500 NITRO EXPRESS

BUFFALO BORE 500 NITRO EXPRESS AMMUNITION

570 gr. SHOCK HAMMER
2,150 fps/ME 5,714 ft-lbs

5 Round Box

ITEM 500 N.E. - 570 SOFT

01-02-24

Friends,              

I believe that any product designed for use should be used in the real world as part of its design and function testing. Design engineers that design WORKING products from drawings and other specs alone do not understand how their products work (or don’t work) in real-world applications when the proverbial shit is hitting the proverbial fan. Real-world demands of any product do not care what drawings or written specs say. From refrigerators to drinking glasses to coffee pots to automobiles to door knobs and especially ammunition, the real world of use quickly defines what actually works and what does not under a variety of not-so-obvious difficulties and circumstances. So, I test the daylights out of our dangerous game ammo in Africa on dangerous game. As one example, I hunted and shot around 20 pissed-off, wild, mature Cape Buffalo bulls with our 500 NE and 500 Jeffery, 570 gr. TSX load (Both cartridges use the same bullet at the same velocity) in the chest and shoulders (no spinal or brain shots) to see how lethal that bullet at that velocity is on chest cavity hit Cape Buffalo, just so I can say with certainty, that load works well on aggressive, dangerous 2,000 lb. hooved critters. I’m in Africa for many months per year hunting dangerous game with our various loads designed for such use so I can produce the best and most effective dangerous game ammo in the world. Please know that all of our ammo, made for dangerous game hunting, is the result of tons of hunting and killing dangerous animals around the world. We do not expect to sell a lot of 600 NE, 577 NE, 500 NE, 500 Jeffery, 505 Gibbs, 470 NE, 404 Jeffery or 416 Rigby ammunition, but those who buy that and other ammunition from us can feel confident in knowing it works quite well on living mammals. No part of this process has been easy, quick, or cheap, which is why this ammo is not cheap. In fact, this labor of love may never make a profit as buying multiple $100,000.00+ double rifles and equally expensive African safaris puts us deeply into the financial red from the start on these types of ammunition, but it is the only way to make the best purpose-designed ammo in the world. These new Nitro Express and other safari loads are designed to meet original cordite velocity specs. Due to newer propellants, we can do this at even lower pressures than the original cordite loads, but again, with no sacrifice to original velocity and bullet weight specs. Never mind modern and superior bullet designs that kill more effectively.

A word about getting double rifles to “regulate”: When it comes to internal ballistics (What is happening inside the gun when you fire it), there is no secret load that will work the very same in all double rifles or any type of rifle. To get double rifles to regulate (the left barrel should shoot 1.5 inches left of the right barrel at 50 yards) involves four main factors. 1) bullet weight, 2) velocity, 3) bullet seating depth, and 4) the type of gunpowder used) you must find the right combination of these four factors, and even then, no two double rifles will be identical in this regard. I have purchased many brands of ammunition to test in double rifles, and in all cases, I was able to develop ammo that regulated better and shot smaller groups with my individual rifles because, well, rifles are individuals. Even two rifles made on the same day in the same plant by the same people will have differences in behavior. So when you purchase our ammo for double rifles, know that I tested and made the best ammo possible for accuracy and regulation with my rifles, but yours may vary, and this will apply to INDIVIDUAL rifles, especially double rifles, no matter what ammo you purchase. One thing is certain: if you hit any animal properly with any of our Dangerous Game loads, the ammo will do its job with aplomb.

The 500 NE and 500 Jeffery, loaded with the same bullets at the same velocity (570 grs. @ 2150 FPS) is where, in my opinion, African DG cartridges really start to get effective for their intended purpose. I have more experience in Africa on DG with a .510-inch diameter bullet at 2150 fps than all others. I simply love the 500 NE, although I do more DG hunting with the 577 and 600 NE cartridges these days. I’ve hunted some with Mark Sullivan in Tanzania, who I believe is our best modern day PH, in terms of skill and nerve and Mark says his mother uses the 500 NE……He is joking as his mother probably never fired a rifle and has long since left this world. Unlike Mark, I see the virtues of the 500 NE and they are many. I have yet to see a hard-bossed cape buffalo bull hit in the chest/shoulder areas with a 570 gr. TSX bullet, that was not fairly deflated on impact…….it takes the aggression right out of them, normally, but this is not a 100% rule—nothing is in the real world of hunting, especially Cape Buffalo.

