You're stuck in the savanna, face to face with a full-grown, rampaging adult male African Elephant on the verge of mowing you down. At that moment, you only want to be with one friend: a .577 T-Rex loaded into your bolt-action rifle.
This heavy hitter, sarcastically reported being more than enough to put down the tyrannosaurus rex after which it was called, maybe the only way you live to tell your grandkids about your terrible encounter with Savanna's bull. Let us examine the properties of this 'stopping rifle' cartridge to understand what makes it such a weighty and powerful companion when confronted with big game.
The .577 Tyrannosaur (.577 T-rex) cartridge was developed by the ammunition company A-square in 1993. It was built to be the big hitter that it is, with the primary goal of safeguarding visitors and clients in wildlife parks from dangerous charging animals. The ammo was distributed to the professional tour guides who led these guests.
What are the features?
The .577 T-rex bullet is 0.58inches (14.9mm) in diameter, 750-grain (49g), and is housed in a rimless bottleneck-shaped cartridge with a length of 3inches (75.9mm) and a diameter of 0.68inches (17.5mm). The ammunition travels somewhat slower than normal rounds, but the energy imparted to the target on contact is enormous. When fired, the bullet traveled at a speed of 2,460ft/s (750m/s), delivering an astounding muzzle energy of 10,180-foot-pounds of force (13,800J).
The ballistics of this cartridge, however, comes at a cost in the form of the tremendous recoil generated by discharging the .577. The Tyrannosaur ammunition has the heaviest free recoil of all, with a recoil of 220 pounds into the shoulder. Perhaps this is why many individuals are afraid to use this ammunition, because of the immense recoil that many people find themselves unable to control.
When it comes to hunting, the .577 Tyrannosaur excels in close range and medium-range accuracy at the expense of long-range accuracy, as it was designed for use as a last resort to halt dangerously charging animals.
A rifle capable of firing this cartridge must weigh at least ten pounds. The Hannibal sports rifle is the best gun for the .577 Tyrannosaur. The ammunition costs $60-$100 (pre-Covid), while the Hannibal rifle costs $4000.
700 Nitro Express Ammo
With a metric designation of 17.8 × 89mmR, the 700 Nitro Express Ammo has its origin in the United Kingdom. It is a big game rifle cartridge. It was developed in 1988 by Jim Bell and William Feldstein and built and produced by Holland and Holland, a British company in London. Feldstein had tried getting a .600 nitro ammo made for him, but H&H had ceased production. So he and Jim Bell went on to design the .700 Nitro Express Ammo, and it attracted the interest of Holland and Holland.
The 700 Nitro Express Ammo has no parent case, a bullet diameter of 0.700 inches (17.8mm), and a rim diameter of .890 inches (22.6mm). Its overall length is 4.20 inches (107mm), and it is straight-rimmed with a rim thickness of .060 inches.
It is called a big game rifle because the 700 Nitro Express Ammo was designed to take down mammoth animals like elephants, rhinos, hippos, and their likes. It is one of the world's biggest and strongest big game cartridges ever produced. It is the world's largest double rifle and weighs 1000 grains.
It is effective ammunition to use in practicing long-range marksmanship. The 700 Nitro Express ammo can deliver roughly 53,450 joules of force to the human body and can dislocate the shoulders. While it is hard to find and usually has to be made on request, the 700 Nitro Express ammo is one of a kind and should convey that the expense is worth it.
