The .475 No. 2 Nitro Express is a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

  rifle

Rifle

A rifle is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves cut into the barrel walls. The raised areas of the rifling are called "lands," which make contact with the projectile , imparting spin around an axis corresponding to the...

 cartridge

Cartridge (firearms)

A cartridge, also called a round, packages the bullet, gunpowder and primer into a single metallic case precisely made to fit the firing chamber of a firearm. The primer is a small charge of impact-sensitive chemical that may be located at the center of the case head or at its rim . Electrically...

.

One of several rounds (including the .470

.470 Nitro Express

The .470 Nitro Express is a cartridge developed in England for very large or dangerous game hunting. This cartridge is used almost exclusively in single shot and double express rifles for hunting in the tropics or hot climate...

, .475

.475 Nitro Express

The .475 Nitro Express is a British rifle cartridge.One of several rounds designed and introduced between 1905 and 1910, after the British Army banned the .450, all with comparable performance, the .475 was intended for both single and double rifles.A good general purpose round, it is suitable...

, and .476 Nitro Express

.476 Nitro Express

The .476 Nitro Express is a British rifle cartridge.Introduced by Westley Richards around 1907, it follows on the heels of the .470, .475, and .475 No. 2 Nitro Express rounds. While it was available in single and double rifles, it was less popular than other comparable rounds...

) designed and introduced between 1905 and 1910, after the British Army

British Army

The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

 banned the .450, in India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 and the Sudan

Sudan

Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...

, all with comparable performance, the .475 No. 2 was used in a number of double rifles. In addition, Jeffery chambered a slightly less powerful loading in his rifles.

A good general purpose round, it is suitable for all big game, though somewhat overpowered for anything in North America. Its power is almost identical to the .458 Winchester Magnum

.458 Winchester Magnum

The .458 Winchester Magnum is a belted, straight-taper cased, dangerous game rifle cartridge. It was introduced commercially in 1956 by Winchester and first chambered in the Winchester Model 70 African rifle. It was designed to compete against the .450 Nitro Express and the .470 Nitro Express...

, with a larger diameter bullet; whether this is an advantage remains in dispute.

The standard factory load used 85 gr (5.51 g) of cordite

Cordite

Cordite is a family of smokeless propellants developed and produced in the United Kingdom from 1889 to replace gunpowder as a military propellant. Like gunpowder, cordite is classified as a low explosive because of its slow burning rates and consequently low brisance...

over a 480 gr (31.1 g) slug, while Jeffery used a 480 gr (32.4 g) bullet which dropped 0.6 in (15 mm) more at 200 yd (180 m).

Sources

• Barnes, Frank C., ed. by John T. Amber. ".475 No. 2 Nitro Express", in Cartridges of the World, pp. 228–9 & 236. Northfield, IL: DBI Books, 1972. ISBN 0-695-80326-3.