Rigby .600 Nitro Express
This beast of a rifle is a mechanical and artistic triumph, crafted by skilled artisans at the very top of their game; that it is made in England is the best news of all, says Mike Yardley
THIS month we have a special gun for a special issue – a John Rigby & Co .600 Nitro Express double sidelock rifle. This is the biggest of big beasts, weighing in at 15lb 7½oz (.600 rifles are usually built up to about 16lb to mitigate recoil). It has 25in chopper-lump barrels and an action built on the Rigby-bissell risingbite system for extra strength. There are distinctive Rigby dipped-edge locks, and the square-bar action body, fore-end iron and latch, top-lever, trigger-guard and grip cap are all profusely engraved with deep chiselled work.
The ‘big five’ inspire the decoration of this gun – magnificently depicted by engraver Phil Coggan. On the left lockplate there are buffalo, on the right, rhino, and a wonderful elephant graces the action belly. There is a maned lion on the grip cap (which is hinged, creating a small compartment for a spare front bead). Leopard feature on both the trigger-guard and the classic Rigby fore-end latch. The surrounding bold scrollwork is inlaid with white and yellow gold.
This behemoth is a mechanical and artistic tour de force. It is the second .600 rising-bite built. Its repeat cost is estimated at £275,000 with a wait of three to four years. Few such leviathans are created. Rigby makes in excess of 200 guns a year now (mainly bolt-action rifles and more than any other London maker). It makes only 15 or so big-bore doubles a year, however, and, remarkably, about half are made to this museum quality. I asked managing director Marc Newton how such projects came about: “The customers who get the best with their rifle projects are the ones who let the gunmakers and engravers develop their ideas. It involves an element of trust. Typically, they will pick a calibre and type of gun and offer some decorative ideas – it might be goldwork or African scenes – and the gun will develop. Rigid plans don’t seem to bring about the best results. The fundamental gun underneath is a product of engineering and science, the finest of its type and designed to be used. Gunmaking creates a fascinating bridge between engineering and art quite unlike anything else. Let the artists do the art.”
More than a dozen artisan craftsmen worked on the .600 – actioner, engraver, barrel-maker, stocker and finishers among them. It is a team effort from a dynamic company (now owned by L&O Holdings) that is one of the few left that makes and sells guns from the same London premises. That the gun or John Rigby & Co still exist is rather remarkable in our age of chaos, crisis and closures. It is keeping traditional British bench skills alive and kept going undaunted through lockdown. The workforce is also remarkably multinational, with Brazilian, French, Belgian and Slovakian members as well as English artisans.
The action of the rifle is made from billet that is partly shaped by CNC but then filed in the traditional manner, creating shapes impossible to achieve by other means. The splendidly figured stock – which as tested had a length of pull of 147/8in with drop of 13/8in and 21/4in – has a black leather-covered Silvers No 3 recoil pad to the rear. The comfortable grip is large and of fairly open radius. There is no cheekpiece. The fixed sight is zeroed for 65 yards with (rather optimistically) leaves for 150 and 250 yards.
Finally, a few words on the history of the .600 cartridge. It was introduced by W J Jeffrey & Co circa 1900. The case, following experiment, became standardised at 3in with a 900gr bullet. The .577 and .600 Nitro Express became the rounds of choice for many professional hunters. The .600-calibre gun produced 600ft/lb of energy – enough to stop a charging, enraged bull at point-blank range even with slight aiming error.
The .600’s repeat cost is estimated at £275,000 with a wait of three to four years – few such leviathans are created