Greetings!

I'm thinking of having a rifle chamberd for the .318 Westley Richards built somewere in a distant future.

However..Does someone accually make a rifle barrel in .330 bore? There's plenty of .338 bore makers out there but what about the .330?

My second choice of caliber would be the .275 Rigby, but I shure would like to have me a .318..

/Mike

Hello swedish Mike. I´m also planning to get me a .318 WR...:-) and my second choice is 7x57.

I´ve talked to Bössmakaren AB since I live near them and they will be glad to build it
Lothar Walter has .330 barrels blanks.

Length 655mm
Dia 30mm
Land 8.07mm
Groove 8.35mm
Twist 216mm

I will use the action from my Huskvarna 146 M98 in 9,3x57.

What are your plans?

I would not want to discourage you but....you'd be better with 338-06 or even 8x60S in my opinion.

They will do just as much the same for ALL practical purposes as the 318 WR except that you will have bullets "off the shelf".

Unless you have many rounds of 318 WR in store re-creating now obsolete calibres - that have almost equivalent modern counterparts - is foolishness.

A nice custom built 98 in 338-06 is like ketchup on ice cream:-)

One nice thing with a 338-06 though, is that one could use 300gr bullets instead of 250gr.

Never had a 338-06 but did have a 8x60S and certainly it was a nice rifle.

Made in Belgium in the 1960s with Suhler mounts and unusually a 25" barrel. Ideal with readily available 200 grain Speer Hot-Cor or similar.

At 100 yards it shot all bullets 150 grain, 175 grain, 200 grain into ONE 3" group.

Big advantage over the 318 WR is that 8mm is just, barely but just, a realistic proposition with 150 grain bullets but will go on up to 227 grain bullets also.

Hello Mans (Måns?).

You don't say? That´s real good news, as it happends I also live near Bössmakaren AB.

I´m planing on using either a Husqvarna 146 or a Sako 98, haven't really decieded wich.

enfieldspares: Couldn't agree more on the foolishness part, there absolutly no reason to choose the .318 WR over the 338-06 or 8x60S. Except that I want to own a .318 WR.

/Mike

Yes, its "Måns"

So, there might "soon" be two .318 Westley Richards in the south of Sweden

Tell me more about the rifle You want to build.

Yes indeed, "soon".

The rifle would be built in the same form as the original Westley Richards guns, or close to it. Same barrel profile and with the same type of sling mount on the barrel.

A british style riflestock of course, with an silver old english recoil pad. Rearsight with one fixed blade set to 100 meters and two folding blades set to 200 and 300. (The WR guns can have blades up to 500 meters, a bit far streched.) A gold bead front sight would be nice.

If possible I also would like to have a Rigby style peep sight on the back of the bolt.

Something like that..It's nice to have dreams.

I have a W. W. Greener .318 WR. I love it. Yeah, it requires reloading unless you're a cyberlord or investment banker and yes, Woodleigh 250 grainers are overpriced. However, they are awesomely effective and would knock your local elg up sideways. Another idea is 200 gr. bullets designed for the 8mm Hungarian. They are also .330 and ought to do a fine job on game. If everyone based their shooting on what is 'practical', no one would own anything but a 30/06 and a .416 Remington. Advice like that is swamp gas!

I went to the gunsmith today to talk about the rifle I want to build.
I´ll have a classic Mauser profiled 650x15(or 16.5)mm long barrel with banded sights and swivel. I havent decided on the numbers of folded "leafs" yet.

The bolt handle will have to be changed to a straight one and I want to keep the bolt unblued.

I want a very dark stock with short fore end a red old english recoil pad.

The gunsmith is going to check the barrel spec with LW and then get back to me.

Sorry this response isn't going to help...but it's "sort of" on topic...
I know a fellow living outside Kwe-Kwe who might have an original .318 WR bbl laying around. Back in the day when I was there...(1970's)...he had his ORIGINAL .318 WR rifle rebarrelled to 7.62 due to ammo availability issues.

Lothar Walther can make a pre-chambered and threaded barrel in .318WR for a Mauser 98. I believe cases can be made from .30-06 hulls. Woodleigh make the projectiles.

http://forums.nitroexpress.com...=0&page=1#Post180654

The one I built used a Lothar Walther blank.

