700 Nitro Express

700 Nitro Express (17.8×89mmR) is a big game rifle cartridge. The cartridge is typically charged with around 250 grains of powder, in addition to a two-grain igniter charge (to reduce the tendency of the cartridge to hang fire from such large powder charges).^[3] The cartridge was introduced in 1988 by the boutique gunmakers Holland & Holland (H&H) of London. It was developed by Jim Bell and William Feldstein and built by H&H. Feldstein had tried unsuccessfully to get H&H to build a .600 Nitro Express for him, but they had already ceased production. However, when Bell and Feldstein produced an entirely new .700 Nitro Express cartridge, they were able to attract the interest of H&H, which was looking for a new big-bore cartridge. After production began, the backlog of orders was so great that it continued to 2007 and H&H restarted the production of .600 Nitro Express guns.

.700 nitro express

The  cartridge is designed to be used on the largest and most dangerous game animals, such as elephants, rhinoceroses, and buffalo. It is a very powerful cartridge, with a muzzle energy of up to 15,000 foot-pounds force (20,000 J). However, it is also a very heavy cartridge, with a recoil that is almost impossible for most people to handle. As a result, the .700 Nitro Express is not a popular cartridge for hunting.

700 nitro express vs 50 bmg

The cartridge is a rimmed cartridge, meaning that it has a rim that protrudes from the base of the cartridge case. This rim allows the cartridge to be extracted from the chamber of a rifle by hand. The cartridge is also a bottlenecked cartridge, meaning that the diameter of the neck of the cartridge case is smaller than the diameter of the body of the cartridge case. This design helps to improve the accuracy of the cartridge.