Craig Boddington was the senior contributing editor of our modern gun and ammunition caliber dictionary. Craig was involved in the development and testing of many of these and writes from first hand experience. This dictionary was written exclusively for Wholesale Hunter with unique information found nowhere else.
GUN CALIBER DICTIONARY
Rifle
500/.416 Nitro Express
The 500/416 3 1/4" Nitro Express was introduced by Krieghoff in 1996. It was the first cartridge since before WWII to be called "Nitro Express" and its name says it all: It is based on the 500 Nitro Express case necked down to take a .416-inch bullet, with case length of 3.25 inches. Designed for double rifles, it is loaded to lower pressure than the several 416s for bolt actions, propelling a 410-grain bullet at 2325 fps for just under 5000 ft-lbs of energy. Now chambered by most makers of modern doubles, it is adequate for the largest game, yet with its higher velocity shoots flatter and is thus more versatile than the older big-bore Nitro Express cartridges. — Craig Boddington