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"Nitro Express, the Big Bang of the Big Bang" by Terry Wieland Read more here on PDF in the Nickudu Files In the world of rifles and shotguns, progress comes mostly in small increments, It is rare to pinpoint the exact date when a momentous change occurred, but those great old British Nitro Express cartridges are the rare exception. The era of the nitro express began in July, 1898, when John Rigby & Co. unveiled the .450 Nitro Express, and ushered in the modern age of the elephant gun. Although the introduction of the .450 was a specific event, and the cartridge was quickly accepted and changed the hunting world almost overnight, it was not the product of a single inspiration. Rather, it was the end result of a number of changes that had been taking place over the course of the previous 50 years - the development of the breechloading rifle, the perfecting of rifling techniques, the evolution of the brass cartridge case and the jacketed bullet, and most important, the development of smokeless gunpowder. Of course, necessity is always the mother of invention, and the technical aspects aside, the main impetus behind the development of the .450 and, its offspring was the fact that British hunters were going out to Africa to hunt dangerous animals, and not all of them were coming back. Given the intense competition among British gunmakers in the latter half of the 19th century, and their dismay at losing customers (either to each other or on the horns of a buffalo), it is not surprising that firms such as Rigby, Holland & Holland, and James Purdey were all busy trying to perfect more effective rifles and cartridges ... More than a century has passed since the Nitro Express era began, and there have been huge changes in every aspect of ballistic performance. On paper, the .450 NE, now looks decidedly old hat. All kinds of newer cartridges, both larger and smaller in bore diameter, deliver performance that eclipses the .450 and everything in the .470 class. But appearance can be deceiving. ... The cartridges for which they were chambered played a large part in this reliability. Features that are sometimes sneered at by the uninformed were, in fact, advantages. And, if you are hunting a wounded elephant under a tropical sun, they still are today, a hundred years later ... read more. Read hundreds of Online Books and Articles in the Nickudu Files on the Ezine.NitroExpress.om |
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Reading Terry Wieland's article, are Nitro Express cartridges, not now really "Old Hat" and outdated by the newer short fat flat sided cartridges? |