I acquired a brand-new, never fired take-off CZ 550 416 Rigby barrel, and I was at a loss as to what to do with it. I dug through my stash of receivers and found a stripped VZ.24 receiver & bolt with a hinged floor plate and a complete M1917 receiver already machined for long rounds. Since the 550's barrel thread wasn't going to accommodate the M1917 without a silver soldered bushing, I decided to try to reproduce my version of Harry Selbey's 416 Rigby as built by John Rigby.

Before I get a dozen "nutty idea" posts, I have the time and the ability to do the job, and almost 100% of the parts, and I always wanted one. I will make the stock from scratch as this will be an iron sighted rifle, with express sights already on the barrel, and I will need less drop than has a scoped rifle.

I also thought I would do a pictorial of the entire job for posterity. Anyone interested in looking at such a project? I would post the pictures once a week or so, maybe every two weeks if I am busy with other endeavors.

I have already started fitting the barrel to the receiver, which was a bit of a trick, since the CZ 550 thread is M26x2sp3 and the VZ.24 receiver thread is 1.1x12 tpi. I made two AutoCAD drawings and overlaid them to see the degree of interference, and decided I could fit the two by using valve grinding compound to exact-fit them (no lathe required). The CZ 550 has 7-8 threads, and I have engaged 5 threads of the two already - three to go. It started raining cats and dogs and I decided to quit for the day. So far I have expended a little over one hour fitting the barrel to the receiver.

If this is the wrong place or no one has any interest in such a project, I will just fade away quietly. Let me know.

I am looking forward to test firing the beast.

jt