For Cape Buffalo, I prefer a deep penetrating expanding bullet, so we are loading our 500 NE with the excellent Hammer, Shock Hammer, 570 gr. bullet and the Barnes TSX. The Shock Hammer bullet is designed to shed its petals after a couple inches of penetration, which travel onward to make four separate paths of destruction for 12-20 inches, while the bullet shank continues on, penetrating deeply, like a solid. I would also use this bullet on thin skinned critters like African Lion or AK Brown Bear. The TSX gives spectacular terminal performance, like TSX bullets do. I have used many of them in differing calibers on Cape Buffalo and highly recommend them.

For a solid bullet, I REALLY like the CEB solid brass flat nose. I have yet to recover one of these, even from Cape Buffalo shot length-wise. The wound channel these flat-nose bullets make in living tissue is at least double the diameter of the bullet. The penetration is straight line with no deviation. It is, in my opinion one of the best terminally performing solid bullets, if not the best, in the world. Anyone with lots of experience saying differently, probably has a hidden motive, or like I said, they do not have a lot of experience. For elephant shot anywhere, or body shot hippo or rhino, this would be my bullet of choice. I prefer the Shock Hammer or TSX for buffalo.

Below, find velocities from my personal 500 NE rifles.

                            >  2,128 fps - Abbiatico and Salivinelli made for Griffin Howe, 23-inch
                            >  2,152 fps - Merkel, 24-inch
                            >  2,147 fps - Verney Corron, 24-inch

These loads are accurate in all three of these rifles and regulate well in two of them, excepting the Verney Corron, which will not regulate well with any 570 gr. bullet @ 2150 fps. The Verney requires 570 gr. bullets to be slowed to around 1900 fps in order to regulate. I like how the Verney recoils, points and carry’s, so I am keeping it for the distant (hopefully far distant) days when I am too old to use full power ammo ???? I could have the Verney worked over to regulate at the velocities it should, but I’m simply too busy to fix things that should have been right when it left the factory. These kinds of issues is why I test, test, test, before I rely on any gun/ammo combination.

I know I am anal, but friends, please test any ammo you plan to use in the real world, before using it in the real world, in your particular rifle, for its intended purpose. Firearms are very individual and virtually all of them will show different tendencies and ammo preferences. So before you go into harms way, please test. Doing so will boost your confidence and perhaps keep you from making fatal mistakes. From double rifles to magazine rifles, I am often amazed that folks will take their rifles afield without even sighting them in with the ammo they have chosen. I once had a friend named Doug. Doug booked an expensive guided elk hunt on an Arizona Indian reservation known for producing 370 class and up, bull elk. Doug had a custom made rifle chambered in 7MM Weatherby and was planning to use Weatherby ammo, but he failed to sight in his new rifle with that ammo because a gunsmith who mounted his scope, “bore sighted” the rifle. I emphatically warned Doug to sight in his rifle with that ammo before going hunting. He refused because he had confidence in the hypothetical world of “bore sighting”. Opening morning, Doug was lucky enough to get a 370 class bull in his sights, in an open meadow, at around 100 yards. He fired and the bull just stood there, so as he went to chamber another cartridge, he experienced sticky extraction of the fired casing, which is an issue that would have been discovered with prior testing. By the time he was able to chamber another cartridge, Mr. Bull, called BS on Doug and left the opening, never to be seen by Doug again. Dougs Native American guide was so angry at Doug, that he took him back to the lodge and insisted Doug sight in his rifle. It was only two feet (that’s 24 inches) off at 100 yards, with that ammo. Doug left that hunt with a normal 5X5 bull that he could have shot on a general season, over the counter tag hunt, on public land. Good thing Doug was not hunting DG. Doug was one of the better humans I’ve ever had the privilege of knowing, but he did not understand much about rifles and ammo.

Three years ago, I bought five boxes of Norma PH 500 Jeffery ammo loaded with their 540 gr. flat nose solid. Norma generally makes some of the best ammo you can get anywhere and their brass is simply the best anywhere. I have two 500 Jeffery rifles that have never misfired, no matter the ammo make, but with this Norma ammo, I had numerous FTF’s in both rifles. When I have an FTF (Failure to Fire) I normally attribute it to the rifle as many more things can go wrong with a rifle, than with ammo, but then I test, to find out the facts. Both of my 500 Jeffery rifles are still firing all other ammo I put in them, including my hand loads, with nary a single FTF. Now, I’m not trying to throw Norma under-the-bus as Norma has a history of making the best ammunition of any major manufacturer, but in this particular case, without testing in my particular rifle before hunting with it, it could have been very costly in several personal ways, including the loss of human life. GO FIGURE or perhaps I should have said GO TEST. Never, ever, trust a firearm/ammo combination that you have not confirmed through testing.

Please use our DG ammo with confidence. Have fun and be safe. Good hunting to you all.

God Bless,

Tim Sundles

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