doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com 318 Westley

Thanks Kutter. One thing I notices the .318 Nitro Express rimless and the .318 WR Rimless are different. I've seen quite a few reloading sites list .318 Nitro Express rimless as another name for the .318 WR Rimless.

Wasn't aware of that,,The maze of Brit caliber designations is certainly not a strong point of mine,,so I learned something today!
I went back and checked ch4d's web site and they show a separate listing for each of those 2 calibers. Your's is the less expensive of the two!
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318 Nitro Express Rimless - - H $ 156.60 - - - -
318 Wesley Richards Rimless 4 F $ 78.25 1 - -

The .318 WR is one that I really can't understand yet. The actual diameter of the bullet is .33, the .425 WR is .435! What a mess.

You got some bad data there somewhere. You're either confusing soft nose with solids, or are thinking of a different manufacturer altogether, or both.

First off, while the .318 was once widely used on African thick-skinned dangerous game with 250 grain solids, that's illegal now. With the .318 today, we're speaking of expanding bullets, not solids.

Woodleigh expanding bullets have never been steel-jacketed. Woodleigh has always used gilding metal jackets for their softs - 90/10 copper/zinc. Bonded cores were added 20 years ago. Woodleigh solids are steel-jacketed with a gilding metal sheath, but there isn't much need for them in a .318 today.

Further, .318s have been in regular use with steel-jacketed bullets for 70+ years now. Between the wars, Kynoch (the only manufacturer of centerfire sporting rifle ammunition in the UK after 1920) introduced steel-jacketed solids, as well as steel-jacketed softs, for the .318, and both were in common use in that caliber until Kynoch stopped production in 1973. The pre-WWII bullets had cupro-nickel covered steel jackets, while the post-war were gilding metal covered steel, as the Woodleigh solids are today.

Twenty years ago, there was a ready supply of copper tube/lead wire bullets available in all the odd British diameters and weights - the Barnes "Original".



No, they're not. The .318 Rimless Nitro Express/.318 Westley Richards Rimless/.318 Westley Richards Accelerated Express are the same cartridge. Only the Square Shoulder and the flanged (.322 Swift) versions differ. That's one of the reasons I carefully avoid CH4D when buying dies for British rifle cartridges.



Although the Brits didn't stick to their system any more perfectly than we have to ours, it isn't too hard to follow. In general terms, their rifle cartridge nomenclature is based on bore diameter - but land diameter, not groove. CIP spec for the .318 is .318" land diameter, and .330" groove diameter.

Loading data for the .318 can be a touch scarce, and some suggest using .338/06 data. Since these are Mausers, you may not care, but be aware that max pressure for the .318 is much lower. Some manuals list loads up to 63,000 PSI in the .338/06. CIP MAP for the .318 is 47,800 PSI.

Thanks 400. I will have to wait for 2 months or so. Takes that long to get the approved form6 and then import them.

Mike, let us know if you get permission to import those two Mausers. I have read that there can be difficulties when our import bureaucrats define any Mauser with a left receiver wall thumb cut as an ex-military rifle.

if you can prove through proof marks or other methods that the mausers were originally commercial actions they can be imported. Any military action that has been sporterized in any way is not importable.
Steve