Rigby Sidelever Single Shot Rifle

[rookhawk]

For sale is a lovely Rigby Sidelever Single Shot rifle in .300 Rook. (Aka .297/300 Rook)

Being a Rigby, it has a number of extra nice features including 26.5" Octagonal barrels, a steel butt plate with border engraving and a widow's point, really nice English walnut on the stock, and fine flat-top checkering.

It's a dandy. Dies, brass, and bullets are readily available for those that wish to shoot it. There is a bit of rust near the breech in the photo, and a bit on the extractor. Overall, a nice late 19th or early 20th century example of a Rigby Rook. Rear sight is missing but can easily be replaced as it has a common dovetail.

$3200 plus shipping.

 

[Hornedfrogbbq]

Very nice my man. Beautiful. GLWS

 

[farmer_john]

How hard is ammo to come by?

 

[mdwest]

A very cool and incredibly beautiful rifle… were it in a caliber a little more stout than 300 rook I’d be all over this…

FWIW 300 rook is a cool little cartridge… I don’t think anyone loads for it anymore… but I’m 99% certain brass can be made from 32 magnum pistol brass… I looked into another rifle in 300 rook a few years ago and seem to remember that’s what some guys were doing… I do 100% remember that Bertram was making it not all that long ago and that you might be able to find some of that floating around…

 

[farmer_john]

Wonder if companies like rigby still service old rifles like these?

 

[rookhawk]

Any competent gunsmith can service them.

Brass is readily available from Bertram.

Bullets for sale in several places.

Dies from rcbs and ch4d.

 

[85lc]

I shoot my 300 rook rifles. The 300 rook is a nice, quite, mild cartridge.

Buffalo Arms may have brass and bullets in stock (for past couple of years, they have been out of stock. Northern Shooters Supply (Australia) should have brass.

Bullets are a 80 gr lead bullet that is 0.300" diameter and easy to cast. They are 0.013" smaller than the 32 pistol bullets so those bullets can not be used in a 300 rook. However Accurate Molds sells a nice mold.

300 rook brass cannot be made from 32 S&W, 32 H&R, or 32 mag without swaging the 32 brass down to 32 rook dimensions.

A number of rook rifles were "converted" to shoot 32 S&W ammo by rechambering. While that allows someone to chamber a 32 S&W, 32H&R, or 32 Mag cartridge, the bullet is too large unless the barrel is also rebored & rifled for 0.312" bullets. Also the action of rook rifles may not be strong enough for a 32 H&R.

 

[RIGBY]

Wonder if companies like rigby still service old rifles like these?

Rigby does offer restoration services, but the import/export process is cumbersome and the import/export fees would be significant. It may be more convenient and cost effective to have it done locally.

 

[farmer_john]

Rigby does offer restoration services, but the import/export process is cumbersome and the import/export fees would be significant. It may be more convenient and cost effective to have it done locally.

How signifigant do those fees typically run? In several hundred to a thousand or several thousand? I have 0 experience in that area.

 

[rookhawk]

How signifigant do those fees typically run? In several hundred to a thousand or several thousand? I have 0 experience in that area.

It's a completely moot point. Any English rifle or shotgun can be serviced by any competent British or Belgian trained gunsmith. There are many. But it is also presumptive that this rifle needs so sort of major work done, which is not the case whatsoever.

Trivia: When you send a vintage arm to Rigby do you think they do the work? No, they handle the project and use outworkers that are competent for the tasks, just like every other gunmaker. No gunmaker can have idle workforce capacity to handle the ebbs and flows of demand or specialty work. Bill Blacker is the top bluing guy in the UK, they all use him. There is one outworker that makes main springs for all of the best gun makers in the UK. Etc.

 

[farmer_john]

It's a completely moot point. Any English rifle or shotgun can be serviced by any competent British or Belgian trained gunsmith. There are many. But it is also presumptive that this rifle needs so sort of major work done, which is not the case whatsoever.

Trivia: When you send a vintage arm to Rigby do you think they do the work? No, they handle the project and use outworkers that are competent for the tasks, just like every other gunmaker. No gunmaker can have idle workforce capacity to handle the ebbs and flows of demand or specialty work. Bill Blacker is the top bluing guy in the UK, they all use him. There is one outworker that makes main springs for all of the best gun makers in the UK. Etc.

The only one being presumtive my friend is you. You have a lovely rifle ive never questioned that.

But there are some older guns that if something ever were to happen to them its nice to know that the respective makers are able to fix them. Guns do have consumable components. And not everyone myself being one of them knows whos trained to do what.
There is also nothing wrong with being curious about vintage arms in general. Never heard of a rook rifle till this post for instance.

My advice. Have a burbon and relax. Not everythings about you.

 

[rookhawk]

The only one being presumtive my friend is you. You have a lovely rifle ive never questioned that.

But there are some older guns that if something ever were to happen to them its nice to know that the respective makers are able to fix them. Guns do have consumable components. And not everyone myself being one of them knows whos trained to do what.
There is also nothing wrong with being curious about vintage arms in general. Never heard of a rook rifle till this post for instance.

My advice. Have a burbon and relax. Not everythings about you.

My classified post is about me and my rifle.

I've been charitable explaining why original maker restorations are largely irrelevant and prohibitively expensive because they act merely as middlemen. It only makes sense to send a British weapon back to the actual maker if the rifle is worth $50,000+ where the continuity of service would make any difference. Any British trained gunsmith can create strikers, make springs, put a weapon back on face, reblack barrels, or freshen a stock when required.

