regia walnut. The main advantage with wood like that is that it is exeptionally dence grained, and as far as I can see (with a slight hangover in Northern Costa Blanca) also very straight grained. That is what you want to se on a true DG rifle. The stock on your rifle is most likely super superstrong. As a bonus, being several houndred years old walnut it looks exceptionally nice.
The grading system some gunmakers use puzzle me to say the least!
Congrats on a very nice aquisition.
Cheers!

 

[Altitude sickness]

That rifle looks spectacular. Love the reddish hue.

 

[mms45]

That is a really nice rifle but very different to my Rigby PH 450 . Mine is a single square bridge with a heavier 22 inch step down barrel . Timber much plainer than yours . In the photo it is the rifle on top .

What’s the bottom rifle?

And yes mine has a 24” barrel comes in at 10.3 lbs unloaded

 

[mms45]

Welcome to the club! The open irons on the Rigby BG are truly great are they not!))

You can very well put some very capable optics of your liking on top of that rifle. BUT, optics on a DG rifle is a potential weak spot..they can be whacked out of zero easily.
Chased by a rhino over really rough terrrain (been there, but maybe not likely to happen these days), but, accidents do happen.
With a Rigby BG..you are in the «so fckn what» league.. kick the optics off and go in with open irons with confidence.

Very nice wood on your rifle. It is guaranteed several 100’s of years old Ruglans Regia walnut. The main advantage with wood like that is that it is exeptionally dence grained, and as far as I can see (with a slight hangover in Northern Costa Blanca) also very straight grained. That is what you want to se on a true DG rifle. The stock on your rifle is most likely super superstrong. As a bonus, being several houndred years old walnut it looks exceptionally nice.
The grading system some gunmakers use puzzle me to say the least!
Congrats on a very nice aquisition.
Cheers!

I saw some red dot bases that use the front swivel bridge. After holding it I’m content with irons for now but seems like I have options in the future.

 

[skydiver386]

You are going to love the the 450 Rigby and it's performance on game.

My favorite is Norma brass, Federal Gold Medal 215 Mag primers, starting load of 102gr of H4350 and the Barnes 500gr X bullet. Most accurate load was 107 grains. I went up to 115gr with no excessive pressure signs, but accuracy wasn't as good.

Both the 450gr and 500gr bullets give superb accuracy in my rifles. They just like to be seated deep for a long run at the rifling. Just a light crimp with my new Lee custom made Factory Crimp die finishes the job.

Very little loading data is available, but if you can find a copy of the latest Woodleigh Bullets reloading manual they have excellent data there.