Earlier this spring was a treat myself kind of time. Had some solid work returns coincide with my 50th birthday, so I did a desert bighorn hunt into Senora and then decided to splurge on a Rigby BGR in 416 of course. Plan was to use it for cape buff in May 2025 when I take my 13yo daughter to South Africa, but ended up getting talked into a last minute trip with some buds from our local gun club after their 3rd had an injury and couldn’t make the trip. Plan was just buff, and I couldn’t stay the full time anyway, so committed to 8 hunting days with intent on being super picky on what I was looking for in a Cape buffalo. My Garmin says I tromped 12.8mi on day one, hunting from before sun was all the way up and didn’t stop until my buff tipped over after the sun was just below the horizon. Had actually seen him and the two he was with during the heat of the day but they winded us and busted. Was stalking in on another buff as sun was dropping, nice buff and was thinking I might take him when we got in nice and tight and this guy stepped out with him. He was old, balding in more spots than not, and skinny in the withers in comparison to the other two gents he was with, but he was everything I wanted and more.
After harvesting my buff day 1, couldn’t just make the Rigby hang around camp, so went on to harvest a gorgeous Sable just over 47”, and solid Roan, Kudu, Eland, and Impala. The darn 4-1-6 worked magically on each one of them.
Hands down the prettiest rifle I’ve ever owned. Have a couple Dakotas, and have owned some amazing double guns for skeet, sporting clays, and wing shooting, and some fancy custom wheel guns from some of America’s best makers, but all my rifles have been purpose built for the nasty, wet, unrelenting Alaskan bush with staying exposed and wet for weeks at a time, so everything but pretty. This Rigby was special to say the least.
