.416 Ruger hooorrraaa?

Umm...the .416 Ruger? I've never shot mine in anger. Maybe a box of factory DGX loads total at 2400fps, and a few boxes of hand loads. 74 grains of Win 760 chronographs to only 1950fps from the 20" barrel with 400 grains of Nosler Partition, but the max load is something like 80 grains / books to 2300fps. A bit hotter than the hottest .45-70, and it doesn't kick as bad as my old lightweight .375 with 270 grainers at max. I shoot the handloads for practice, and keep the factory hot stuff (with steel inner jackets) for its intended purpose.

Intended purpose - I bought it when I was flying float planes in grizzly country, after I got stuck on a remote sandbar covered in mamma and baby grizz tracks. The aforementioned push-feed .375 just didn't seem big enough after two days of sleeping lightly...now I have it along when I'm stuck in grizzly country, by myself. Without a scope...
 
Never tried one. I does duplicate the 416 Rigby's factory performance (no handloaded performance) in a shorter and lighter platform but I'm not sure how light you'd want a rifle that belches out 400 grain bullets at 2400fps.
 
sorry, I just cant see the need for that rifle for deer or donkeys. Not that it wont work, or that its too overkill (as if there were such a thing), but Id think any of the 308 variants would be plenty for that.

I understand the need for pest control, but man I feel bad for that donkey...
 
My .416 experience has been with the Rigby. That wasn't a huge amount, a cape buffalo, couple elephants, some wildebeaste, two impala with one shot and some other stuff.

Throughout the experience I couldn't shake the nagging feeling that it wasn't killing one bit faster or any deader than the .375. I wanted it to and stareing at the big cases it made sense that it should; but the animals wouldn't prop up the theory.:( Moveing up to the .458 changed that, and suddenly the world started makeing sense again.:D
 
Like Dogleg, my .416 experience was with the Rigby. I loaded 350 gr Xs and Magtips to about 2850, and it is one of the only rounds I've loaded for that I didn't immediately gravitate towards the heavier bullet options. After trying the 400s, I concluded that the 350 was better suited for bear work, but that if I was going to Africa a flat nosed 400 gr solid would probably to suitable for everything. In those days the cost of Norma Rigby brass was intimidating, and for my purposes, the Ruger #1 wasn't as good a choice as a bolt gun, so when I switched to the Brno 602, it was rechambered from .375 H&H to the .375 Ultra, which IMHO offers the best case capacity for that bore size; the .378 Weatherby is a tad large and the brass is stupid expensive. The H&H won't drive the 380s quite as fast as I'd like, and the short Ruger which appeared on the scene much later couldn't do much with either the 380 Rhino or the 350 Woodleigh.
 
If I had used 350 grain bullets in my .416 I may have been more impressed with the performance with softs. Or maybe if I had used the A-frames that I now favor conclusions might have been different. Opportunities for shooting truely large animals are expensive and comparatively few, so one can forgiven for wanting to clobber them with the biggest thing he can shoot. I just think that anyone who can shoot a .416 can handle a .458 or .50.
 
I've had a cpl 416 rugers,they seem at there best with the 350gr speer or X @ 2500 with RL15 or IMR4320.Mine were very accurate.I didn't have any luck getting 2400 out of the 400's, best I got was 2340fps with IMR4320
 
grit said:
I've had a cpl 416 rugers,they seem at there best with the 350gr speer or X @ 2500 with RL15 or IMR4320.Mine were very accurate.I didn't have any luck getting 2400 out of the 400's, best I got was 2340fps with IMR4320
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Care to share one or two of your pet loads? I promise to work up to it slowly...and it'd be nice to get 2300fps with a 400-grain Barnes or Nosler.
 
Dogleg said:
If I had used 350 grain bullets in my .416 I may have been more impressed with the performance with softs. Or maybe if I had used the A-frames that I now favor conclusions might have been different. Opportunities for shooting truely large animals are expensive and comparatively few, so one can forgiven for wanting to clobber them with the biggest thing he can shoot. I just think that anyone who can shoot a .416 can handle a .458 or .50.
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I don't know...I found the .416 RM to be a fairly good step up in recoil compared to the .375 H&H. I suspect stuff like the .458 Lott, .460 Vincent, .500 A-Square and the rest would be another big step up from the .416... but it is only a guess as I've never tried the large bores.
 
I find the .416 Rigby to have about double the recoil of the .375, and the .458 and .450 Nitro as factory loaded to be a little less than the Rigby. .450 Nitro in a double rifle is a cream-puff. I get higher velocities out of my .458 Win than Norma advertises for their Lott factory ammo and although that will get your attention from the bench it won't kill you.

The biggest and baddest are in a different league, and I'm not in it.

I have never been able to see what the Rigby brought to the party in exchange for double the recoil of the .375. The .458 and .450 NE do make a real difference that I can see on buffalo. It might not be the difference between day and night, but it is the difference between day and twilight.

My next round of buffalo killing will probably include a hot-rodded Lott or .500 NE, all in the name of science of course. I wonder if I can get a grant?
 
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