My friend’s voice sounded urgent as my phone rang just before noon on a Friday morning. “I’ve found a Rigby,” he exclaimed, “a .416!” After he mentioned the asking price, I shut my office down in record time and headed for the gunshop as fast as I could. All hopes were dashed the moment we saw the old .416, though.
The metal shimmered like a desert mirage from across the room, the result of a sub-standard blueing job. Meanwhile, the engraving was shallow and washed out from the not-so-tender application of a buffing wheel. The Magnum Mauser action’s sidewall was drilled and tapped for Griffin & Howe-type scope mounts and held a cheap, well-used Japanese scope.
The magazine floorplate was engraved with something that was intended to look like a buffalo, but the end result was unfortunately rather disastrous.
As if all this wasn’t enough, the stock was disfigured (no other word for it) to the point where it was only fit for use as firewood. The chequering was recut, but shoddily and with the wrong type of file. Also, the traditional Silvers recoil pad had long ago made way for one of the inexpensive see-through varieties.
The trapdoor grip cap was loose, probably as a result of the botched refinishing, and somebody had fitted a fore-end tip made of some sort of horn or plastic then attempted to engrave it. To put it mildly, the rifle wasn’t even worth the ridiculously low asking price (for a Rigby-made
