.450/400 Black Powder Express

The .450/400 Black Powder Express  cartridges were black powder rifle cartridges introduced in the United Kingdom in the 1880s.

Design
The .450/400 Black Powder Express cartridges are bottlenecked centerfire black powder express rifle cartridges produced in two case lengths, 2$1/4$ inches (60.3 mm) and 3$3/8$ inches (83 mm). Both cartridges were later loaded as "Nitro for Black" cartridges, the same cartridges loaded with mild loadings of cordite carefully balanced through trial to replicate the ballistics of the black powder versions.

.450/400 2$3/8$ inch Black Powder Express
The .450/400 2$1/4$ inch Black Powder Express was loaded with a bullets from 210 to 270 gr driven by 79 to 84 gr of black powder. The .450/400 2$3/8$ inch Nitro for Black was loaded with a jacketed 270 grain round nose bullet driven by 38 gr of cordite.



.450/400 3$3/8$ inch Black Powder Express
The .450/400 3$3/8$ inch Black Powder Express was loaded with a bullets from 230 to 300 gr driven by 110 gr of black powder. The .450/400 3$1/4$ inch Nitro for Black was loaded with bullets of 270 to 316 gr driven by 45 to 48 gr of cordite.



Nitro Express loadings
The .450/400 Black Powder Express cartridges served as the parent cases for the .450/400 Nitro Express cartridges, the same cartridge cases loaded with greater loads of cordite and heavier bullets to produce far more powerful rounds.

History
The .450/400 Black Powder Express in both cartridge lengths were developed in the 1880s by necking down the .450 Black Powder Express, the .450/400 2$1/4$ inch Black Powder Express simply a shortened version. The .450/400 3$1/4$ inch Black Powder Express was listed in the Kynoch catalogue of 1884 as the '''.450 reduced to. 400'''.

Whilst obsolete, .450/400 3$3/8$ inch Black Powder Express ammunition can still be purchased from ammunition manufacturers such as Kynoch.

Use
The .450/400 Black Powder Express in both case lengths were considered good deerstalking cartridges and was usually chambered in a lightweight stalking rifle.