Handloading the .275 Rigby

Q: Can you offer some suggestions regarding handloading for a rifle I’m having built? It will be chambered for the calibre I’ve always dreamed of owning after reading books by Karamojo Bell and Jim Corbett – the .275 Rigby.

I’m having a CZ 550 action fitted with a 24in. barrel with 1:9 twist. I believe the action will be strong enough to handle the higher pressures of modern reloading and heavy bullets if required. It will be stamped “.275 Rigby” and I will use Hornady brass to avoid any problems with customs that might crop up if my ammo carried a 7x57mm headstamp.

Rigby .275 by Dorleac&Dorleac — A very nice Rigby .275 by Dorleac & Dorleac

I plan on having detachable mounts so that I can use it scoped or with iron sights. I’d like to use the latter for general stalking, which is part of the romance of having a .275 Rigby.

Living in Victoria, I have access to several big game species and I would like to have a single load that would be effective for hunting hog deer at 30 metres over water and sambar out to 350 metres for cross-gully situations.

I was wondering which bullet to use – Hornady 154gn Interbond, Nosler 140gn Partition or Barnes 150gn TTSX? Which bullet would be most effective for the kind of hunting I do? For a propellant I am tossing up between AR2209 and RE-19. Can you suggest a couple of loads?

Jack Purcell

A: The CZ 550 is a good, strong action with many excellent features such as a dovetailed receiver which makes scope mounting easy. A 24in. barrel with 1:9 twist makes sense too. That was what my own 7×57, built on an intermediate length Turkish Mauser, had.

Your idea of using Hornady cases carrying the .275 Rigby headstamp is nostalgic. The .275 Rigby ammunition loads I developed for my rifle are:

Sierra 140gn with 46gn of AR2208 for 2880fps
Sierra 140gn with 50gn W-760 for 2885fps
Sierra 140gn with 53gn RE-19 for 2885fps
PMC 160gn SP with 48gn AR2209 for 2660fps
Sierra 1 75gn with 45gn AR2209 for 2612fps.

All of these loads were safe to use in my Mauser, but I recommend you work up from two grains below. You’ll find reams of good reloading data for the bullets you list in the various reloading manuals.