For all intents and purposes a .338-06 but with a cooler sounding name, lol.

Kynoch, Westley Richards and Wolfgang Romey all have ammunition for the .318 WR. (I think that Romey makes the ammo for Westley R)
My gunsmith has got Kynoch in stock. Plenty of boxes

Quality Cart, Horneber and Bertram all makes cases for the caliber, and since i´m a huge fan of both Woodleigh weldcore bullets and sectional density, there is no bullet issue on my part.

Under NO circumstances will I make 318 cases out of 30-06 or other ones. Feels wrong not to have the correct headstamp.

quote:

Originally posted by Swedish Mike:
Greetings!

I'm thinking of having a rifle chamberd for the .318 Westley Richards built somewere in a distant future.

However..Does someone accually make a rifle barrel in .330 bore? There's plenty of .338 bore makers out there but what about the .330?

My second choice of caliber would be the .275 Rigby, but I shure would like to have me a .318..

/Mike

one of the coolest cartridges ever made!

SwedishMike -

To start with, let me say GO FOR IT!!


That's as wishy-washy as I get on this particular cartridge.

I used to own a nice .318 WR built by, of all folks, WR. In those days (1960s-70s)I used to use Barnes "Original" 250 grainers in it. Still have some, actually, just for nostalgia's sake...both solids and SPs.

From a practical side, it would be a lot easier, and maybe a lot more useful if you ever wanted to shoot lighter weight bullets, to make up an 8m/m/'06, especially as you live in the common market area. There are lots of heavier, good construction 8m/m bullets you can come by too, easier than we here can get them. You would also save the trouble of having to shorten the cases. And you could probably saunter over to any gunsmith and get a good 8m/m barrel.

You WOULD have the downside of having what would look like an '06 round, with an '06 headstamp, so you'd have to work out a way of keeping them separate you felt comfortable with.

And with good, heavy "S" diameter bullets you'd have a very good round.

Still, it just WOULD NOT satisfy the soul like a genuine .318 chambered rifle would. At least not my soul, and from what you have said here, probably not yours either.

As to cases, I would strongly recommend using modern boxer-primed '06 donor brass for your cases. They work great, are easily available, and last danged near forever if properly made and operated at standard WR factory pressures.

As to their having the '06 headstamp, my personal opinion is that if a person can't eyeball a .318 WR loaded round and tell it isn't a .30-06 cartridge regardless of headstamp, he is probably too mentally inert to deserve playing with a nice .318 anyway and the gene pool is always in need of improvement one way or anorher.

The .318 case is noticeably shorter, and the bullet appears noticably bigger, partially because it IS bigger, and partly because less of it is hidden down in the case neck.

Build your .318, build your own ammo to suit your own tastes, and enjoy it while you may. Life is too damned short anyway!

And when you finally get the chance, take it to Africa! Before WWII it was probably the most popular 'medium' cartridge on the Dark Continent, and for good reason. While I would in no way recommend it for such use today, careful shots took all the African species with it. Things were different then and such shenanigans would be illegal now but it does give an indication of the .318's worth.

The coniseurs goes for a .333Jeffery..

.318 W-R
.333 Jeffery
.333 OKH
.338-06
.338 Saba
8.5x63 Reb

As a group, these, and the .35 Whelen and 9.3x62, are about the best cartridges in the world for NA game over 350 pounds or for non-dangerous African game. The .35 Whelen is more available than any of the .33’s and the 9.3x62 is now more available than the Whelen even in much of the US.

Of the non-magnum .33’s, I give the 8.5x63 Reb, with its current CIP status, the best shot at long term future availability.

So, I’d go Reb if I went .33, otherwise I’d go 9.3x62.

Alberta, I like your take on this grand cartridge. This, and the .333, have a romance unmatched by any other medium to my mind.

I'd hit the easy button and do a .338WR (.338-06)

The only difference will be the writing on the barrel. The ballistics are almost the same.

Terry

So is the load data but the Romance, ah the Romance, lies with the vintager.