.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 rifle The double rifle, also known as a double-barreled rifle, is a rifle with two barrels mounted parallel to each other that can be fired simultaneously or sequentially in quick succession. Synonymous with big game hunting found primarily in Africa an ...

s for hunting in the tropics or hot climates in general and is associated with the Golden Age of African

safari A safari (; originally ) is an overland journey to observe wildlife, wild animals, especially in East Africa. The so-called big five game, "Big Five" game animals of Africa – lion, African leopard, leopard, rhinoceros, African elephant, elep ...

s and Indian shikars.

Development

The .450 Nitro Express was the first Nitro Express cartridge, developed around 1898 by John Rigby. This cartridge was based on the then popular .450 Black Powder Express case with of

Cordite Cordite is a family of smokeless propellants developed and produced in Britain since 1889 to replace black powder as a military firearm propellant. Like modern gunpowder, cordite is classified as a low explosive because of its slow burni ...

and a jacketed bullet.

Muzzle velocity Muzzle velocity is the speed of a projectile (bullet, pellet, slug, ball/ shots or shell) with respect to the muzzle at the moment it leaves the end of a gun's barrel (i.e. the muzzle). Firearm muzzle velocities range from approximately t ...

is listed at 2,150 feet per second (655 m/s) with of muzzle energy. This straight case has a length of with a rim. Early cartridges used the black powder case that was designed for around 22,000

psi Psi, PSI or Ψ may refer to: Alphabetic letters * Psi (Greek) (Ψ or ψ), the twenty-third letter of the Greek alphabet * Psi (Cyrillic), letter of the early Cyrillic alphabet, adopted from Greek Arts and entertainment * "Psi" as an abbreviat ...

and not the 34,000 psi that the Cordite load generated. Case extraction was difficult, especially in warmer climates such as

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

and

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

where the cartridge was primarily used. To remedy this problem, a reinforced case was produced and

Kynoch Kynoch was a manufacturer of ammunition that was later incorporated into ICI, but remained as a brand name for sporting cartridges. History The firm of Pursall and Phillips operated a 'percussion cap manufactory' at Whittall Street, in Birmin ...

made a reduced load to lower the case pressure. Another problem lay in the sensitivity of Cordite, loads developed in the cool British climate performed differently in the tropical heat of Africa and India, resulting in excessive pressures. The manufacturers responded by developing "tropical loads" with reduced propellant. These initial problems led to Holland & Holland developing the .500/450 Nitro Express and Eley Brothers developing the .450 No 2 Nitro Express, both of which offered very similar performance to the original .450 Nitro Express. By the time these two cartridges appeared, the early issues with the .450 Nitro Express had been resolved, and it quickly became the most popular and widely used dangerous-game hunting round. Following the British Army 1907 ban of .450 caliber ammunition into

and the

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

, instead of developing their own replacement, Rigby adopted Joseph Lang's .470 Nitro Express as their standard double rifle cartridge. By the time the ban was lifted the .470 NE had largely supplanted the .450 NE as the industry's most popular elephant cartridge, and

Mauser Mauser, originally the Königlich Württembergische Gewehrfabrik, was a German arms manufacturer. Their line of bolt-action rifles and semi-automatic pistols was produced beginning in the 1870s for the German armed forces. In the late 19th and ...

's Gewehr 98

bolt action Bolt action is a type of manual firearm action that is operated by ''directly'' manipulating the turn-bolt via a bolt handle, most commonly placed on the right-hand side of the firearm (as most users are right-handed). The majority of b ...

ed rifles offered cheaper alternatives to the expensive double rifles required by the Nitro Express cartridges.

World War I service

In 1914 and early 1915, German snipers were engaging

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

positions with impunity from behind steel plates that were impervious to .303 British ball ammunition. In an attempt to counter this threat, the British

War Office The War Office has referred to several British government organisations throughout history, all relating to the army. It was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, at ...

purchased 62 large-bore sporting rifles from British rifle makers, including 47 of .450 caliber rifles, which were issued to regiments, some British officers also supplied their own. On one notable occasion, Richard "Dickie" Cooper brought down three Albatros D.III fighters from Ernst Udet's squadron, Jagdstaffel 15, with his Holland & Holland .450 Nitro Express big-game double rifle. Cooper is recorded as saying: "I aimed well ahead of the leader. He came down like a

pheasant Pheasants ( ) are birds of several genera within the family Phasianidae in the order Galliformes. Although they can be found all over the world in introduced (and captive) populations, the pheasant genera's native range is restricted to Eura ...

, as did the one that followed, and I had time to reload and fire again at the third before he passed over - he also crashed."

Users

Prominent users of the .450 Nitro Express include Agnes Herbert, Arthur H. Neumann, Major Chauncey H. Stigand and Denys Finch Hatton; the latter had a gunsmith rebarrel his .475 No 2 Nitro Express Lancaster double rifle into .450 Nitro Express as it was easier to find ammunition.

References

External links

Ammo-One, ".450 Nitro Express", ''ammo-one.com''
retrieved 11 August 2017.
Cartridgecollector, ".450 3 " Nitro Express", ''cartridgecollector.net''
retrieved 11 August 2017.
John Rigby & Co, "Our history: More than 240 years of experience", ''johnrigbyandco.com''
retrieved 11 August 2017.

, 1 January 2015. {{DEFAULTSORT:450 Pistol and rifle cartridges Rimmed cartridges British firearm cartridges John Rigby & Co cartridges Military cartridges

Development

World War I service

Users

See also

References

External links