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.322 Rigby
.322 Rigby is sometimes referred to as "the cartridge that never was". In 1914, shortly before the outbreak of WW1, John Rigby was working with Kynoch to develop the .322 Nitro round. The basis of the cartridge was the highly successful .416 Rigby case, necked down to accept a smaller - and thus faster - bullet. Rigby and Kynoch intended to use a .318 Westley Richards projectile (the name is something of a misnomer as the bullet measures .330 inches in diameter) weighing 250 grains. The velocity would have been about 3,000 feet per second, which would have produced more than 5,000 foot pounds of energy at the muzzle. Completion of the project was delayed until after the war, but with John Rigby’s death in 1916 all development ceased.

In the 1950s, American arms designer Roy Weatherby added a belt to the .416 Rigby cartridge case for a number of his proprietary rounds. In the early 1980s, an American company called Research Armament, working with the Finnish ammunition maker Lapua, developed the .338 Lapua Magnum. Using the 416 Rigby case and a 250 grain .338 diameter bullet – it was almost identical to what John Rigby had conceived seven decades earlier. The .338 is generally considered the ‘ultimate’ for long range sniper needs.

External links:
John Rigby & Co history