470 NITRO EXPRESS

Research notes

The .470 Nitro Express was designed in 1900 by Joseph Lang of England and it was released to the commercial market in 1907 for large and dangerous game hunting. Contrary to most of his contemporary gunmakers he chose not to make it a proprietary cartridge and accordingly rifles for the .470 NE were built by almost all the famous British makers. The .470 NE has plenty of killing power for all African game and it has a reputation for giving better penetration than the equivalent cartridges that were designed to replace the .450 caliber which was banned in India and the Sudan by the British in 1907 in order to prevent rebels getting ammunition for stolen military weapons. Like almost all the British big game cartridges the .470 propelled a bullet of approximately 500 grains to a muzzle velocity of approximately 2150 fps and hereby generating a muzzle energy of approximately 5.000 ft. lbs.

After Kynoch ceased production in the 1960's ammunition for the .470 became scarce and everybody thought this was the end of the big doubles. However in 1989 Federal began producing ammunition with much better quality bullets than formerly were available. Since then several other companies like the resurrected Kynoch Ltd. have followed them.

Probably an early load for the .470 that used a 500 Express 3" case

The first specimen is a vanity headstamp for a South African PH, cases by OPM