So I hop'd on this forum last year round hunting time and learned and conversed alot especially since I'm a vz58 owner. Great group of people here, so a little fodder for the experienced and inexperianced who like to let others know there opinion. I have had a good hunting season so far 4 ducks and a goose. Since big game is coming up I thought I'd pose this query. For moose and *cross fingers* bison. Which gun would you rather have a remington 700 cdl 300 RUM or CZ550 in 416 rigby. I have access to a 700 in 300 wsm which will do moose just fine. But if you think that using something available is sufficient you wouldn't be here lol. Now bigger shot doesn't make an improper shot acceptable. The area I'm hunting is 50-75 yard clearings up to 200 max edge to edge and moderate brush. However for the sake of conversation lets keep hunting grounds open to anything. Guns can be changed if you suggest a different rifle, however must be these 2 cartridges. A superfast 30cal or a thick hard hitting .416, and if you think this is stupid please give a reason. I'm human and have been known to have some outlandish idea's and plans.
You might be startled by the next level of recoil, a .416 Rigby makes a 3" Mag 12 gauge feel like a nice kid's gun. For your purposes, the .300 Win Mag will probably suit you a lot better. The .416 is roughly equivalent to firing three .300 Win Mag cartridges simultaneously from the same rifle, it's best kept for very experienced shooters. I respect your statements on being human and there are no dumb questions, the .416 is a perfect Bison cartridge but more than the vast majority of shooters can truthfully handle, even experienced ones.
I'd actually point you a .375 H&H Mag, it's the literal middle ground between the two cartridges you've selected, will do anything either of the other two will for the ranges and applications you're talking, and is likely the best all round cartridge ever devised. It's recoil is substantially beyond a .300 mag but still manageable for experienced shooters. This is probably still well beyond what most would shoot well with your experience, but it's a lot more manageable than the .416. It is also literally the perfect Wood Bison cartridge, I've used it on them myself.
Ardent as usual provides good advice, and Dogleg's experience should not be ignored.
OP, if one intends to hunt with a .416 Rigby, and use it as he would any other general purpose big game rifle that is normally chambered for a milder cartridge, rather than as a stopping rifle that is only fired off hand, (which in my opinion unnecessarily limits it's potential) you must first fully master it. This can only be accomplished through frequent exposure to that level of recoil. You must want to master it, and convince yourself that these things are designed to be used by ordinary people, and that the recoil is not beyond your limitations.
But the first step is to ensure the rifle correctly fits you, most adults do better with a 13.5" LOP rather than with 14", but that is a generality which may or may not apply to you. Next ensure the rifle wears a high quality recoil pad with a large contact surface with your shoulder. If the rifle is scoped, and the LOP fits you, ensure the ocular lens does not extend behind the bolt's cocking piece, if it does, you will learn to fear that scope, and you'll never shoot the rifle well. It will be to your advantage to have the rifle both glass and pillar bedded, or you will be looking at a cracked stock within 20 rounds. Once those considerations have been attended to, you are now ready to begin shooting.
I found that 350 gr bullets, specifically those from Barnes and Speer, loaded ahead of 102 grs of H-4350, gave me 2850 fps from a 24" barrel, and I was unable to tell the difference in recoil between these loads and the 400 gr loads. The trajectory with 350 gr semi spitzer bullets was in line with a .30/06 loaded with a 180 gr bullet of similar style. I didn't find the report debilitating, provided I didn't shoot alongside a solid object which reflected the blast back towards me, although frequent unprotected exposure to gunfire will certainly result in problems for you down the road.
Begin shooting off hand. Your position should have you in a boxers stance leaning your weight over the toes of your forward foot. The butt should be held firmly into your shoulder, and the elbow of your shooting arm should be held low to keep the pocket of your shoulder closed. The grip on the pistol grip must be firm, or the recoil will throw your hand clear of the stock. Once you have developed a comfort level with the rifle, you can experiment with different grip styles to see which allows you to cycle the action the most quickly, but for now just hold on tight. When you fire that first shot out of the rifle, the recoil impulse will move across your chest and down your rearward placed leg, and if you're lucky you will wonder what you were so worried about. Take care not to mash you cheek down hard on the comb of the stock, as you might be tempted to with a Monte Carlo stock if attempting to use the iron sights. The sensation I can assure you will be disagreeable. Keep your shot string short, and don't continue to shoot if the recoil becomes uncomfortable. Never allow the rifle to hurt you, or you'll develop a flinch that will take much effort to overcome, if it ever is. Stop and take frequent breaks, and if you've fired 3 rounds without issue, take a break and go check you target, before shooting your next string. Due to the large powder capacity of this cartridge, expect the barrel to get hot quickly, so 5 round strings are beat avoided unless you intend to wait an inordinate period of time between rounds. That is not how a .416 is typically used in the field.
Once your offhand marksmanship equals what you can accomplish with other hunting rifles, its time to shoot from supported positions. Begin with kneeling, where just the support arm is supported on your raised knee. If you typically shoot with the aid of a shooting sling, it should be used to help stabilize your position. Proceed as you did when shooting off hand, short shot strings, and taking a break if you find the recoil produces discomfort. Again, never allow the rifle to hurt you. Once you've mastered the kneeling position, and can shoot from kneeling as well with the .416 as you can with lesser cartridges, lower you position a bit more and being shooting from sitting, proceeding in the same vein as from the higher positions.
You may or may not at some point be tempted to shoot from prone. I shot both the .416 Rigby and the .375 Ultra from prone without issue, but I don't recommend it for everyone. I could shoot 5 rounds of .375 Ultra from prone, but 3 rounds of .416 Rigby prone was my limit before my focus began to waver, the 4th round always hurt, and knowing that, it was foolish to continue. I had a video of myself shooting my .375 Ultra from slung up prone, and when viewed in slow motion, you could see my shoulder driven back 4"-6" with each shot. What it would have looked like with the .416, I can only imagine.
If you are determined to master the big kickers, its rewarding to get there, and the accuracy that is possible from these big rifles is astonishing. The downside is that the cost of shooting these rifles is prohibitive, and that might adversely affect the frequency with which you can shoot. You must shoot frequently to master these rifles, where shooting once a month will not allow you to progress. Hope this helps.
