.577 Nitro Express

							.577 Nitro Express
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The .577 Nitro Express is a rimmed cartridge in the Nitro Express
                                                                                                 .577 Nitro Express
series of big-game hunting ammunition. It is also known as the .577
Nitro Express 3" and there is a variant called the .577 Nitro Express
2.75".[2] The .577 is notable as the standard caliber of professional
ivory hunters in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

                   Contents
 1 History
 2 Rifles
 3 Hunting
 4 The .577 Nitro Express as a parent cartridge
 5 See also
 6 References


History
The .577 Nitro Express was descended from the .577 Black Powder               The .577 Nitro Express is a large small-arms cartridge. In this
Express, a cartridge invented by the late Samuel Baker who had              picture, it is compared to one of the smallest cartridges, a .22 CB.

Holland & Holland build him an express rifle in this caliber. It began as   Type                   Rifle
a black powder round, and then became a smokeless round.[1] It fires        Place of origin                United Kingdom
a 750-grain bullet (about 48.6 grams) at a muzzle velocity of around                             Production history
2050 feet per second (625 m/s). The 2.75 in. version, intended to
                                                                            Designer               Holland & Holland
duplicate the black powder version, launches a 650-grain bullet at
                                                                            Produced               1898
more than 1,950 ft/s (590 m/s), depending on the type of powder and
                                                                            Variants               .577 Nitro Express 2 3/4",
amount used.
                                                                                                   Specifications
Rifles                                                                      Parent case            .577 Black Powder Express
                                                                            Bullet diameter        .585 in (14.9 mm)
A few manufacturers still make rifles chambered in 577 Nitro Express
                                                                            Neck diameter          .608 in (15.4 mm)
due to its popularity including Hartmann & Weiss, Heym, Holland and
                                                                            Base diameter          .660 in (16.8 mm)
Holland, Butch Searcy & Co., James Purdey and Sons, Westley
                                                                            Rim diameter           .748 in (19.0 mm)
Richards, and Hambrusch Hunting Weapons. Ruger and Butch Searcy
& Co. make single-shot conversions for this caliber.                        Rim thickness          .072 in (1.8 mm)
                                                                            Case length            2.75 in (70 mm)
Hunting                                                                     Overall length         3.70 in (94 mm)
                                                                                                Ballistic performance
This caliber is generally used for thick-skinned dangerous game such
                                                                             Bullet weight/type            Velocity              Energy
as Elephant, Rhino, and Cape Buffalo. Even among professional ivory
                                                                                750 gr (49 g)       2,050 ft/s (620 m/s) 7,010 ft·lbf (9,500 J)
hunters of old it is typically treated as an emergency weapon carried
by the hunter's gun bearer, reserved for stopping the charge of an              650 gr (42 g)       1,850 ft/s (560 m/s) 4,940 ft·lbf (6,700 J)

enraged, wounded elephant in thick bushes rather than as a day-to-              750 gr (49 g)       1,850 ft/s (560 m/s) 5,700 ft·lbf (7,700 J)

day hunting weapon. Only a few hunters such as James Sutherland
                                                                              Source(s): Handloaders Manual of Cartridge Conversions [1 ]
did use it as their primary elephant rifle.
It is unnecessarily powerful, harsh recoiling, and unwieldy for use against lesser game. For this purpose the old black powder
version can be used. It throws a 560-grain bullet at around 1700 ft/s.

The .577 Nitro Express as a parent cartridge
.577 Tyrannosaur - Created by Arthur Alphin of A-Square Co. as a replacement for a bolt-action 577 Nitro Express.
.585 Nyati - Made by blowing out the 577 Nitro Express case and turning the outer edge of the rim so it is slightly rebated,
making it a "rimless" cartridge.
.600/570 JDJ - Created by SSK Industries; made by necking up the 577 Nitro Express to accept .620 inch diameter bullets
from the 600 Nitro Express.
.620 JDJ - Created by SSK Industries; made by shortening the 577 Nitro Express case to 2 inches and necking it up to
accept .620 inch diameter bullets.
14.5 Whisper - Created by SSK Industries; made by shortening the 577 Nitro Express to 2 inches. Designed for subsonic
accuracy with heavy bullets.

See also
   .600 Nitro Express
   .700 Nitro Express
   Nitro Express
   .577/450 Martini-Henry
   List of rifle cartridges
   13 mm caliber

References
   1. ^ a b The Handloader's Manual of Cartridge Conversions, Book by John J. Donnelly, Stoeger Publishing, 1987, ISBN 978-0-88317-
      269-8 p. 683
   2. ^ Cartridges of the World 4th Edition, Book by Frank C. Barnes, DBI Books, p. 248



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