Quote:

---

Quote:

---

Quote:

---

The rifle is a RIGBY !

Jim also shot other rifles as well by other makers.

---

For Lapua.

---

There is a bit of a mystery here. The Rigby was purportedly presented to Corbett in 1908. Corbett purchased a Westley Richards .275 at Manton's in Calcutta in 1910. He used that rifle in his attempt to shoot the "Temple Tiger" that same year. He wasn't successful his first attempt because he was unfamiliar with the Westley's two-stage trigger.

Perhaps the Rigby had a single-stage trigger, or Corbett never used the rifle. Apparently he would examine a rifle and never test the trigger! I don't see how that could be, but the evidence is clear. The Westley must have been a superb rifle for him to purchase it whilst having a presentation Rigby back in his gun room.

Another possibility is that the Rigby was actually presented sometime later than 1908. Maybe after 1910?

---

From memory he took the rifle out the same day he received it without test shooting it. Not so unlikely as it sounds as the rifle would have been regulated for their ammo at the factory. English gentlemen didn't need to sight their new rifles in if they didn't want to....

There may be reasons why he bought a Westley-Richards .275 while already owning the Rigby presentation rifle that we cannot imagine now. It is possible that he may have considered it disrespectful to Sir Hewett to get the Rigby scratched by hunting in the jungle with it. English society had all kinds of strictures around behaviour and doing the 'proper' thing back in those days. Perhaps more so with Anglo-Indians as they related to British born people in authority. I can imagine his keeping the presentation Rigby in the case and only bringing it out shooting when invited with people of substance or with Sir Hewett himself.
The Rigby may have given him a taste for a fine .275 of 'his own', inspiring the buying of the WR rifle.
I am only imagining.

--------------------
If you carry a cat home by the tail you will receive information valuable to you for the rest of your life.
Mark Twain

Post Extras