.318 RIMLESS NITRO-EXPRESS RIFLES, AND HOW THEY WERE MADE

The .318 Westley Richards was one of the most popular medium-bore cartridges used in Africa. We take a look at its birth and rifles made for it.

The .318 Westley Richards was one of the most popular medium-bore cartridges used in Africa. We take a look at its birth and some rifles chambered for it.

THE .318 RIMLESS NITRO-EXPRESS

The .318 Rimless Nitro-Express cartridge was introduced by Westley Richards in 1909 and fired a 250-grain bullet at about 2 400 fps (the actual bullet diameter was .330”). It was mostly chambered in handy, reliable, lightweight bolt-action rifles using Mauser actions. The 250-grain bullet had a very high sectional density and the long parallel sides resulted in excellent penetration. It immediately gained a reputation as an outstanding medium-bore cartridge and was one of Westley Rich

ards’ most popular cartridges. John Taylor writes in African Rifles and Cartridges that it was “undoubtedly the most popular and most widely-used British medium bore”.

Also commonly known as the “.318 Westley Richards” or the “.318 Accelerated Express”, it is certainly a classic and famous cartridge and has been praised by many hunters who used it. Taylor further said, “there was nothing to compare with it” and “you could not wish for a better or more satisfactory general-purpose medium bore”. W.D.M. Bell is always associated with the .275 Rigby, but in fact in Karamojo

Safari he also recommends to the novice that “the 250gr .318, although far from perfect, approaches most nearly the big game hunter’s ideal bullet”.

Westley Richards experimented with various bullet weights, including a 180-grain bullet, but the most widely used was the 250-grain soft-nose and the 250grain solid bullets with their thick jackets as loaded by Kynoch – these loads earned the .318 its enviable reputation. One bullet that was only marginally successful was the patented hollow LT pointed-capped bullet, which was really intended for thin-skinned animals. It is only mentioned here because its excessive overall length (89,2 mm versus 85 mm for the “normal” 250-grain bullets) caused headaches for rifle builders, which will become apparent later. The “LT” refers to Leslie Taylor who was the managing director at Westley Richards from 1899 to 1930 and held many patents, including that of the hollowpointed-capped bullet.

The .318 cartridge has been discussed and lauded in many articles and publications and will not be further described here. Instead, we are interested in how various rifles chambered for this legendary cartridge were built.

Rifle No 1: Westley Richards sidelock ejector double rifle This exquisite best-grade hammerless sidelock ejector double rifle was made in December 1926 for “Lyon & Lyon Ltd. Calcutta” and is so engraved on the barrels together with “Westley Richards & Co. London” and “WR .318 Rimless Cartridge”. No doubt it was originally intended for tiger hunting in India. The rifle weighs 10 pounds, the sidelock action is fully engraved and colour casehardened with cocking indicators, and the proof loads on the flats of the 26-inch barrels show 37 grains of cordite with a 250grain bullet.

Making a double rifle to function reliably with a rimless case is no trivial matter, so the most fascinating thing about this rifle is its Westley Richards-patented rimless extractors and their ingenious operation. A small sliding plate has been built into the rear body of the extractor. When the action is open, this rimless extractor plate is in the down position as can be seen in the accompanying photograph, with a small part of the plate protruding from the bottom of the extractor body.

This allows the new cartridge to drop freely into the chamber when loaded, which looks a little odd as the cartridges drop »

» all the way into the chamber past the extractors. As the action of the rifle is closed, the tab at the bottom of the extractor plate is forced upwards and its upper semi-circular portion now slides into the extractor groove of the rimless case, where it will grip the case for ejection. After firing and opening the action, the case is ejected with considerable force, landing some three to four metres away, and the body of the ejecting case forces the extractor plate down again so that new cartridges, when loaded, can freely fall into the chambers. If the cartridge was not fired, it is not ejected but instead only extracted by about 4 mm so that it can be grasped by hand.

The concept is ingenious yet simple and works amazingly well. There are no springs involved; it is all a case of precision fitment. When there is a round in the chamber and the action is closed, the rimless extractor plate has no other place to go but into the extractor groove of the chambered cartridge.

The rifle handles delightfully and is a pleasure to shoot and one can understand that John Taylor longed for exactly such a rifle when he wrote “I should very much like to have a Westley Richards double rifle handling this shell (the .318) and regulated for the 250gr bullet”.

Rifle No 2: Westley Richards takedown bolt-action rifle This takedown bolt-action rifle was made in August 1930 for AJ Keen of London and has a fac

tory-fitted Zeiss Zielvier telescope, engraved with the rifle’s serial number, in a quick-release Westley Richards side-mount. The rifle weighs 9 pounds with the telescope installed, it has a screw-detachable 26-inch barrel with one standing and four folding-leaf express rear sight blades marked from 100 to 500. The barrel is engraved “Westley Richards & Co. London” and “WR Detachable Barrel” and under the fore-end is marked with .318, 2.4” and the proof load of “37gr cordite” and “250grain bullet”. On the left of the receiver ring is the serial number and “Westley Richards .318 Accelerated Express”.

