August 2, 2022
A New Westley Richards .318 Accelerated Express Magazine Rifle
It seems fitting that best rifles by Westley Richards maintain some fealty to the old proprietary cartridges on which the company built its 20th century reputation as a modern rifle maker.
Although some of them fell out of favour after the Second World War, we have helped revive them by commissioning our own ammunition, specially loaded to the highest standards in England.
With a secure supply of ammunition, modern customers are again ordering the rifles their great grandfathers could have ordered. One such revived chambering is the
.318 Westley Richards.
This cartridge was designed in 1906 to complement our Mauser action magazine rifles of the day and it was also used for our Enfield action
rifles. It is a bottle-necked cartridge packing a 250 grain bullet, pushed at 2,400 fps and delivering 3,194 ft/lbs of energy. This made it an ideal round for Africa and it is recorded in use there as early as 1909, remaining popular well into the 1960s.
Authorities do not consider this type of rifle suitable for elephant this days but before the last war, notable shots like Bror Blixen, 'Karamojo' Bell and James Sutherland killed hundreds of elephants with a Westley Richards .318. In fact, Blixen said it was the rifle he would choose to keep for all his hunting, were he allowed only one.
This beautiful rifle was completed in July 2022 and carries the serial number 43718, inlaid in gold, on the trigger guard. Like its ancestors created in the early 1900s, it is a Mauser action, though the modified 3 position safety is an undoubted improvement. It is also of a superior build quality to the vast majority of rifles of that period. This truly is a 'best' example of the magazine rifle.
https://www.westleyrichards.com/us/theexplora/a-new-westley-richards-318-magazine-rifle/
hammerbullets.com
