An express rifle is a large caliber hunting rifle for large and dangerous game like elephant, leopard, cape buffalo and brown bear. As with most forms of sport hunting the concept of the rifle is to give the game as much advantage as possible while still maintaining the relative safety of the hunter. This form of rifle is always equipped with iron sights and may additionally have a rifle scope. Wooden stocks and highly polished engraved blue steel are the norm but some of the more modern rifle designs may have synthetic stocks and stainless steel components. The word caliber (American English) or calibre (British English) designates the interior diameter of a tube or the exterior diameter of a wire or rod. ... Hunting is, in its most general sense, the pursuit of a target. ... A rifle is any long gun which has a rifled barrel. ... Genera and Species Loxodonta Loxodonta cyclotis Loxodonta africana Elephas Elephas maximus Elephas recki (extinct) Stegodon (extinct) Deinotherium (extinct) Mammuthus (extinct) Elephantidae (the elephants) is the only extant family in the order Proboscidea. ... Binomial name Panthera pardus (Linnaeus, 1758) Leopards (Panthera pardus) are one of the four big cats of the genus Panthera. ... Species Syncerus caffer Subspecies Syncerus is a genus of bovines found in Africa, the only extant member of which is the African Buffalo, or Cape Buffalo. ... Binomial name Ursus arctos Linnaeus, 1758 The Brown Bear (Ursus arctos) is a species of bear that can reach weights of 130–700 kg (300–1500 pounds). ... A telescopic sight, commonly referred to as a scope, is a device used to give an accurate point of aim for a firearm. ...

Game is to be taken with these rifles at very close range and from point blank to about 100 yds. The iron sights are designed to be used in low light or close range and the scope at distances from 50 to 100 yds. Some iron sights are simple blue steel and are composed of a square front post and a notched square rear sight. The sight picture for these sighs is simply to line up the top of the front post with the top of the rear notch and center it left to right. Another iron sight combination more commonly found on African express rifles is the dot and "V". The White dot is easily seen in low light and the "V" notch provides an unobstructed view of the surrounding area. The front sight is a White bead composed of natural or synthetic material and the rear sight is a black steel notch shaped like a "V". Proper position for this sight is to place the white dot low enough in the "V" so that the edges of the circle just touch the edges of the "V". The White dot is commonly made out of plastic but older rifles may have elephant or warthog ivory front sights. Warthog being preferred because it will not yellow with age like elephant ivory. World map showing location of Africa A satellite composite image of Africa Africa is the worlds second_largest continent in both area and population, after Asia. ...

The wooden stocks of these rifles are selected for highly figured and very beautiful grain structure and in many cases the wood selected may be double the value of rifle. The wood is treated with many coats of tongue or linseed oil to preserve it and bring out it's natural beauty. Blue steel components of the rifles may be hand engraved with figures of the animals or floral pattern or flourishes. the engraving process is very time consuming and costly. Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. ...

The Cartridges have a brass case and may or may not be a belted magnum design. Projectiles are 0.375 of an inch in diameter or greater and weigh more than 250 grains (1/7000 of a pound). They utilize modern Smokeless powder vs. cordite or black powder. Velocities are 2200-3000 FPS (feet per second). Common express rifle cartridges are the .375 H&H (Holland and Holland), 458 Winchester magnum, .460 Weatherby magnum, and the nitro express series including the .577 and .600 NE. The word cartridge has different meanings, depending on context: Cartridge (electronics) - a module to be inserted into a larger piece of equipment, for example a games cartridge in a games console, or an ink cartridge in a printer. ... Smokeless powder is the name given to any number of gunpowder-like propellants used in firearms which produce negligible smoke when fired, unlike the older black powder which it replaced. ... Cordite is a smokeless propellent explosive made from two high explosives nitrocellulose mixed with nitroglycerin, and commonly used in firearms since the early 20th Century. ... Black powder is a type of gunpowder invented in the 9th century and was practically the only known propellant and explosive until the middle of the 19th century. ... Winchester Cathedral as seen from Cathedral Close Winchester is a city in southern England, and the administrative capital of the county of Hampshire, with a population of around 35,200. ...

Express rifles come in two actions. The side by side and the bolt action. The side by side has two barrels mounted beside one another and may have a single or double triggers. It is designed to allow the hunter to fire two shots without having to manipulate the action. Most parts of the mechanism that fire the gun are duplicated so in the unlikely event that a mechanical failure like a broken firing pin or spring should occur the hunter can still fire the second barrel. A bolt action express rifle must be loaded by means of moving a steel bolt back and forth. rounds are extracted by the bolt, ejected and a then loaded from a magazine that caries between two and three spare rounds.