I first encountered one of these in Tanzania in 2014. A Newly Manufactured Holland & Holland .500 NE bore 'Royal' Side by Side Double Rifle.Back-action and bolstered, hand-detachable sidelock design. This is ideal; however, a rifle that groups both barrels properly within normal hunting distance is most certainly effective and adequate. Today, if you order a new rifle from Westley Richards or Holland & Holland for the purpose of hunting elephant or buffalo, it will be a Nitro Express in .470, .500 or .577. Would the .500 Nitro Express be a good choice? Yeah, something like that. I must be getting soft, as on the first day of testing only 12 rounds were fired. Jon has done radio, television, magazine and newspaper interviews on various issues, and has traveled extensively, having lived in Britain, Australia, China and Hong Kong. 9 hours ago.more Mike Harrell -----John aka NitroX . The .500 Nitro for Black Powder drove a 440 grain bullet at 1,900fps producing 3,258 ft/lb energy. Naturally, fired cases were handloaded, which was difficult as Berdan 172 primers had to be unconventionally removed, bullets were hard to find, and determining a powder charge that would produce the correct pressures and velocities to correspond with factory-load ballistics and regulate correctly for a given rifle was challenging. 80 Africa articles Extremely easy to miss and found after a major required boss battle. All the British dangerous game cartridges, and the rifles chambered for them, suffered a hiatus beginning in the late 1960s, when hunting dangerous game in Africa became less and less accessible, up until it began to be re-discovered by the 1990s. Recoil of the .500 NE is not nearly as severe; however, it is certainly not for everyone. The introduction of this rifle in 1900 was the birth of the magnum length bolt action, paving the way for such cartridges as the .375 H&H and .416 Rigby[3]. Though the Nitro Express has a short range, its shot is incredibly powerful, with an . He had ammunition hand-loaded according to Graeme Wrights data in Shooting the British Double Rifle and has about 20 rounds left. Nonetheless, there are newly manufactured rifles with properly regulated barrels that can be purchased for a fraction of the costs listed above. The top-safety slide is non-automatic, which is common practice on a dangerous game rifle, for obvious reasons. SAVE BIG on Barnes Banded Solid Rifle Bullet, .600 Nitro Express, 900 Grain, Solid Flat Nose or other Gunsmith and Reloading Equipment from Barnes. Olympic) target. Some useful phrases for the Modern Teacher; Stuff you NEVER do in Class! Seen primarily in double rifles, it was adopted by most of the big British gunmakers of the day. Enjoy discussions and gunsmithing topics on building double rifles. The real question will be how accurately you can shoot the rifle: what can you manage to carry all day and shoot instinctively? Using Cordite it was not only possible to do this but also to improve on the performance of the .500 Black Powder Express. Ezine.NitroExpress.com However, since foot-pounds is not a particularly good method of measuring the actual effectiveness of a big-bore cartridge, it is noteworthy that by using Taylors Knock-Out (TKO) formula, it earns an impressive 89.29. A number of gun makers developed proprietary chamberings in these calibres, designed to deliver the attributes of flat trajectory, high-velocity and long point-blank range. If you are going to be using a rifle against dangerous game then your ability to use it instinctively and competently is going to be of literal life and death importance both for you and for those with you. Its easy to carry and very steady for standing, free-hand shots he said. However, to the Edwardians, a much wider variety of calibre options existed and, because many of the rifles our gunmakers produced a century ago are still available, in functional condition, on the used market, we occasionally find ourselves looking at a nicely made, high quality non-standard rifle and have to ask ourselves, Will it do the job?. The well-figured pistol grip stock has a 1 inch leather wrapped recoil pad, carved drop points, raised cheekpiece, checkered grip and forearm, blued Anson push-button forearm release, and a blank gold oval initial escutcheon and blued sling eye on the underside of the butt, and the corresponding sling eye is fitted beneath the barrels. Alexander Henry .450 3 1/4 Double Rifle GI#: 102228580 Dickson two groove rifles were made both as single-barrel and double barrel types and in bore sizes from 11-bore to 70-bore. The Elephant Rifle is a double-barreled rifle which, judging by the time period and performance, likely fires .577 Nitro Express with smokeless cordite gunpowder, a relatively new round at the time. Going off the German-sounding manufacturer name, it is most likely based off of a specific rifle manufactured by either Heym or Hartmann & Weiss. The Nitro Express Rifle is actually named for its cartridge, called as such because of the bullet velocity, which is fast as an express train, according to James Purdey, who coined the term, and because the propellant used is cordite, which is made of nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin. It was being used by professional hunter Danny McCallum, for whom it had done trusty service for decades. In 1903 Jeffery & Co decided to outdo them all, creating the .600 Nitro Express, the most powerful sporting cartridge commercially available for over half a century.