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I have posted this one other place before but I wanted to share it here along with these other fine double rifles pictured:

This is a J Rigby & Co Rising Bite double rifle in .470 NE. It was made in 1905 as a 450 3-1/4" and sold to Col PB Osborne. Later it was sold back to Rigby and then was purchased in 1933 by famed British Explorer and author Sir Wilfred Thesiger ( https://www.britannica.com/biography/Wilfred-Thesiger ). In his book the Danakil Diaries, he writes of going to Rigby's and his mother purchasing this rifle for him. I believe it is written about other times and there are also pictures of him published with this rifle as well as one particular picture of one of his trusted companions holding this rifle and posing with a Lioness that he shot (see below). It also has his crest in the medallion on the stock. At some point, likely in the 1960s he had the rifle re-barreled by Rigby to 470 NE. I am still gathering information on him and his life and how this rifle is tied to him. He was knighted in 1995 and his archive was left to the nation of Great Britain and is housed in the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford.

I can't describe how good it feels in the hands, it is slim and trim and shoulders soo nicely. It shoots well with Federal Premium and Hornady factory ammo (Kynoch hits a little low). I definitely plan to use this after big game in Africa the next time I am able to go back. These pics don't really do it justice but will help you get the idea:

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