What does Woodleigh presently use for bullet jacket material? 20+ years ago, Woodleigh bullet jackets were some sort of steel. A few shooters were unwilling to shoot those bullets in expensive rifles and my employer was investigating the manufacture of odd-size bullets from copper tubing and lead wire.
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".
One thing I notices the .318 Nitro Express rimless and the .318 WR Rimless are different.
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.
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.
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.