[2]. When used with open sights the zero should be 100 yards (or meters) and thus set the maximum trajectory height is less than half an inch with the standard 570 grain bullet at the standard velocities of 2,100-2,150fps. This gun is expensive, lethal, inconsistent, and. Much of the interest in the classic British big game rifles and cartridges was in the United States and as a consequence a number of American ammunition manufacturers put some of the more popular classic cartridges into production. These two-shot groups were fired offhand. To complicate matters further, the No.2 Eley and No.2 Jeffery differ enough to not be interchangeable, the Jeffery using a slightly larger diameter bullet. Among the dangerous game cartridges which successfully made the transition to earn its place as the industry standard is the .450 3-inch Nitro Express. I have used rifles that fired bullets in a more or less parallel path but were a marvel even at extended range. the NitroExpress.com Forums are for you. There are three things to consider when choosing your dangerous game double rifle; rifle weight, recoil, ammunition cost. It threw a 502 grain conical bullet at 1,530 fps from a double rifle, while the .500 Nitro Express, loaded with Cordite and a heavier, .570 grain bullet managed 2,150 fps. This was to quickly prove itself on the game fields of Africa and Asia where its advantages over such behemoths as the 8 bore black powder elephant rifles became apparent. . Jon has done radio, television, magazine and newspaper interviews on various issues, and has traveled extensively, having lived in Britain, Australia, China and Hong Kong. During the 1990s however the making of some of the old British big game rifles and cartridges, including the .500 Nitro Express, resumed. Ruger No.1-H Tropical .450/400 Nitro Express rifle review Manufacturer: Ruger A single-shot rifle may not be to everyone?s taste, but if you are a little more discerning, the Ruger No.1 is a beautifully crafted and great-looking rifle, especially in its Tropical format. Using the Federal factory ammo driving the Barnes Triple Shock X bullet at 2,100fps and a 200 yard zero the drop at 225 yards is 2.81, and at 250 yards it is 6.42. The more expensive the ammo for your chosen rifle is the less likely you are to train with it enough to gain the mastery you need. Ask questions too! 170 Vintage hunting books and articles The concept of an Express Rifle can best be described as the quest for a rifle delivering a medium-to-heavy bullet as directly to its target as possible, delivering devastating energy upon impact and getting from point A to point B as straight and as flat as possible. Plus members articles inaddition to numerous articles in other parts of the forums. This is a slight modification from original, with some precious metal inserted to provide a distinct visual bead. They are straight and beautifully machined. After Purdey built their first Express Rifle in 1851, the term gained traction and became universal. Ten of those were the .475 (No.2) and one the original .475. While they were not the smoothest barrels I have seen, their finish is respectable, and they did not produce unusual fouling during many shooting sessions with jacketed and cast bullet loads. A Federal 215 Large Rifle Magnum primer is highly recommended. As I have come to expect from these three companies, ammunition is of higher quality and features better bullets (solid and expanding) than vintage ammunition. The wood has very attractive figure patterns, sharp checkering, and slight storage and handling blemishes. I have often heard shooters describe the big-bore British cartridges as having a slow recoil, or easy to manage. Perhaps they have never fired one! endearin. If you are able to send your used brass, we may be able to produce this product for you. While the golden era of the double rifle has passed, fine-crafted, vintage examples (typically produced from the 1890s until the beginning of World War II) remain in high demand and command premiums that often range from $25,000 to $200,000 or more, which puts them out of reach of the average hunter/shooter. 44 Africa books Whilst more powerful, the .500, .577 and .600 NE rifles were all too heavy for everyday use and remained specialist tools for the professional hunter, the .450s remained the most popular, but political events were to soon change this. Brass, Bullets and reloading dies the 470 Nithro Express. 44 Africa books Find reloading information on Nitro Express cartridges, reloading for double rifles and other rare firearms as well as modern cartridges. Reminiscent of best-grade English sporting rifles made "between the wars", the "Express" rifle by Martini is a modern version of a classic design made with all the advantages of 21st century steel and CNC precision. He considered the .475 a very effective round for elephant in all its variants. It is noteworthy that there are three distinct versions of this cartridge, including the .500 Black Powder Express (.500 Express), which appears to have been developed during the 1860s and features a 3.25-inch case length. Editor's Note: The original price of $115,000 for a .700 H&H back in 1990 now looks like quite a deal. If you are looking for a stopping double-rifle cartridge, one with a track-record that stretches back to the nineteenth century, then the .500 Nitro Express may be for you. As far as I can tell, the Nitro Express era started in 1898 with introduction of the .450 NE from John Rigby. that you must be at least 18 years old to purchase shotgun ammunition and 21 years or older to purchase handgun and rifle ammunition. It is worthy of note that the .500 Nitro Express is the favorite big game rifle of Geoff McDonald, the founder of Woodleigh Bullets, his having taken many buffalo, elephant and other game over a 30 year period with it. By comparison a typical heavy sporting rifle in one of the small bore magnums such as the popular 7mm Remington Magnum or .300 Winchester Magnum will commonly weigh 8.5lb before a rifle-scope is attached and up around 9.5lb-10lb with rifle-scope and mounts, depending on how big and heavy or small and light the rifle-scope is. Express be a good choice and 21 years or older to purchase handgun and rifle ammunition has a range. Trusty service for decades send your used brass, we may be able to send used... 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