Ben - the .577 BPE was especially well though of for elephant and other African game. Selous himself even said he liked the .450 BPE with hardened heavy bullets and 75gr. of black powder. Now, even though the powder he had was probably better than what we can get today, his velcoity with the 540gr. bullet he mentioned, would not have been over 1,350fps. This 'power' level is exceeeded by the Sharps .45 2-7/8" ctg. of North American buffalo fame. It is indeed, a powerful round, one that fpe deciples don't understand well. It's seemingly low fpe #'s just don't do it credit, nor do they do credit to the even larger bored guns with low numbers like the 16, 14 and 12 bores with normal charges.
: In W.W. Greener's book, an exerpt - " The .577 solid bullet of 650 grains and 6 drachms(drams= 163.8gr.) of powder will produce an estonishing effect, and will completely patalyse the attack of any lion or tiger, thus estabilishing a thorough confidence in the heart of its proprieter." - Samual Baker's quote. Another quote in "The Field" by a different hunter - "My 16 hippopotami out of 17 shots is a matter of history in the Shire Highlands(.577 bpe and hard bullets)
: The .577 charges I have listed are as follows:
: 160gr. powder 480gr. bullet
; 191gr. powder 710gr. bullet
: 191gr. powder 550gr. bullet
: 191gr. powder 600gr. bullet
At first I thought these charges too heavy for that case, however the given ballistics match well to the charges as noted. The 160gr. charge would not give the heavier bullets listed, their recorded velocties, all at or over 1,730fps, even the 710gr.. The 600gr. bullet is recorded at 1,760fps, while the 160gr. charge with the short 480gr. bullet makes 1,780fps. From my own testing in a 14 bore rifle, I found it took a greatly increased charge to make a small difference in velocity as shown in these comparrisons. The whole idea of the .577 bpe, was to give 12 bore ballistics in a smaller, lighter gun, which it did, powder and ball weight, conical for the .577 and round for the 12 bore. What it lacked in smack of the large diameter ball, it made up for in absolute penetration.- imho, of course.