.350 Rigby

The .350 Rigby and .350 Rigby No 2 are proprietary medium bore rifle cartridges developed by John Rigby & Company.

Design
The .350 Rigby and .350 Rigby No 2 are both bottlenecked centerfire rifle cartridges, originally both cartridges fired a bullet of .358 in weighing 225 gr.

.350 Rigby
The .350 Rigby, also known as the .350 Rigby Magnum and the .350 Rigby Nitro Express, is a rimless cartridge intended for use in Mauser magnum length bolt action magazine sporting rifles, it fires its bullet at a muzzle velocity of 2625 ft/s.

.350 Rigby No 2
The .350 Rigby No 2 is the rimmed version of the .350 Rigby, intended for use in single shot and double rifles, it shares the same cartridge case as the Rigby's earlier .400/350 Nitro Express, but fires the lighter 225 grain bullet of the .350 Rigby at a muzzle velocity of 2600 ft/s.

History
John Rigby & Co introduced both cartridges in 1908, intended for use as an all-round African hunting rounds, they were somewhat overshadowed by the arrival of the .375 Holland & Holland in 1912, although some sportsmen preferred these cartridges to the latter as the Rigby cartridges had less recoil.

Use
The .350 Rigby and .350 Rigby No 2 have been used successfully as general purpose African hunting cartridges on most African game species.

Famous users included Denys Finch Hatton, Pete Pearson and John "Pondoro" Taylor. In his African Rifles and Cartridges Taylor wrote of the .350 Rigby "There is nothing spectacular about this cartridge; it has never had the write-up that the .318 Westley Richards and .375 Holland & Holland Magnum get from time to time; nevertheless, it is splendidly effective at ranges of up to at least 150 yd and kills as instantaneously as the .375 Holland & Holland Magnum. In addition, it has an appreciably lighter recoil."