Steve,
How do you go about shoe horning a .416 Rigby cartridge into a standard action? Putting a .404 Jeffrey in one seems pretty straightforward, but I just don't see how you can do it with a Rigby without compromising the strength of the action. Mauser used a 97.5mm magazine box with the .416 according to Jon Speed's book, and that's evidently the longest magazine they made.
The rifle is a .416 Rigby, built by H. Mahillon, a fine gunmaker from Belguim.
Bill,
It is a whole bunch of cartridge for a standard mauser but it has been done sucessfully before by Rigby themselves. Harry Selby's .416 Rigby was built in the 50s on a standard length mauser. I myself have zero interest in making a .416 Rigby feed properly on a standard length mauser, I can only imagine the fun that entails. You are quite correct about the .404 on standard mausers, a beautiful fit but much more of challenge since Duane has sold his bottom metal business.
Steve
In discussing my 1969 .375 H&H Rigby rifle with personnel at Rigby, they told me that magnum length actions had become unavailable at that time and standard length actions were used exclusively. I don't know whether magnum length actions became available later on, and, if available, whether they were used.