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Not to add fuel to an already overheated controversy, but the usual complaint levelled at using magnum length cartridges in a standard length action is that the lower locking lug recess is weakened by the amount of metal required to be removed in order to accomodate the longer magazine and the new feed ramp, so if one locking lug recess went, the other was likely to do so also.

Conversely, the total back thrust on a bolt face is unlikely to be as much as the gas pressure per square inch times the actual case head area of the cartridge, which in the case of the .318 would be about .17 square inches. Multiplied by 18.5 tonnes, which is the value ascribed to .318 chamber pressure by Taylor, would be about 3.145 tonnes rearward pressure on the bolt face.

If a "tonne" is a long ton, or a metric ton (2200 pounds), then this would amount to slightly under 7000 pounds of back thrust, assuming the cartridge failed to obturate and cling to the chamber wall. Even a receiver weakened as described, or one weakened by cutting a dovetail in the receiver ring for the purpose of scope mounting, could probably withstand that kind of treatment with no problem, but I feel confident that none of these arrangements would even be accepted for proof testing in Germany, let alone pass proof.

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