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 designed for use in
single-shot 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.
Original loadings fired a projectile at a listed speed of , these loadings are still available, additionally
Westley Richards have a loading with a listed speed of .
[Wieland, ".475 Nitro Express".]
History
It is believed the .475 Nitro Express was introduced around 1900, well before 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 ...
which saw the development of the ballistically very similar
.500/465 Nitro Express,
.470 Nitro Express,
.475 No 2 Nitro Express, and
.476 Nitro Express.
Firearms historians remain unclear who developed the .475 Nitro Express,
[Wieland, "Nitro Express".] it is likely that a combination of companies going out of business and merging, along with records being lost or destroyed during the
London blitz
The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. The term was first used by the British press and originated from the term , the German word meaning 'lightning war'.
The Ger ...
will mean the origins of this cartridge will never be known.
The .475 Nitro Express has never enjoyed the success of any of the cartridges listed above, largely because it was never adopted by any of the major rifle manufacturers. Due to this, rifles in this calibre have always been rare, generally from lesser known makers such as W.W. Greener, Army & Navy and Manton of Calcutta.
Use
The .475 Nitro Express is considered a good large-bore round, suitable for all big game, its power is very similar to the
.470 Nitro Express. Ballistically it is almost identical to the
.450 Nitro Express, with a larger diameter bullet; whether this is an advantage remains in dispute.
See also
*
Nitro Express
*
List of rifle cartridges
*
13 mm caliber
References
Footnotes
Bibliography
* Barnes, Frank C, ''Cartridges of the World'', ed 13, Gun Digest Books, Iola, 2012, .
Kynoch Ammunition, "Big Game Cartridges", ''www.kynochammunition.co.uk''
18 January 2017.
Wieland, Terry, "Nitro Express: The Big Bang of the Big Bang", ''ezine.nitroexpress.info/NickuduFiles/''
retrieved 31 December 2014.
Wieland, Terry, "The .475 Nitro Express: A mysterious and under-rated orphan", ''ezine.nitroexpress.info/NickuduFiles/''
retrieved 22 November 2016.
External links
".475 Nitro Express (")", ''www.cartridgecollector.net''
retrieved 16 December 2016.
{{DEFAULTSORT:475
Pistol and rifle cartridges
British firearm cartridges