Who else has used a 318 WR in Africa?

I see periodic interest in the .318 Westley Richards here and I am wondering who else has had the fever to take one to Africa? I bought a Vickers LTD. 318 mauser bolt from Thad Scott back in the mid/late eighties after reading lots of books and deciding that an African Safari was in my future. The rifle is in very good condition and after a bit of stock refinishing including replacing a Pachmyer ventilated recoil pad with a Silvers style correct pad, I started working up loads. I got lucky and Quality Cartridge had some correct brass, so I bought 100 pieces and then ordered a few boxes of Woodleigh 250 gr. softs and solids and the fun began! I started out using R-15 using the 1.19x cordite weight and soon developed a good load for the rifle, averaging 1-1/4" groups. I forgot to mention that it had an older european side mount that I put a Leupold 3x9 compact scope in. This is a fun gun to shoot, but it would be years before I finally made it to Africa. In my 50Th year 2005, I and my lifelong best friend decided if we were going, we had better do it and now was the time. My dear wife was with me at DSC and saw me drooling over used English double rifles at Champlins and decided that I needed one , so I picked up a R.B. Rodda 450-400 3" and my African battery was complete! After booking a hunt in TZ for Buff and plains game I got to work on loads for the double. I took the chance of taking two rifles that had zero chance of getting ammo for if it got lost, but I was going on Safari and stepping back into the previous century with a tented camp in the Selous and I ended up with a British PH to boot, so it was like Safari at the turn of the last century.
I used the .318 on Zebra, red hartebeast, and let my wife "borrow" it to shoot the impala on my license, and the 250 gr Woodleighs performed perfectly! The only problem was , that after bagging the impala, my wife proclaimed that it was now "Her 318"!! How could I refuse? I also shot a swimming goose at about 120 yds with it because the game guard spotted it and wanted it for his dinner, needless to say, by using the .318 I was using enough gun! Anyways, that is my experience with the .318 WR on Safari, does anyone else have any stories to share using the .318 on game?

Sadly no, and I own two. One is an early WR takedown and the other is an interwar Cogswell and Harrison built on a P-14 action. Both have taken whitetail and the C&H has taken Nilgai on King Ranch (for which it was decisive).

Red Leg said:

Sadly no, and I own two. One is an early WR takedown and the other is an interwar Cogswell and Harrison built on a P-14 action. Both have taken whitetail and the C&H has taken Nilgai on King Ranch (for which it was decisive).

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Beautiful rifles, both of those.

I thought this article by Gregor Woods (from MAGNUM magazine / June 1994) might be of interest. It's not the greatest quality scan to jpeg file but it's readable. The first page is shown below. The entire article is in the attached zip file (contains 5 files) for your downloading convenience.

I've never owned a .318 WR but I've always been intrigued by the cartridge. I did own a .338-06 some years ago but I never hunted anything with it. I have hunted two Warthogs and two Impala in South Africa, way back in 2005, with my Remington Model 700 Classic (2004 edition) chambered in 8x57JS (aka "8mm Mauser"). My handload was a 220 gr Woodleigh RN at 2400 fps MV (chronographed 10 shot average; rounded to nearest 5 fps). That's not quite equal to the .318 WR, of course, but it's getting fairly close. I like to think of my 8x57 as my poor man's .318 WR.

Interestingly, John Taylor, in his book African Rifles and Cartridges, mentions that the 8x57 was known as either the .311 Mauser or the .315 Mauser back in the day. 7.9mm / 25.4 = 0.3110 inches. 8mm / 25.4 = 0.3149 inches. I think .315 Mauser has kind of a nice ring to it.

Anyway, that's just my ramblings and musings... I hope I didn't stray too far off topic. I also hope that some here enjoy the attached article.

Cheers! Bob F.

That is a pretty cool ammo box. It's neat to see a long round nose loaded cartridge.

txtrout75218 said:

That is a pretty cool ammo box. It's neat to see a long round nose loaded cartridge.

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Here's one that is a little more on topic.


Cheers! Bob F.

I used a custom built 318 in Africa in 2023. I shot a Tessebee, Red Lechwe, a rogue Blesbok, and an Impala with a broken leg for meat to bribe an ESCOM worker. I planned to use it for a Springbok slam and Bontebok but due to a mechanical failure was forced to use a 375 I had for back up.

The 250 grain Woodleighs performed admirably.

The moral of the story is if your longtime gunsmith retires and recommends another get references. Not everyone can make a safari rifle out of a 1909 Argentine Mauser.

Now that the rifle is sound I plan to return with it to Africa to wring it out properly!

I believe @PaulB has taken his .318WR to Africa along with a slew of other vintage rifles.

Rem700stw said:

The moral of the story is if your longtime gunsmith retires and recommends another get references. Not everyone can make a safari rifle out of a 1909 Argentine Mauser.

Now that the rifle is sound I plan to return with it to Africa to wring it out properly!

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I've sort of run into that too with a 1909. Two smiths didn't notice that the clipper hump area wasn't originally ground correctly and was putting the scope out of alignment....

Took a custom 318 to Namibia in 2024 and it performed very well. I used 250 grain Woodleighs. It has become my favorite thin-skinned game.

Took my double BSW Shul took Kudu wildbeest etc....it hits with authority,250gr Kynoch factory SP....will be back with me next year.....

Not sure how I missed this thread. I’m a little enamored when it comes to the venerable 318. I’m fortunate enough to have four WR 318s, including the full length stock version they made, a take-down, an express rifle, and my favorite, the hand detachable (drop) lock double. I’ve taken the double to Zululand, and was successful with bushbuck and nyala.