Hunting with .416 Rigby in Oz going overboard?

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Hunting with .416 Rigby in Oz going overboard?

Post by Hucka » 06 Oct 2013, 7:46 pm

Question for the regular hunters and their preferred calibres...

Been doing lots of reading on hunting lately, obviously different calibres come up.

Favourites as everyone knows are .308, 30-06, 300 win mag and so on for bigger or tougher stuff here in Oz.

Wrapped up one article in the SSAA mag on a pair of mates hunting goats and pigs. They both had 30-30's, one had a .308 and the other had a .416 Rigby.

They're not hunting record breaking boar or anything like that, and the guy in the article even said he's worried when he goes out about how much recoil he can take over a weekend on the .416 Rigby.

So why bother? Seems like just going overboard for the sake of a big bang.

Anything in Oz actually NEED something that hard hitting you reckon?
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Re: Hunting with .416 Rigby in Oz going overboard?

Post by Vati » 06 Oct 2013, 7:59 pm

Buffalo and the like in the Northern Territory would be in the .416 Rigby neighbourhood of game.

Overkill for your average pig and goat though IMO. A 30 cal will do that fine.
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Re: Hunting with .416 Rigby in Oz going overboard?

Post by hrrl » 06 Oct 2013, 8:22 pm

There are some huge goats and pigs out there. Might get lucky and have one cross your path on a 'regular' pig hunt :)

.416 would go good hunting camels in the NT too?
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Re: Hunting with .416 Rigby in Oz going overboard?

Post by Harper » 06 Oct 2013, 8:26 pm

A lot of guys shoot big bore stuff just for the enjoyment of it.

Just pulling the trigger is as much fun as the hunt.

Huge recoil and boom doesn't do much for me, but whatever floats your boat.
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Re: Hunting with .416 Rigby in Oz going overboard?

Post by Herdsman » 06 Oct 2013, 8:34 pm

It's arguable.

Yes, .308 will take anything in Australia, but depending on distance or glancing shots etc. you will get some wounded animals or whatever that require follow up.

With .416 Rigby you're talking about something like a 400gr bullet compared to something around a 160gr bullet in a .308.

.416 has about 40-50% more energy than and .308 and gives some extra authority to your shot. No pigs going to be wounded after copping one of those through the shoulder.
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Re: Hunting with .416 Rigby in Oz going overboard?

Post by reddog » 08 Oct 2013, 4:18 pm

The .416 Rigby shoots a 300gn bullet at around the same MV as the .308 shoots a 150 grainer
.416 shooting a 400gn solid has around 5800 ft/lbs at the muzzle
.308 with a 150 grn has about 2800ft/lbs ME

The 416 is highly regarded as one of the finest magazine fed bolt action big game cartridges around and while probably overgunned for everything except Buffalo in Australia that dosent stop you from having one I would love to shoot one and if I could handle the recoil I would love to have one , its on my dream list of calibres with the 8mm Remington Magnum, and 22K hornet

Here comes the tounge in cheek bit

I don't see how it could be overboard when a lot of people are using much larger calibres ,375,475, 50cal and many more on those highly dangerous 2mm cardboard targets that you have to shoot from over a 1000m away otherwise they get your scent and hunt your whole family down :lol:
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Re: Hunting with .416 Rigby in Oz going overboard?

Post by Aster » 08 Oct 2013, 10:06 pm

reddog wrote:I don't see how it could be overboard when a lot of people are using much larger calibres ,375,475, 50cal and many more on those highly dangerous 2mm cardboard targets that you have to shoot from over a 1000m away otherwise they get your scent and hunt your whole family down :lol:


Don't laugh. A friend of mine was killed by cardboard targets.

They chased him through the forest for days... toying with him... They're cunning, sadistic things.

You want to be at least 1,000m away when shooting them.
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Re: Hunting with .416 Rigby in Oz going overboard?

Post by Hardcast » 09 Oct 2013, 10:24 am

All I can say is get one while you still can.

The next thing is, BE BLOODY CAREFULL WHERE YOU SHOOT IT.
I must say I'm a bit of an advocate for additional training, or a refresher course, for prospective high powered rifle owners.
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Re: Hunting with .416 Rigby in Oz going overboard?

Post by SendIt » 09 Oct 2013, 10:40 am

Hardcast wrote:I must say I'm a bit of an advocate for additional training, or a refresher course, for prospective high powered rifle owners.


Can't say I'm keen for additional mandatory training for everyone if you want a larger calibre... Giving people an appreciation of the levels of power/recoil in difference calibres in the long arms safety course you have to do as part of your license would be good though.

It's not such as issue in Australia where we have a better safety culture around shooting compared to the US, but it gets my back up when you see videos of people given high power rifles, or worse, automatic rifles who have zero shooting experience.

You see some poor girl leaning backwards and holding something like, for example, a .416 rigby out in front of her with no support, and everyone's shocked when she gets massively scoped, knocked over and hurts herself :roll:

There is another in YouTube where a young woman is given - I think an M4 from memory - on full auto... She fires and in her shock can't release the trigger and ends up spraying an entire mag into the distance and up into the air.

"Never fired a gun before? Here, have a full auto .308!"

*facepalm*
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