Norma Woodleigh Soft Nose 470 Nitro Express 32.4g

470 N.E.

This cartridge was introduced in 1900 and is probably the most popular of all the British big game cartridges. The .470 NE is probably designed by the gunmaking firm of Joseph Lang. Contrary to most of his contemporary gunmakers he chose not to make it a proprietary cartridge. Accordingly rifles for the .470 NE were built by almost all the famous British makers.

The .470 NE has plenty of killing power for all African game. It has a reputation for giving better penetration than the equivalent cartridges that were designed to replace the .450 caliber which was banned in India and Sudan by the British in 1907 in order to prevent rebels getting ammunition for stolen military weapons. Like almost all the British big game cartridges the .470 propelled a bullet of approximately 500 grains to a muzzle velocity of approximately 2150 fps and hereby generating a muzzle energy of approximately 5.000 ft. lbs.

After Kynoch ceased production in the 1960s ammunition for the .470 became scarce and everybody thought this was the end of the big doubles.

However in 1989 Federal began producing ammunition with much better quality bullets than formerly were available. Since then several other companies like the resurrected Kynoch Ltd. have followed them. As almost all ammunition is to be used in double rifles emphasis will be on duplicating the ammunition for which the rifle was regulated.