A special patented Westley Richards fold-away front sight protector is fitted, as well as a large flip-up ivory “moonsight”. The front sight bead is on a dovetail base that slides in from the front and is held in place with a small screw. In an incredible display of attention to detail, the front sight is marked “250”, for use with the 250-grain bullet and a special storage compartment located under a removeable plug in the horn grip cap holds a small aluminium container with a spare front sight marked “180” for use with the 180-grain bullet. This allowed the user to maintain the rifle’s zero by installing the correct front sight, depending on the ammunition being used.

The takedown system is Westley Richards’ screw-takedown version, which allows the barrel to unscrew after unlocking a latch on the right-hand side of the fore-end. A lug-type (or bayonet-type) takedown system was also used on some of their rifles but was a bit ungainly as it required a larger diameter collar to be fitted over the receiver ring, resulting in the receiver having a “bloated” appearance. The screw-takedown system, on the other hand, is trim and elegant and works very well with the barrel screwing up very tight, and once locked, there is absolutely zero play. The stock is made of very high-grade wood with flat-top checkering, a classic cheekpiece and the steel buttplate has a trap for storage of a cleaning kit.

Due to the high cost of the commercial Mauser action, Wesley Richards decided to rather use a standard military action from an 8x57 mm M98, which could be had for a fraction of the cost, and then let their own gunsmiths work their magic on the action. It was a wise choice to use the 8x57 mm calibre action, as the .318 case is essentially a lengthened 8x57 mm case and feeds very reliably from the Mauser box magazine. The round military bolt handle has been changed to a pear-shaped bolt and the military floorplate has a custom quarter-turn magazine floorplate lever release.

However, the major problem was of course the length of the military action. The standard military action can only load a cartridge of 86 mm in length, and the box magazine can accommodate a maximum length of 84 mm, whereas the .318’s 250grain LT pointed-capped round required approximately 90 mm. To solve this problem, the rear wall of the magazine box was cut off and a metal plate inserted by welding to move the rear wall backwards by about 6 mm so that the magazine can now accommodate a cartridge length of 90,5 mm. This, of course, necessitated the magazine cut-out in the receiver floor to also being moved to the rear.

To facilitate loading of the longer round, about 3 mm from the rear of the receiver ring was cut away and also the stripper clip notch was moved to the rear by 2 mm. Since the cartridges now sat further back in the magazine, the bolt stop had to be shortened by about 3 mm to allow the bolt to come back far enough to pick up the cartridge from the magazine. All this was extremely neatly and professionally done, the action is slick and smooth and the rifle feeds and ejects with super reliability. Importantly, no metal was removed from the bottom of the receiver ring in the area of the feed ramp. One cannot »

» help but wonder how much effort Westley Richards could have saved themselves had they simply abandoned the LT pointed-capped ammunition and used only the 250-grain roundnosed type, which was in any case by far the most popular.

In my opinion, this rifle exemplifies the classic and quintessential .318 Wesley Richards rifle. If you want to own a .318 rifle then it should be a Westley Richards as it was their cartridge, and if you want a .318 Westley Richards bolt-action rifle then it should be a takedown as the takedown .318 rifle was their trademark for many years.

Rifle No 3: Oberndorf Mauser A-type bolt-action rifle

This bolt-action rifle was made by Mauser in 1929 and is the classic A-type with one standing and four folding-leaf express rear sights and buffalo horn fore-end tip. The rifle has a 24-inch barrel (more correctly 600 mm) and weighs only 7,5 pounds. It was retailed by Gray & Co. of Inverness in Scotland and cased by them in a fulllength canvas case for a special customer who was probably on his way to Africa.

Mauser .318s are quite rare, as they were only chambered in some of their A-type rifles, and Jon Speed estimates that fewer than 500 were made. The Mauser .318 has some special features, all resulting from the fact that Mauser decided to use a standard-length action. Why they did not use a magnum action remains a mystery as the magnum action was available. One can only assume that they wanted to keep the weight and size of the rifle down. In order to accommodate the long .318 round, they made a magazine box specifically for the .318 with an internal length of 92 mm. Mauser engineers believed that in order to ensure reliable feeding, the magazine box had to fit the cartridges exactly and as a result they produced more than 25 different types of magazine boxes for all of their calibres. This is an indication of how meticulous Mauser was, and the .318’s magazine box was not used for any other calibre.

The magazine floorplate is of the “straddle” type normally found on the magnum actions, and this is one way of identifying an original .318 Mauser.

The receiver left sidewall still carries the “Waffenfabrik Mauser” inscription, which is interesting as this was changed in 1922 to “Mauser Werke”. Since this rifle was manufactured much later in 1929, it probably indicates that Mauser used an earlier action from inventory.

In order to allow loading of the long LT capped round by means of stripper clips, a small cut-out was machined into the receiver ring. The feed ramp was also moved forward by about 6 mm to accommodate the longer magazine box. Once again one can but wonder why Mauser went to all this trouble and did not simply ignore the LT capped ammunition. Had they done so and used only the “normal” 250-grain round-nose ammunition, the cut-out in the receiver ring would not have been necessary.

