The .416 Weatherby Magnum is an American-designed, dangerous game hunting cartridge developed in the late 1980s by Ed Weatherby, the son of Roy Weatherby, the founder of Weatherby, Inc.
History[]
The .416 Weatherby Magnum was developed in 1989, at a time where interest in safari hunting has become renewed, leading to the demand for large-bore dangerous game cartridges. Since its introduction, it had become known as one of the best all-around hunting cartridges for Africa.
Design Details[]
The .416 Weatherby Magnum is a belted, bottlenecked cartridge featuring the company's signature double-radius venturi shoulder and a large magnum rifle primer.
The casing, inspired by the .416 Rigby, is based on the .378 Weatherby Magnum, necked up to accept a .416 inch diameter projectile. Unlike the .416 Ruger and .416 Winchester cartridges, the .416 Weatherby Magnum requires an extra-large bolt face and a large magnum action to contain it due to its oversized measurements. To put this into perspective, the .416 Weatherby Magnum has a case capacity of 140 gr. of water (9.09 cm³), a 31% increase over that of the .416 Remington Magnum case.
The cartridge is standardized by both the C.I.P. and SAAMI, the latter recommending a 6-grooved barrel with a bore diameter of .408 inches (10.4mm) and a groove diameter of .416 inches (10.6mm) with a 1 to 14 inch (360mm) twist rate.