416 Remington Magnum on 1917 action

[akray]

I bought this one yesterday. I was watching a local call in tv show, and the woman got done describing her electric drum set in great detail, and then almost as an afterthought she mentioned that they also had a 416 Rem Mag for $400.00 and a Ruger lever action in 17 HMR for $350.00. I called their number and asked about the 416 and was confused by the man's answer. He said it was a 416 Remington on a Winchester. At any rate, I got their address and went to look at their guns.

It turned out that the rifle is built on a Winchester 1917 Enfield action, and it has a nice walnut stock on it. It also has the dogleg style bolt handle on it. The stock looks kind of like a Remington 700 BDL stock with a black forend tip with a white spacer. The wrist of the stock and the forend have carved oak leaves instead of checkering, and they look pretty nice. The rear sight is one of the folding leaf express type sights, and the barrel which is 18 1/2" or 20" has a deep crown with integral ports. It is a handy configuration and the guy I bought it from said he carried it while bowhunting. He said he shot the rifle about 10 times and even loaned it to his brother in law to use for hunting a bison in Delta Junction, AK. I loaded an 8mm Remington Magnum round in the magazine and cycled it through the rifle and noticed the controlled round feed feature. I think someone spent a good amount of money to have this rifle built. The husband and I haggled a little and I ended up buying both of them for a good price.

I don't know what else I might want to use it for, but I might find a big bear one of these days. I've been thinking I should buy a 458 Winchester or something in that class for a while and this one turned up. I 'll have to find some ammo and see what this one can do, but I think it's a neat old rifle.

[Len]

I would assume its a 416 Rigby due to the length of the action this was a popular conversion. The 416 is a much better all around and big game cartridge than the 458.

Len

[akray]

It might have been a Rigby at one point, but sometime within the last 20 years someone put a 416 Remington barrel on it. It says 416 Rem Mag, or 416 Remington Magnum in a fairly small font on the barrel.

[Lee Martin]

Couldn't have been a Rigby, then a 416 Remington.....the bolt face would've had to have been opened-up much more for the Rigby.

-Lee
www.singleactions.com

[akray]

It must've been converted to a Remington magnum or something smaller before. I loaded 8mm Remington Magnum ammo in it because it's the parent case of the 416 Remington magnum. They all cycled through in CRF fashion and the magazine holds 4 rounds.

[Len]

You can do a chamber cast. Lee is correct on bolt face the Rigby is larger. Both 416's are equally good cartridges.

[akray]

I was in a gun store yesterday that had a set of RCBS dies in 416 Remington for $66.00. They also had new nickel plated brass, 20 rds for $15.00. I'm going to go back on Friday and buy what they have so I have whatever brass I'm going to need with this rifle. I'll have to look for bullets, primers and powder somewhere else, but this will get me started. A friend of mine told me Graf's would probably have components, but I think I'll buy local as much as I can.

[Len]

I just sold off 500 new cases in lots of 100. Use Federal 215 primers. If you want PM me and I will send you equivalent of factory load info powder and charge.

I may have bullets if you have a problem you may also try Mid South they are very reasonable for non-hazardous items. Powder and primers are usually best bought locally.

[akray]

I finally got to take this rifle out and shoot it yesterday. Temperatures were around 0 degrees, but I only had 3 rounds so I shot them and went home. I wasn't trying for accuracy, but just wanted to get a feel for the rifle and its recoil. I loaded 3 rounds up, and I used Remington nickel plated brass in 416 Remington Magnum, CCI primers, 68 gr. of IMR 3031 powder, and 400 gr round nose gas checked bullets. I thought the nickel brass might be a little hard to work, but it was easy to reform in the sizing die. I bought a set of RCBS dies a couple weeks ago. I seated each of the bullets then crimped them in a separate step. I was able to put a decent crimp on the bullets and they have a good crimp groove. I did notice that some of the bullets could be rotated after they were seated and crimped, but I didn't have any bullets get pushed back into their cases. I weighed the bullets and they weighed from 396.0 to 400.2 or so, so they're probably not the highest quality. The lube is a hard crayon type lube too. I was able to buy a box of 400 gr factory ammo earlier this week but they aren't available to me yet. Recoil seemed to be quite manageable, but I was wearing a winter coat and the rifle has one of the gel filled Spenco recoil pads on it. They make bicycle seats out of the stuff too, and they are a lot easier to sit on than a hard bike seat. I'll do some accuracy testing on these loads when it warms up and gets brighter out, but for now I think this rifle will be a good one.

[Ken O'Neill]

I've had both a Rem. 700 and Win. Mdl. 70 in .416 Rem. Mag. that I've used on a couple of cape buffalo, hippo, asiatic water buffalo and a couple of Russian brown bears. It's a magnificent cartridge for big and dangerous critters.

[Deleted]

I have a Ruger #1 in 416 Rem. Versatile, but quite a thumper with max loads.

[tek4260]

Sounds like a neat rifle. I never seem to have any luck with old custom jobs. Always end up getting a pretty headache that I have to pass on down the line. It is nice to hear of someone else who likes/owns an 8 Magnum.

[Lee Martin]

Feb 15, 2010 22:54:41 GMT -5 tek4260 said:

It is nice to hear of someone else who likes/owns an 8 Magnum.

Add me to the 8mm Mag list. In fact, my favorite rifle is a stainless Model 70 I rebarreled to 8 Rem (26.5" Shilen tube topped with 4 x 16 Weaver glass).

Speaking of 416s, here's a 416 Taylor my dad and I did on a Mauser 98:





-Lee
www.singleactions.com