The Mauser A-type .318 is a classic rifle and much sought after by collectors. The light weight and handiness of the rifle, combined with Mauser’s legendary quality and reliability, resulted in an absolutely ideal African medium bore that could also take elephant on occasion. It seems strange that Mauser did not sell a whole lot more of these rifles.

Rifle No 4: William Evans boltaction rifle

This elegant bolt-action rifle was retailed in 1923 by William Evans of 63 Pall Mall, St. James, London and is so marked on the barrel. It is well known that William Evans did not manufacture themselves, so the rifle was probably made by one of the better Birmingham gunmakers specialising in bolt-actions such as Leonard Bros. or Thomas Turner. The rifle is in its original fulllength canvas case with a William Evans trade label in the lid.

A commercial Mauser action exclusively built for the .318 calibre, sold by Mauser as the “Model 16” action, was used on this rifle and is marked “Waffenfabrik Mauser” on the left wall. The action has all-matching parts with a Mauser serial number dating from 1922. It is in all aspects 100 % identical to the action of the Mauser A-type mentioned above, except that it has a single square bridge at the rear. It is mated to a 27-inch barrel with ramp front sight and express rear sights with one fixed and two folding leaves. The stock uses an exquisite piece of walnut with a horn tip at the end of a typical short, slim»

» British fore-end and has beautiful flat-top checkering.

The rifle weighs 8,2 pounds and has no Mauser proof marks, only British proofs. It does, however, have three sets of serial numbers, namely the Evans number on the barrel and action, the Mauser number on the action and all its parts, and a third number on the barrel and action, which must be that of the original gunmaker.

All the work required on the action in order to handle the .318 cartridge had already been done by Mauser, so there was no further need to alter the action. Interestingly, the cut-out in the receiver ring has a different profile to that of rifle No 3, indicating that Mauser left this off at the factory, perhaps in case the user did not want to use the LT capped bullet.

This is a classic example of a timeless British bolt-action sporter in a legendary calibre. Although the rifle is technically very similar to rifle No 3, it does have that little extra class and prestige of a handmade rifle.

The .318 Square Shoulder

A very interesting modification to the .318 cartridge was patented by Leslie Taylor and F Sanders of Westley Richards in 1911, called the “.318 Square Shoulder”. The .318 case was “blown out” to have a very square shoulder, almost like the later Ackley Improved cartridges, but unlike the Ackley cartridges, the motivation was not for increased powder capacity. Instead it was claimed that the shoulder provided a more positive stop for headspacing of the cartridge, somewhat like a rimmed cartridge. Interestingly, in the patent drawings it is shown that the inside of the case maintained the sloped shoulder of a conventional case.

It seems that this cartridge was somewhat experimental in nature, with only two known rifles chambered for the .318 Square Shoulder. Westley Richards probably found soon enough that the normal .318 headspaced just fine and there was no need for any improvements. The owner of such a rifle could use the normal .318 Rimless loads, as it also headspaced perfectly in the chamber.

Original .318 Square Shoulder cartridges are very scarce and eagerly sought by cartridge collectors.

Sources and acknowledgements:

*African Rifles and Cartridges

by John Taylor.

*Karamojo Safari by W.D.M.

Bell.

*.318 hollow LT pointed-capped cartridge and information supplied by cartridge collector D.W. Schoeman.

*.318 double rifle now in the

collection of Paul Smit.

Rifles examined for this article from the top: Westley Richards best-grade sidelock ejector double rifle, Westley Richards bolt-action takedown rifle with original Zeiss Zielvier telescope, Oberndorf Mauser bolt-action A-type rifle, William Evans bolt-action rifle, all in .318 Rimless Nitro-Express calibre.

E K h2 0 i d d ft h l ft K h2 0 i nose so on erg ;an n e cen re an or g na -gra n es ey c ar s cartridge with hollow LT pointed-capped bullet. Both Kynoch rounds are about 85 mm long, but the LT capped round is 89,2 mm long, which caused problems for the rifle builders.

Rimless extractor plate in the down position with small tab protruding at the bottom as indicated. Rifle with cartridges loaded. Notice how the cartridges have dropped all the way into the chambers, past the extractors that are in the lowered position. Rimless extractor plate in the up position with semi-circular portion protruding at the top as indicated.

Westley Richards .318 double rifle in its factory case.

A Westley Richards rifle in its factory full-leather case.

.318 Westley Richards on the left and military M98 8x57 mm on the right. Notice how the receiver ring has been moved forward and the stripper clip notch moved backwards.

Front sight with protector flipped open, “moonsight” raised and spare sight marked “180”.

The Mauser receiver cut-out to allow loading of cartridge with LT capped-pointed bullet using a 5-round stripper clip.

Mauser .318 straddle-type magazine floorplate.

A-type Mauser .318 rifle in its full-length case by Gray & Co of Inverness, Scotland.

The William Evans rifle in its full-length case. .318 Rimless Square Shoulder cartridge. Mauser single-square bridge No 16 action used on this rifle. Notice the cut-out in the receiver ring.