The .450 No 2 Nitro Express also known as the .450 Nitro Express 3-inch was developed by

Eley Brothers Eley Limited is a British manufacturer of firearms cartridges. Historically the company has produced a broad variety of ammunition, but today specialises in .22 Long Rifle cartridges for competitive target shooting. At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, s ...

in 1903.

Design

The .450 No 2 Nitro Express is rimmed, bottlenecked, calibre cartridge designed for use 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 ce ...

and

double rifle The double rifle, also known as a double-barreled rifle, is a rifle with two barrels mounted parallel to each other. Synonymous with big game hunting found primarily in Africa and India, the double rifle is a purely sporting weapon with no milita ...

s, it fires a projectile at over . The .450 No 2 Nitro Express has a massive long cartridge case which has a large case capacity and compared to other similar

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 ...

cartridges has a thicker rim and heavier walls. The size of the cartridge case gives it some of the lowest chamber pressures amongst the Nitro Express cartridges which, when combined with its thick rim and heavy walls, makes it almost impervious to sticking in the chamber.

Dimensions

History

Following early extraction problems encountered with the revolutionary .450 Nitro Express which had been created by John Rigby & Company in 1898, Eley took the unusual step for the time of creating their own completely new cartridge and release it to the market in 1903, allowing all rifle makers to chamber weapons for their round. This was unusual for two reasons, the first was this cartridge has no blackpowder express forebear, the second is it was designed by an ammunition maker, as most cartridges of the period were designed by rifle makers. The .450 No 2 Nitro Express was so named to differentiate it from the original. Ballistically, the .450 No 2 Nitro Express is almost identical to the original .450 Nitro Express and Holland & Holland's .500/450 Nitro Express also intended to replace the original. The early problems of the .450 Nitro Express were however soon resolved and the .450 No 2 Nitro Express was never as popular as its predecessor. 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 Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic ...

, Eley developed the .475 No. 2 Nitro Express by necking up the .450 No 2 Nitro Express.

Use

The .450 No 2 Nitro Express is suitable for all dangerous game including elephant. In his ''African Rifles and Cartridges'', John "Pondoro" Taylor states the .450 No 2 Nitro Express is as good as but no better than any other .450-.476 calibre Nitro Express cartridges in terms of killing power. Taylor further states there is a psychological appeal attached to the .450 No 2 Nitro Express, the size of the enormous cartridge giving the hunter confidence that they are carrying a deadlier weapon that one chambering a similar cartridge. Pondoro Taylor owned four rifles chambered in .450 No 2 Nitro Express, with them he killed several hundred elephant, scores of rhinoceros and several hundred buffalo. Other notable users of this cartridge include Philip Percival who hunted with a pair of .450 No 2 Nitro Express boxlock

s made by Joseph Lang, and Nripendra Narayan,

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of Koch Bihar, who hunted with a large battery of rifles including a .450 No 2 Nitro Express double rifle by Manton & Co.

References

External links

Ammo-One, "450 No. 2 Nitro Express", ''ammo-one.com''
, retrieved 17 December 2017.
Cartridgecollector, "450 No. 2 Nitro Express", ''cartridgecollector.net''
retrieved 17 December 2017. {{DEFAULTSORT:450 Pistol and rifle cartridges British firearm cartridges Eley Brothers cartridges

Design

Dimensions

History

Use

See also

References

External links