The big bore British Nitro Express cartridges were generally designed for use with cordite smokeless powder in single shot and double barreled rifles. Calibers run from .400 to .700, with the .450, .465, .470 and .500 Nitro Express probably being the best known and most popular.
.416 Rigby.45-70.450 Rigby.450/400 Nitro Express.458 Lott.458 Winchester Magnum.470 Nitro Express.50 BMG.500 Jeffery.500 Nitro Express.500/416 Nitro Express. Barnes Bullets 577 Nitro 750GR BND SLD FB (30713) R 820.00 Add to cart; BARNES BULLETS 577 NITRO 750GR TSX FB (30712) R 800.00 Add to cart; Peregrine VRG 2 577NE 700GR R 245.00 Add to.
Rigby 450 Nitro Express
These rifles (especially doubles) and cartridges are objects of romance. They bring to mind month long safaris in a sub-Saharan African country teeming with big game, pith helmets, hunting shirts with cartridge loops over the breast pockets and the simpler, perhaps more honest, time before the beginning of the First World War.
- Heres the cases (unfortunatly @50% is 577/500 #2 wich is 2 7/8' long) 45 good strong and for the most part never shot or reloaded cases from Bertram. At only $5½ a piece it's a steal. And a RCBS dieset in 577/500 Magnum Nitro Express 3 1/8'. QL says casecapacity is 177gr of water so around 160gr of Swiss #4 might get things moving along.
- The.577 Nitro Express is a large bore centerfire rifle cartridge designed for the purpose of hunting large game such as elephant.
- .500 3 1 / 4' Nitro for Black.400/375 Belted Nitro Express.505 Gibbs.400 Purdey.577 3' Nitro Express.450/400 Magnum Nitro Express.577 2 3 / 4' Soft Nose.450/400 3 1 / 4' Nitro for Black.577 3' Nitro for Black.450/400 Nitro Express.577 Snider.404 Jeffery Rimless Nitro Express.600/577 REWA.405 Winchester.600 Nitro Express.416 Rigby.700 Nitro.
- Ernest Hemingway's.577 Nitro Express Double Rifle by Westley Richards Even for the larger-than-life Ernest Hemingway, his double-barreled.577 caliber Nitro Express was one big gun. Manufactured by the Westley Richards firm in England in 1913 and weighing in at nearly sixteen pounds, the rifle was meant to stop the biggest beasts in Africa.
Somewhat surprisingly, there is still a keen interest in the big bore Nitro Express cartridges and the traditional rifles that shoot them are highly sought after on the used market in the UK, North America and Western Europe. New single shot and double-barreled big bore rifles of high quality are still being turned out in small quantities in all three places.
The .470 Nitro Express, which can be taken as typical of the breed, drives a 500 grain bullet carrying 5132 ft. lbs. of kinetic energy at a MV of 2150 fps. Due to their rainbow trajectory and the indifferent accuracy of the double rifles in which they are usually seen (2' groups at 50 yards with both barrels are considered good), all of the big Nitro Express calibers are usually considered to be about 100 yard big game cartridges.
Rigby 500 Nitro Express
I have been told that most game shot with such rifles is killed within 50 yards. Sometimes dangerous game is killed within a few paces, the shooter merely pointing the big double rifle like a shotgun. That kind of fast, close range shooting is where the double rifle and the big bore Nitro Express cartridges excell.
Note: A longer and much more detailed article about the big bore Nitro Express rifle cartridges can be found on the Rifle Cartridge Page.