What do you think of the new Rigby Shikari?

[dfoster82]

Jerome told me when I spoke to him in Pretoria that it will all be made in the UK. The UK has many engineering shops that could make the actions for Rigby if that is their plan. But whether it will be a out-house job or Rigby will own the manufacturing facility itself I don’t know. Does anyone have this information?

This is interesting because I heard conflicting information from a person over the phone at Rigby in London. I asked if the gun was made in UK and he said that it was assembled in France, and that components were made in "France or Belgium". But designed and proofed in London.

If accurate, this sounded to me like a version of the "re-badging" that many UK shotgun makers have participated in for their more mass market guns -- the first version of the Purdey Sporter comes to mind. That was a high end Italian maker but a number of components were made by Purdey. They shifted to make it entirely in London recently -- which now allows them to claim it is as a fully English gun, and they lean into that heavily with the marketing.

He admitted to not being their primary sales person for the Shikari -- but it seems unlikely he would have had this impression if there was no truth to it. It would not put me off the gun entirely -- unless it really is just a rebadged continental gun (Chapuis?). I assume the component design came from Rigby and the manufacturing may be entirely on continent.

Interested to hear what others find out.

 

[VertigoBE]

This is interesting because I heard conflicting information from a person over the phone at Rigby in London. I asked if the gun was made in UK and he said that it was assembled in France, and that components were made in "France or Belgium". But designed and proofed in London.

If accurate, this sounded to me like a version of the "re-badging" that many UK shotgun makers have participated in for their more mass market guns -- the first version of the Purdey Sporter comes to mind. That was a high end Italian maker but a number of components were made by Purdey. They shifted to make it entirely in London recently -- which now allows them to claim it is as a fully English gun, and they lean into that heavily with the marketing.

He admitted to not being their primary sales person for the Shikari -- but it seems unlikely he would have had this impression if there was no truth to it. It would not put me off the gun entirely -- unless it really is just a rebadged continental gun (Chapuis?). I assume the component design came from Rigby and the manufacturing may be entirely on continent.

Interested to hear what others find out.

What one of the small Belgian gunmakers could tell me, is that he and other small gunmakers are having trouble getting their hands on actions for their custom rifles, because Rigby is buying them all up.

So they are sourcing the components from the same manufacturer(s) as everyone else. Which is not entirely surprising of course.

 

[grand veneur]

Rigby as well as Blaser and Mauser belong to the L&O Holding based in Germany.

 

[Hunter-Habib]

Very few firearms/ ammunition businesses are NOT international affairs these days.

Look at Federal and Remington ammunition, for instance. They're now owned by a Czech entity since 2023.

 

[Hunter-Habib]

What one of the small Belgian gunmakers could tell me, is that he and other small gunmakers are having trouble getting their hands on actions for their custom rifles, because Rigby is buying them all up.

So they are sourcing the components from the same manufacturer(s) as everyone else. Which is not entirely surprising of course.

Any idea who the action manufacturer is, VertigoBE ?

 

[SWS1]

With the volume, they have allegedly taken, orders for I’d be surprised if there was enough talent in the uk gun trade to be able to produce them in the quoted timescales…

 

[KJE81]

The action of the Shikari sure does not look anything like the action of a Chapuis, perhaps there is a action maker of some sort that supplies actions for artisan rifle makers in Belgium and Rigby is buying their actions in the white? That would explain the rumour that the components were made in France or Belgium.

Also I would think that sourcing actions from France or Belgium would be better then sourcing them from Spain or Italy, in terms of quality I mean. Not that Italian or Spanish rifles are inferior in any way, just that they seem to make them on a larger scale more industrialized and with less hand work than in Great Britain or Belgium.

 

[VertigoBE]

Any idea who the action manufacturer is, VertigoBE ?

I do not.

 

[hoytcanon]

The Shikari is a beautiful rifle... I have thought many times of selling off my entire herd and buying just three Rigby rifles for all hunting. I would probably go with a Highland Stalker in .275 Rigby, a Big Game in .375 H&H and the Shikari in .450 NE... it will likely never happen, because I have too many rifles that I am attached to, and I love shooting and loading for different cartridges, but it is fun to fantasize about on cold winter days.