Controversy is the grist for the Insider’s mill for which I’ve found a silo full with the saga of John Rigby & Co. I’ve already filed several exclusive reports for AmericanRifleman.org about two entities—one in California and one in London—squabbling over the name John Rigby & Co. (Gunmakers). Now comes a whole new dimension to the story with a third party, noted riflemaker Butch Searcy, trumping everyone by being the first to produce an actual rifle based on Rigby’s most famous design, the Bissell (or rising bite) action.

The rising bite was invented by Thomas Bissell and patented by the John Rigby Co., in a joint venture. The name was derived from a third fastener (in addition to the double Purdey underlugs) that “rises” and engages at the top, thereby preventing what Searcy calls “gapping” when the rifle is fired.

The Bissell action is universally hailed as both the most complex and the strongest of any side-by-side ever made. It is also crushingly expensive to make, which is why Rigby stopped producing rising bite actions in 1920. Since then, no one has ever recreated the Bissell action until Searcy showed a prototype at the 2010 SCI show.

Searcy made his mark in the custom riflemaking world some 30 years ago by building double rifles on Browning side-by-side actions. Searcy doubles were—and are—highly regarded for their performance and value. Back in the day, a Searcy double on a Browning action cost about $8,000, which is a bargain for a double rifle.

Today, however, Searcy has advanced considerably to making his own actions as well as beautiful renditions of such classics as a Holland & Holland back-action sidelock. To some extent, Searcy is a victim of his past success because a lot of shooters—and I’m as guilty as any—still thought of him as a guy who modified Browning shotguns. Not so.

His rising bite is the result of a project that began in 2009 when Dr. Roger Sanger of Monterey, Calif., loaned Searcy a rising bite Rigby made in 1903.

“I’m as good as anyone at reproducing something,” Searcy laughed. “I reverse engineered the action. Once I programmed my CNC machines, they repeat the dimensions right down to the ten-thousandth of an inch.”

If Searcy was simply making a rising bite based on the Rigby-Bissell patent (long expired), that would be that. But as I said, the lush vein of controversy that pulsates in this ongoing Rigby drama would never allow such a simple conclusion.

One of the feuding parties in the Rigby “name game” is Mark Neal of London who has staked his claim of legitimacy in large part on his promise to make the first—you guessed it—rising bite Rigby.

Searcy scoffs at Neal’s claim. “He hasn’t even made a gun yet. I have.”

Neal retorts, “[The Searcy gun] is not a rising bite as we know it, nor is it correctly made. It is cheaply machined by allowing the milling cutter to remove the bridge of the action. This cuts down massively on the machining time. The cutter also exits from the front of the action in front of the breech pin, like Spanish sidelock guns, effectively splitting the action.”

Searcy responded: “Mr. Neal wasn’t at the 2010 Safari Club exhibition in Reno, Nev., so he hasn’t seen or handled my rifle. As he is obviously confused about how I do my machining, I’d like to invite him to visit my factory and observe first-hand how we are making rising bite actions."

Searcy’s rising bite is finished, and he’s taking orders. The price is either $45,000 for a Searcy version of the rising bite or $65,000 for an exact copy of a Rigby.

Unlike others involved in the Rigby soap opera, however, Searcy makes no pretense otherwise. “My rising bite is a copy,” he says matter-of-factly.