300 wby with long throat?

[backwoods hunter]

My buddy brought me his 300 wby to get it shooting. Its a rem 700 with 26" tube. With a 180gr Accubond just stuck in the case by 1/32, it just makes the rifleings. The best group we got is about 1" @100. I look up past forums and found very little. But allot of people think it will not be accurate with that much throat. IS this true and what is his oppitions?

 

[Willys46]

The throat is the big knock on weatherby cartriges. With that said you can get them to shoot.

First off, if you find a buillet that will reach the lands and have enough bulllet in the case DO NOT use printed loads, they are designed for a long throat and will be to hot in that gun.

I have a 7 RUM that is also long throated. Seat the bullets to mag length or the base of the boattail at the neck junction. Then work up a load from there. The Accubonds will handel a long jump.

It may need different powder. IT may take some experminting..

Willys

 

[Varmint Hunter]

My buddy brought me his 300 wby to get it shooting. Its a rem 700 with 26" tube. With a 180gr Accubond just stuck in the case by 1/32, it just makes the rifleings. The best group we got is about 1" @100. I look up past forums and found very little. But allot of people think it will not be accurate with that much throat. IS this true and what is his oppitions?

There is no definitive answer to your question. Any given rifle may, or may not, shoot accurately with a long throat.

Food for thought: My hunting buddy shoots only factory rifles and most of them are Weatherby Mark V's. One particular Mark V in 300 Wby. will shoot just over .5moa @ 200yds with a preferred load. Guess how far off the rifling he loads the bullets + + + .250"! Yup, that's 250 thousandths. The rounds easily fit in the magazine and shoot great, especially for a factory barrel.

Try working up a few loads and see what you get.

 

[CliffM]

In my Wby vanguard I tried some Berger 210's seated out 3.77" which is a little short of the lands. Groups were around 1.5". That is about average for most bullets. Just out of curiosity I loaded some to fit the magazine at 3.55" an shot the smallest group ever from that rifle .26"

It pays to try everything.
Cliff

 

[Hired Gun]

I have not found the freebore to be an issue at all. Weatherby designs it to fit pretty snug to the bullet so it just guides the bullets nicely into the rifling. In my 300 Wby I just load to the magazine 3.7" and in my 257Wby my most accurate bullet is the 75 grain V-Max. It is "jumping" about .450" to the rifling. It groups in the very low 3's and better for 5 shots. Load it to feed from the magazine box and concentrate on getting the velocity it likes. Mine really likes the 200 grain Accubonds at 3100-3150.

 

[shooter308]

All Weatherby factory chambers have the long throat "Free Bore". It is to comp. for the large powder charges and high (compaired to others) pressures encountered with the Weatherby chamberings. DO NOT USE max listed powder charges with bullets anywhere near the riflings (If you can get there), you will not like the results. I have built several Wby chambered rifles over the years without the "FREE BORE" but none ever approached book listed max loads or max Vel. The free bore is there for this reason.

Frank in Texas

 

[Hired Gun]

A couple other notes. With a 26" barrel and the factory specified freebore it is very easy to get well over any of the loading manual specs and match the old Weatherby data. For example I have yet to find a loading manual that list the 300Wby getting anywhere near 3300fps with 180 grain bullets or 3100 with 200 grain bullets but is is easily reachable.

 

[Coyoter]

Mostly, I'm here to throw in with Hired Gun.
Many rifles shoot best of the lands, that's a known fact. Because of the Weatherby freebore, that's not only hard to achieve but can be dangerous as stated.
Accuracy is a lot about finding the "sweet spot" as your bullet leaves the barrel and having consistent velocity to hit that sweet spot.
Seat to max COAL as per the books and work up loads from there. I can't begin to express how much time ladder tests take off of this process. Once you've found your load, a 300 WBY can be a tremendous shooter. I've built 2 loads for mine that are half MOA and am in the final stages of a load that looks to be 1/4 MOA or tighter. Yes, I keep changing my mind on which bullet I want to shoot.... but isn't that half the fun?

Coyoter