The .500 Rafiki, also known as .700/500 by English terms, is a big game hunting cartridge developed in 2001 by David Little (would-be founder of Kynamco) on the request of and named after Rafic Hariri, who at the time was the Prime Minister of Lebanon.
Design Details[]
The .500 Rafiki is based on the casing of the .700 Nitro Express, necked down to accept a .50-inch bullet, conceptually similar to the .700/577 Nitro Express. It is a remake of the .500 No. 100 4⅛", a cartridge which had never entered production.
Designed for hunting large African game animals, the .500 Rafiki, with a 570 grain (36.9354 grams) projectile, can achieve a muzzle velocity of 2,420 feet per second with a force of 7,500 foot-pounds from a 25 inch (63.5cm) barrel.
Trivia[]
- While the .500 Rafiki is named after Rafic Hariri, the term "Rafiki" in the cartridge's name is, coincidentally, also a Swahili word for "friend". Moreover, rafiq is a Moroccan Arabic word which also means "friend".