Dear Ladies and Gentlemen:
I am going to start getting a Custom Safari Rifle built for me on a Mauser M98 Magnum action. Primary purpose will be hunting dangerous game. For plains game I have either more user friendly and scoped .30-06 and .375 H&H Mag. Model 70 at my immediate disposal.
Despite the valuable informations on calibers and other aspects I've kindly received from you and other sources I have not quite made up my mind on caliber of choice but I've narrowed options down to the elegant and proven .416 Rigby (tolerable recoil; low working pressure, readily available, more versatile), the .458 Lott (most economical and effective) and .450 Rigby (low working pressure; effective).
Regarding sights, would you recommend to use any of them with open sights in the field or would you go with a low powered scope on any of them? As most factory rifles, the custom rifle will have open sights installed anyway, but the major reason why I am asking is because I believe rifle stock fit is paramount on controlling heavy-recoiling rifles, especially the contact of my cheek to the buttstock when I bring the gun up. As the stock will be made to my personal preference and physical size there's the opportunity to make up my mind on the amount of drop the buttstock will have, depending on whether I intend to use primarily open sights or a scope.
If I'll decide to use a scope on the rifle the buttstock should probably have just a tad of drop (depending on height of scope mount also, of course), but if I go with open sights the drop of the buttstock in relationship to the sights (depending on type of open sights used) could be somewhat lower for quicker acquisition, right? I can easily imagine that having a hard-recoiling scoped gun with a stock of too low a drop could result in very painful shooting when the buttstock jumps up to your cheek you hardly, if ever have contact on. When using open sights the drop of buttstock must be sufficient. Otherwise handling and aiming will become awkward and slow, quick snap shooting (that might save your life) virtually impossible.
Something in my mind tells me that the versatile .416 Rigby should be set up with a low power 1,25-4x scope and a lower drop of buttstock whereas the bigger & more specialized heavy .458" bores should be preferably used with open sights, either Express "V" w/folded leafs, "Rigby" peep or "Ghost Ring" and somewhat greater drop of buttstock). I intend to keep the gun in elegant in the "classic styling" reminiscend to the fine British rifles made in the early 20th century, so "Ghost Ring" sights wouldn't look quite "right" on them, although this arrangement is the most practical in all probability.
Any suggestions and comments from your side would be greatly appreciated.
Have a great weekend, Kind Regards and "Waidmannsheil"!
Thilo
I am going to start getting a Custom Safari Rifle built for me on a Mauser M98 Magnum action. Primary purpose will be hunting dangerous game. For plains game I have either more user friendly and scoped .30-06 and .375 H&H Mag. Model 70 at my immediate disposal.
Despite the valuable informations on calibers and other aspects I've kindly received from you and other sources I have not quite made up my mind on caliber of choice but I've narrowed options down to the elegant and proven .416 Rigby (tolerable recoil; low working pressure, readily available, more versatile), the .458 Lott (most economical and effective) and .450 Rigby (low working pressure; effective).
Regarding sights, would you recommend to use any of them with open sights in the field or would you go with a low powered scope on any of them? As most factory rifles, the custom rifle will have open sights installed anyway, but the major reason why I am asking is because I believe rifle stock fit is paramount on controlling heavy-recoiling rifles, especially the contact of my cheek to the buttstock when I bring the gun up. As the stock will be made to my personal preference and physical size there's the opportunity to make up my mind on the amount of drop the buttstock will have, depending on whether I intend to use primarily open sights or a scope.
If I'll decide to use a scope on the rifle the buttstock should probably have just a tad of drop (depending on height of scope mount also, of course), but if I go with open sights the drop of the buttstock in relationship to the sights (depending on type of open sights used) could be somewhat lower for quicker acquisition, right? I can easily imagine that having a hard-recoiling scoped gun with a stock of too low a drop could result in very painful shooting when the buttstock jumps up to your cheek you hardly, if ever have contact on. When using open sights the drop of buttstock must be sufficient. Otherwise handling and aiming will become awkward and slow, quick snap shooting (that might save your life) virtually impossible.
Something in my mind tells me that the versatile .416 Rigby should be set up with a low power 1,25-4x scope and a lower drop of buttstock whereas the bigger & more specialized heavy .458" bores should be preferably used with open sights, either Express "V" w/folded leafs, "Rigby" peep or "Ghost Ring" and somewhat greater drop of buttstock). I intend to keep the gun in elegant in the "classic styling" reminiscend to the fine British rifles made in the early 20th century, so "Ghost Ring" sights wouldn't look quite "right" on them, although this arrangement is the most practical in all probability.
Any suggestions and comments from your side would be greatly appreciated.
Have a great weekend, Kind Regards and "Waidmannsheil"!
Thilo
Last edited:
