Anyone have a set of .416 Taylor dies they would part with?
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All I have are .416 GNR. In a pinch...
I would body size with .458 Winchester, then try to neck size and seat with my .416 GNR dies. Based upon the .50 AK I think the body diameter should be sufficient. The seat length is about right.
*On an important hunt I cycle EVERY cartridge before I leave to make certain! I'll not go into the issues I've caught due to my own stupidity.
Around 1990 in our shop in Florida we built several Browning
BARs in 416 Taylor. Kase used them on several of our hunts. On one large 250 lb hog he shot it up the ass with the 416 Taylor and the bullet came out it's mouth. I thought that to be decent penetration.
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The red hog shown continued to fight the dogs even after the end to end shot. Kase hit him again 2 or 3 times just back of the shoulder to finish him. We used new 458 Win Mag brass for the loads. I don't remember the load as Kase loaded them.
We also built a few bolt guns in the 416 Hoffman
it's just as powerful as the 416 Taylor with the main difference being it's based on the 375 H&H case. With some bullets it was a bit longer than the Taylor so bullet selection was important.
We met several of the African PHs while in
Africa on our first and second safari. One used the 450 Ackley Magnum on dangerous game. Our PH John Abraham toyed with the cartridge for a while but stayed with his 475 Jeffery #2. Kase played with the 450 a bit too. He ended up using the 416 Rigby in a rifle that I think Scott Boggs currently owns.
A couple of years later after we moved to Arizona I played with the 460 A-Square Short. It is basically the 460 Weatherby necked to 2.50. It pushed a 500 grain bullet at the same speed that the 458 Win Mag did the 400 grain bullet, around 2400 fps. The good point was we could chamber this cartridge in a rifle set up for the 458 Win Mag. It did have a problem hanging up on the magazine as the magazine had to have some special work to make the fatter 460 case work reliably. I eventually sold it to someone that liked working with special cases and cartridges. The recoil of this cartridges was a factor also if you wanted to keep your teeth in place. A bloody nose was an extra feature of the 460 short.
The .416 Rigby is a treasured heirloom
Of all my rifles it's a keeper. The boys are fighting over it and I'm not yet gone. All my dreams and hopes are absorbed in that special rifle. Sitting out winter storms with it in my lap and reading African or Alaskan classics is a special treat. I even had a nightmare once that Tigers were on the loose! I shot them all night with this .416! LOL
I had a couple .416 Remington's in 700 Customs and they are good guns too. Based on the 8mm Remington Magnum case actually! (basically .375 H&H straight, necked down) The pressures are higher than the huge Rigby of course. I thought the .416 Remington would flop but it seems to have a considerable foreign following abroad. Anything to do with .416 is expensive, but you don't shoot them that much, it's a specialized tool. For the record I tried the Remington M77 African Express and literally hated it compared to the BRNO. It looked the part but handled like a 2x4.
Factory Rigby ammo is a bit subdued in the short barrel but I can "step it up" to whatever blast and recoil I can muster. The Rigby is basically a "beltless" big Weatherby case, same as the .460 etc. You can make .416 Rigby by turning off the belts of Weatherby cases, according to Jack O'Connor. It was a favorite of his.
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