.318 Westley Richards

.318 Westley Richards

Two .318 Westley Richard cartridges in a lineup
Type Rifle
Place of origin England
Production history
Designer Westley Richards
Designed 1910
Produced 1910
Specifications
Case type Rimless, bottleneck
Bullet diameter .330 in (8.4 mm)
Neck diameter .358 in (9.1 mm)
Shoulder diameter .436 in (11.1 mm)
Base diameter .464 in (11.8 mm)
Rim diameter .464 in (11.8 mm)
Case length 2.368 in (60.1 mm)
Overall length 3.349 in (85.1 mm)
Ballistic performance
Bullet weight/type Velocity Energy
180 gr (12 g) 2,700 ft/s (820 m/s) 2,920 ft·lbf (3,960 J)
250 gr (16 g) 2,400 ft/s (730 m/s) 3,194 ft·lbf (4,330 J)
Test barrel length: 28 in
Source(s): municon.org [1] & kynochammunition.co.uk [2]

The .318 Westley Richards,also known as the .318 Rimless Nitro Express, is a proprietary medium bore centerfire rifle cartridge developed by Westley Richards.

Design & use

Westley Richards introduced the .318 in 1910, primarily for use in their M 98 Mauser based bolt action sporting rifle.

The .318 Westley Richards is a rimless bottlenecked cartridge primarily intended for use in Africa. The bullet diameter is actually .330", the naming is due to British nomenclature which sometimes names cartidges by their bore diameter rather than the more commonly applied groove diameter. The most common loading was a 250 grain bullet with a listed speed of 2400 fps, a lighter loading firing a 180 grain bullet at 2700 fps was also offered for lighter game. The .318 Westley Richards looks very similar to the American .30-06 Springfield and provides comparable performance to its contemporary the .333 Jeffery and the more modern wildcat .338-06.

One user was the elephant hunter W.D.M. "Karamojo" Bell, who later wrote the .318 Westly Richards was a more reliable killer for certain shots than his favoured .275 Rigby, but the .275 Rigby was a "surgeons" rifle. [3]

See also

References

Footnotes

  1. ↑ "Municon, 318 Westley". Archived from the original on 2015-01-01. Retrieved 2014-12-30.
  2. ↑ "Kynoch, 318 Rimless". Archived from the original on 2015-01-01. Retrieved 2014-12-30.
  3. ↑ Passmore

Bibliography

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