The .476 Nitro Express, also known as the .476 Westley Richards, is a British
rifle cartridge
Cartridge may refer to:
Objects
* Cartridge (firearms), a type of modern ammunition
* ROM cartridge, a removable component in an electronic device
* Cartridge (respirator), a type of filter used in respirators
Other uses
* Cartridge (surname), a ...
introduced by
Westley Richards
Westley Richards is a British manufacturer of guns and rifles and also a well established gunsmith. The company was founded in 1812 by William Westley Richards, who was responsible for the early innovation of many rifles used in wars featuring ...
around 1907.
Development
The .476 Nitro Express is one of several rounds (including the
.500/465 Nitro Express,
.470 Nitro Express
The .470 Nitro Express is a rifle cartridge developed by Joseph Lang in England for dangerous game hunting in Africa and India. This cartridge is used almost exclusively in double rifles. It is in wide use in the Southern and Central-East Afr ...
,
.475 Nitro Express
The .475 Nitro Express is a British rifle cartridge developed in the early 20th century.
Design
The .475 Nitro Express is a slightly tapered, non-bottlenecked rimmed cartridge very similar in appearance to the .450 Nitro Express, that is des ...
, and
.475 No. 2 Nitro Express
The .475 No 2 Nitro Express is a British rifle cartridge developed by Eley Brothers in the early 20th century.
Design
The .475 No 2 Nitro Express is a rimmed bottle necked cartridge designed for use in single-shot and double rifles. The .475 ...
) developed as a replacement for the
.450 Nitro Express
.450 Nitro Express also known as the .450 Nitro Express 3-inch is a rifle cartridge designed for hunting dangerous game such as elephant, rhino, cape buffalo, lion, and leopard. This cartridge is used almost exclusively in double rifles for hunti ...
following the British Army
1907 ban of .450 caliber ammunition into
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
and the
Sudan, all with comparable performance.
[Barnes & Amber, p 229.]
Westley Richards created the .476 Nitro Express by necking down the
.500 Nitro Express 3".
[Wieland.]
Use
Available in
single-shot
Single-shot firearms are firearms that hold only a single round of ammunition, and must be reloaded manually after every shot. The history of firearms began with single-shot designs, then multi-barreled designs appeared, and eventually many cent ...
and
double rifles, it was less popular than the above-mentioned rounds. It is nearly identical in performance to a number of others in the same class.
The .476 is considered adequate for all African and Indian big game,
including
elephant
Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae ...
and
rhinoceros
A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species ...
. Its ballistics resemble the
.458 Winchester Magnum
The .458 Winchester Magnum is a belted, straight-taper cased, big five game rifle cartridge. It was introduced commercially in 1956 by Winchester and first chambered in the Winchester Model 70 African rifle. It was designed to compete against t ...
, with a larger diameter bullet; whether this is an advantage remains in dispute.
Commercial rifles are no longer available in .476 Nitro Express except by special order, ammunition is no longer commercially available, and handloading data are scant, the factory load used 75 gr (4.86 g) of
cordite
Cordite is a family of smokeless propellants developed and produced in the United Kingdom since 1889 to replace black powder as a military propellant. Like modern gunpowder, cordite is classified as a low explosive because of its slow burn ...
under a 520 gr (33.7 g) slug.
See also
*
List of rifle cartridges
List of rifle cartridges, by primer type, calibre and name.
File:Cartridge Sample 2.jpg, 350px, From left to right: 1 .17 HM2,2 .17 HMR, 2.5 .17 wsm, 3 .22LR, 4 .22 WMR, 5 .17/23 SMc, 6 5mm/35 SMc, 7 .22 Hornet, 8 .223 Remington, 9 .223 WSSM, ...
*
12 mm caliber
This is a list of firearm cartridges which have bullets in the to caliber range.
*''Length'' refers to the cartridge case length.
*''OAL'' refers to the overall length of the cartridge.
*''Bullet'' refers to the diameter of the bullet.
Some me ...
*
Nitro Express The Nitro Express (NE) series of cartridges are used in large-bore hunting rifles, also known as elephant guns or express rifles, but later came to include smaller bore high velocity (for the time) British cartridges.
Name
The term "Express" was c ...
References
Footnotes
Bibliography
* Barnes, Frank C. & Amber, John T., ''Cartridges of the World'', DBI Books, Northfield, 1972, .
Kynoch Ammunition, ''Big Game Cartridges'', kynochammunition.co.uk. 2015-01-01), retrieved 30 Dec 14.
Wieland, Terry, ''Nitro Express: The Big Bang of the Big Bang'' 2015-01-01), retrieved 30 Dec 14.
Pistol and rifle cartridges
British firearm cartridges
Westley Richards cartridges
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