.318 Westley Richards
| .318 Westley Richards | ||||||||||||
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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 | ||||||||||||
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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 proprientry 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
- ↑ "Municon, 318 Westley". Archived from the original on 2015-01-01. Retrieved 2014-12-30.
- ↑ "Kynoch, 318 Rimless". Archived from the original on 2015-01-01. Retrieved 2014-12-30.
- ↑ Passmore
Bibliography
- Clode, Simon Famous hunters and their Westley Richards rifles, theexplora.com.
- Haley, Charlie, .318 Westley Richards, africahunting.com.
- Kynoch Ammunition, Big Game Cartridges (Archived 2015-01-01) kynochammunition.co.uk.
- Municon, 318 Westley (Archived 2015-01-01), municon.org.
- Passmore, James, W.D.M. Bell and His Elephants, chuckhawks.com.