Gues I just picked up a 700 in 257 weatherby and wondering on powder. I have 7828 and retumbo on hand. Can't find RL 25 anywhere. I'm wanting to shoot 110 gr eld's out of the rifle. Any having any luck with these combos.
Thanks
I have no experience with retumbo personally, where I live any way it's been unobtainable and the folks that like it REALLY like it haha, the same kind of buying hysteria that RL26 and H1000 invoke. So I've just decided I'll work with powders other than those three rather than get lucky from year to year to find a pound or two only to fall in love with it and not be able to find it.
I love my .257 weatherby. For me and my hunting and shooting friend who also has one, 7828 is THE powder for that cartridge with any bullet 100 grains and up in weight. It's the original true magnum powder in my opinion and as relevant today as it was way back when. It is single base, and a bit temp sensitive (though I've never had the kind of temp induced velocity and pressure swings with 7828 that I have had with RL22 and such, it's not that bad, just use good common sense and if you live or hunt in a place that gets real cold in the winter, don't work up a red-line max load in January and go shooting in July, honestly that's just good practice with ANY powder I think)
Using IMR7828ssc and hex boron nitride treated 100 grain Nosler ballistic tips I have hit 3700 feet per second muzzle velocity out of my 24 inch stainless vanguard. That is a bit hot to be fair, probably gonna back it down to 3600-3650 for brass life.
You mention not finding RL25, which is no problem, but I will just confirm, alongside 7828, RL25 is an awesome .257
powder, and a bit denser for higher charge weights if you somehow run out of boiler room with the 7828 which is unlikely but still very possible.
They're both underrated golden oldies at this point.
Enjoy your rifle! Roy Weatherby's personal favourite cartridge and now that I have one it's easy to see why. Energies on par with a full house .30-06, less perceived recoil than my .270 Winchester, flatter shooting than my .243, heck with the 75-90 grain bullets loaded to potential it's flatter than a .22-250 out to 500 (some ultra lights start out a hair faster in the .22-250 but run out of gas faster and do NOT have the ultimate "hold on hair" point blank capability that the .257 does, honestly with lighter monos it's not a true long range cartridge like the 6.5, 7, and .30 magnums with high bc thin jacketed match bullets, but it is almost impossible to beat the .257 weatherby over 7 decades after its inception as a max point blank range hold on hair hunting gun ).
Whats not to love? Unless you're using it for high volume shooting and fry the throat at a rate you deem unacceptable, or just absolutely can't stand muzzle blast…it is a blasty barrel burner no two ways about it.
