Founded in Dublin around 1735, the famous firm of John Rigby & Co. is one of the oldest firearm manufacturers in all of Britain. Today, almost 300 years later, it is still trading under the same name. During all this time, Rigby was responsible for many innovative firearm-related developments, including some of particular historical significance.
Undoubtedly one of Rigby’s most significant developments was the .450 3¼” Nitro Express cartridge (initially called the “.450 Special”), which he introduced to the shooting world in 1898. Based on the earlier .450 3¼” BPE (Black Powder Express) brass case, but now loaded with 70 grains of cordite, it propelled a 480-grain bullet of .458” diameter to a muzzle velocity of 2 200 fps and a muzzle energy approaching 5 000 ft-lbs. The .450 NE quickly became the “go-to” dangerous-game elephant cartridge, immediately rendering all previous Black Powder Express rifles and the old 12-, 10-, 8- and 4-bore rifles obsolete.
With the .450 3¼” Nitro-Express, Rigby had a very fine “large-bore” cartridge for use in double rifles and single-shot falling-block rifles. On the other end of the scale, he had been selling Mauser-supplied bolt-action magazine rifles in calibre 7x57mm (later called the .275 Rigby) since before 1898, giving him an outstanding “small-bore”. Obviously lacking from his line-up was a good “medium-bore”. Around 1898, there were no suitable medium-bore cartridges propelled by the new nitro powders, so Rigby set about designing his own.
THE .400/.350 NITRO EXPRESS
Introduced by John Rigby in 1899, the .400/.350 Nitro Express was based on the old .400 black powder case, necked down to .35” calibre, with a case length of 2¾”, and now loaded with cordite. The result was a large, rimmed (flanged) cartridge with a slow, straight taper and a long neck for securely gripping the bullets. Propelled by 43 grains of an
