.500/.416 Nitro Express- What's The Scoop?

[Googleplex]

I've been doing a lot of looking around at the fine doubles. I know I shouldn't, because I can't even afford the rag to mop up the drool these pieces seem to drive from mouth. Anyhow, I was looking at the cartridge lineup of the Blaser S2, and I noticed one cartridge I knew absolutely nothing about: the .500/.416 NE. I've done a lot of historical research on the old Nitro Express cartridges, but this one never came up. I finally found by looking at an ad for a kreighoff double that this round was just recently invented, and learned some of the characteristics that led to its invention: the ready availability of .500 NE cases and .416 caliber bullets. This makes sense as the .411 caliber bullets required by the .450/.400 NE have been pretty rare in the past. But I can't find any editorials on this cartridge, no articles, no trophies taken with it, I can't find anything on it other than a couple of rifles chambered in it. What do you guys know of it?

 

[Leadbutt]

Pop over to accuratereloading.com and ask the guys and gals in the Big Bore or African Hunting or Double rifle forums, several there have used them and can help

 

[Googleplex]

Thanks, I'll do that for certain!

 

[Maverick223]

I don't have much useful information to add, and haven't even heard of the chambering until just now, but I do have a few thoughts on the subject. IMO this is one use where bigger is just about always better. For DG the trajectory doesn't matter, and a larger diameter more massive projectile will generally penetrate better than one similarly constructed at roughly the same energy level. In other words: I'd rather have a .500NE or .470NE for a stopping rifle than any newfangled wildcat. That's not to say that there aren't any advantages to the new design (recoil is likely reduced, and trajectory should be improved), or that it won't accomplish the task at hand, just that the few advantages are likely far outweighed by the disadvantages.