The .500 Black Powder Express was a big game hunting rifle calibre and a series of black powder cases of varying lengths that originated in the United Kingdom.
Design Details[]
As mentioned previously above, the case came in different lengths, including 1½ inches, 2 inches, 2¼ inches, 2⅝ inches, 3 inches, and 3¼ inches. Several lengths became popular and endured, while others had lasted only for a short period of time.
.500 Nitro for Black[]
The 3-inch and 3¼-inch case lengths live on to the present day as .500 3-inch Nitro for Black and .500 3¼-inch Nitro for Black, respectively. Both use mild cordite smokeless powder loadings that are carefully balanced through trial and error to replicate the ballistics of the original black powder loads. Both offer near-identical ballistic performance to the other, and are quite similar to the .50-140 Sharps cartridge.
As a parent case[]
The 3-inch and 3¼-inch case lengths were also used as the basis for the cordite-based .500 Nitro Express cartridge, with the 3-inch variant becoming the most popular.
In the 1870s, the 3¼-inch case length was necked down to .45 inches to create the .500/450 Magnum Black Powder Express, which in turn became the .450/500 Nitro Express with a cordite loading. After the British government banned .450 caliber ammunition in India in 1907, the .500/465 Nitro Express and .470 Nitro Express were developed from the .500 Black Powder Express.
Usage[]
While it was never highly regarded in Africa, the .500 Black Powder Express cartridge was popular in India for hunting tigers. In fact, prior to switching to a .400 Jeffery Nitro Express rifle, Jim Corbett used a .500 BPE rifle with cordite-loaded Nitro for Black rounds to dispatch the infamous Champawat Tiger, the first man-eater that he had shot.