 

[dchum]

My advice. Have a burbon and relax. Not everythings about you.

Wow…

But this THREAD is about HIS rifle for sale.
How would he not take it that way? Jesus

New members like you suckkkkkk

 

[farmer_john]

Wow…

But this THREAD is about HIS rifle for sale.
How would he not take it that way? Jesus

New members like you suckkkkkk

Yes. I suck at Least I dont rudely make assumptions. No one in the whole thread said anything was wrong with his rifle.
He chose to make that leap.

Ad hominem attacks are un becoming. Have a nice day yall.

 

[PerH]

A very good channel regarding arms and ammo history and bringing them to life in the field .

 

[CJNJ]

Yes. I suck at Least I dont rudely make assumptions. No one in the whole thread said anything was wrong with his rifle.
He chose to make that leap.

Ad hominem attacks are un becoming. Have a nice day yall.

I didn't see anything he posted that was rude or an ad hominem attack. There was absolutely no reason to bring this nastiness to a respected AH member. Beautiful rifle. I may buy it.

 

[85lc]

If work is needed on any English or Continental gun or rifle, there are a number of competent American gunsmith that can repair the gun.

The English and continental "gun makers" (whose name is engraved in the gun) very possibly did not make the gun and will not have parts for the gun.

For example, Jeffery never made a gun, they retailed guns made for the trade. The non-Gibbs Farquharson were made by a Francotte subcontractor and sold to English gunmakers for their resale. Also most rook rifles, whether marked Holland, Rigby, Lancaster or others, were actually made by Tranter.

 

[rookhawk]

If work is needed on any English or Continental gun or rifle, there are a number of competent American gunsmith that can repair the gun.

The English and continental "gun makers" (whose name is engraved in the gun) very possibly did not make the gun and will not have parts for the gun.

For example, Jeffery never made a gun, they retailed guns made for the trade. The non-Gibbs Farquharson were made by a Francotte subcontractor and sold to English gunmakers for their resale. Also most rook rifles, whether marked Holland, Rigby, Lancaster or others, were actually made by Tranter.

Spot on. Probably 80% of all the British shotguns ever made, regardless of what is engraved on the gun, were made by either Webley & Scott or WC Scott. The birmingham makers were makers for the trade.

A lot of H&Hs were made by WC Scott in the early period (Dominion, Climax) and by Webley and Scott in the 1960s.

Ignoring the 1880s to 1910 period where there were a lot of "patent guns" with very odd, unique characteristics, almost all British shotguns (and rifles) are the same. A handful of patents proved their reliability and became ubiquitous in almost all makers: The Holland 7-pin sidelock. The southgate ejector. The deeley latch. The anson plunger. The anson and deeley boxlock.

Since the retailer rarely made the gun, and even if they did they used somebody else's superior patents, any competent gunsmith can work on anybody's gun.

 

[Red Leg]

I was just chuckling over the notion that a English or any Continental gunmaker, assuming the particular one still existed, would have a drawer of parts that have been sitting around for a hundred years waiting that eventual service call. Even two modern bespoke firearms of the same model are not like a Model 870 coming off an assembly line. Each part on such a gun is carefully hand fitted. The good news is as @rookhawk notes. A competent gunmaker in this country, experienced European firearms can make and repair whatever is required.

As @rookhawk's listing and comments make perfectly clear, this one requires little but a good home.

Very few firearms are more fun to shoot. I have several. My favorite is Birmingham made with the WR top lever and factory chambered, as engraved on the barrel, in .44 Winchester Center Fire - or as we would now say 44-40. It is my rook "stopping rifle" capable of dropping an enraged cottontail or opossum in his tracks.

That 300 is wonderful rifle and rare opportunity for someone here.

 

[UpNorthMI]

What a nice little rifle. good luck with the sale. I had many friends in the UK that had old rook rifles, I understand that their period of practical use was relatively short as the real task of rook shooting was quickly taken over by .22lr in the 1900's.

I was lucky enough to do a lot of rook shooting in my younger years in the UK, mainly for large estates across Staffordshire, Derbyshire and Shropshire. Some of the estates had very large rookeries. Culling of "branchers" was a lot of work and often involved more than 500 plus rounds of Eley subsonic hollow point .22lr a day! I typically shot with a friend and he would use a similar amount of ammunition. The hit rate with a scoped bolt action .22lr is typically very high, birds literally rained down for hours, we would often collect some of the young rooks for elder country village residents who enjoyed them and to donate to country pubs and restaurants that would serve traditional game dishes. I heard many stories how during the second world war, every bird was collected and eaten amongst local country villages!

There were many mid May days that involved lying or sitting in the bluebell woods clearing tree by tree. We used to get out the ordinance survey maps and work out the safe direction to shoot with the estate owner to prevent the risk of a bullet coming down in any populated area which was at best typically small villages, most estates were big enough areas to not have any real concern with .22lr subsonic ammunition being used at an angle typically 70 to 80 degrees from the ground. You also thought about the risk of shooting straight up, as what goes up must come down! It truly was an interesting sport and task. In the end this was just a method of controlling rook numbers, there were always plenty of rooks around no matter how many branchers were shot and rookeries stayed very active for decades if not more.

For a number of years that these .300 caliber rook rifles were actively used they must of got through some serious quantity of ammunition back in the day!