doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com .450 BPE

Mike:
The information I have seen indicated that the 450 BPE was re-named the 450 Nitro after the powder change. If you have different info. please post it.
Jim

The .450 BPE uses the exact same brass as the .450 Nitro Express. Rim thickness of the Nitro round is exactly the same as the black powder round. Each round is 3 1/4" long.

Needless to say, the two rounds are loaded entirely differently. The original .450 Express, now called the .450 BPE, was loaded with 120 grains of black powder and bullets ranging in weight from 270 grains (at 1975 fps) to 365 grains (at 1700 fps). Obviously, pressures for this round are limited to black powder pressures.

With the advent of smokeless powder, the old round was loaded to black powder pressures using 52 grains of Cordite and a 365 grain bullet, yielding 2100 fps.

The .450 Nitro Express is a horse of a different color. It's standard loading was 70 grains of Cordite behind a 480 grain bullet, yielding 2150 fps.

Curl

CptCurl has covered the details.

Think of the .450BPE and the .450NE as the difference between the safe .45-70 loads in a Trapdoor Carbine and a Ruger #1.

The Trapdoor and Ruger .45-70 use the same brass but the performance is completely different.

As to it being a duplicate of the .45-120, yes the cartridge is similar in size but the .450BPE would generally use much lighter bullets than its American cousin.

Now who said cartridge identification and naming was somewhat confusing!!
Jim