Question about 240 Weatherby Caliber

[banded]

I have an itch for one of these. I have been looking for a Mark V in the 240 WB, however no luck yet. So I have been thinking about having a gun rechambered to the 240wb. My question is can I have my 243 rifle rechambered to the 240 wb? Thanks

[Joel Russo]

Answer... Yes.

What is the twist of your current bbl?

Just remember, you'll pay a bunch more for brass, about $1.00 a piece.
But, hey.. you only live once... go ahead and scratch that itch. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[James H]

[ QUOTE ]
I have an itch for one of these. I have been looking for a Mark V in the 240 WB, however no luck yet. So I have been thinking about having a gun rechambered to the 240wb. My question is can I have my 243 rifle rechambered to the 240 wb? Thanks

[/ QUOTE ]

Maybe
But to do it properly you would need to set the barrel back about 1 1/2" because of the belt which is the same dia. as the base of the 243 then steps down .020".
Since the 240 is an orphan case(no other commercial cartridges use the same case) I would look at the 6mm-06. Same performance but you can use 30-06 Lapua brass or any cheap 30-06 brass you wish to use. I believe with the 240 your stuck with Norma.

[banded]

Ok. That is something to think about. I will have to check about the 240 bc the case is 300 thousandths longer than the 6mm, so I am wondering if it would feed. Can a 243 be rechambered to the 6/06?

Thanks

[dprewett]

What type of rifle? Long action or short?

[Buffalobob]

I would not get a factory 240 Wby. They only come in 24 inch #2 profile barrels with a 1-10 twist. You really can’t get all of the benefits of the case with that barrel length. I also assume you have some experience reloading because shooting factory ammo is going to burn some money and provide little that the 243 won’t do reasonably well.

A 30 inch heavy contour barrel in about a 1-8 twist or maybe a 1-9 twist will stabilize the 105 -115 (and most likely the 120 grain) VLD bullets. That barrel lenght will burn a lot of powder.

If you get a minimum SAAMI chamber with no freebore throated to a VLD then the cartridge performs very well. You may not be able to use factory ammo anymore because of the pressure without the freebore


I had a 240 Wby 1-10 twist medium profile 26 inch barrel taken off of a FN action and the current 1-8 twist 30 inch barrel installed. It was restocked with a Joel Russo stock.

At a few hundred feet above sea level, I run a 1000 yard drop of 21.5 inches with the 115 Berger


Norma/Wby brass is very good quality brass but it is a little softer than most. That doesn’t bother me because after I have driven 3000 miles to shoot some antelope, I really don’t worry about the prices of a few cases that I may ruin by loading up to max pressure.

240 WBY


On eastern whitetail deer and antelope the gun in the configuration I shoot is probably good to exactly 1000 yards and on a calm day maybe I might stretch it further. The best I have done so far is 860 yards on antelope.

Shooting antelope

[James H]

Sorry I dropped the ball there.
As per docp's question. If it's a short action then the answer to both the 240 and 6mm-06 is NO. I had assumed it to be a long action.