257 wby. TO HUNT WHITETAILS?

[ddossett1976]

Is A 257 Weatherby A Good Gun To Hunt Whitetails? I Was Thinking Of Buying One.

 

[J E Custom]

257

"Awesome"

Just one word ( A first for me )
J E CUSTOM

 

[Buffalobob]

Richard Graves of Wildcat Bullets makes some 130 grain RBBTs that would fit really well in the standard factory freebore of a 257 Wby chamber and do some major damage out to about 1200 - 1500 yards.

 

[Guy M]

Grandpa had one of the first .257 Weatherby rifles, a customized Mauser 98 from Weatherby's old southern California shop. That rifle dropped everything from ground squirrels through deer with aplomb. Quite a cartridge. Dad still has the old Mauser in the gunsafe, but man does it need a new barrel!

At closer (normal) hunting ranges - the .257's velocity can ruin a fair amount of meat, if that's a consideration for you.

Regards, Guy

 

[joekidd]

Guy is right I had one few years ago and hunting in the eastern woods, had some bad experiences with meat damage. One bad incident with a doe and forty yard shot proved very fatal for the deer and about 25lbs. of my venison. It was great for ground hogs! Great gun and caliber.

 

[shiredude]

We shoot the factory 87 grainers and they read right at 3900 fps. we cant get any handloads to do any better. = < .5"
0-500 hold dead on and it destroys them! will test on some does out to 6-700 yds later this year.

this is an awesome round!

 

[DIRTY 30 RUM]

My friends and I love my Wby 257, with the 87's loaded. A good thing is you really do not need to track. Normally the insides are slush, do to extreme fragmentation. What a great round. Have not hit any thing with the 85grn Noslers yet.

 

[gamedog]

This was Roy Weatherby's favorite round

 

[Ahab]

This was Roy Weatherby's favorite round

Mine Too.

 

[Robert J. Adler]

Get one--You'll love it.

Great cartridge. I got a 700LH barreled in it and with 100gr Partition bullets, it zings thru does like a laser. 1 1/2" high at 100, 2" low at 300. Have taken it to New Zealand for stag and tahr and Namibia and S. Africa for lots of plains game. My barrel didn't like 115 gr.X bullets, but Partitions shoot good and perform well. I clocked mine at 3550fps and penetrated 20" of ballistic gel, hit my wood backplate and came 2" back into the gel block. Typical partition--textbook expansion.

 

[gamedog]

I'm taking this great caliber one step further. I'm having a .257 Wby rechambered to hold a 300 Wby case. Neck those cases down to .25 diameter and viola - a .25-300 Wby Mag It'll shoot 100 gr TSX's @ 4060 fps retaining over 1450 lbs of knockdown power @ 500 yds. 3" high @ 100yds will only drop -8.1" @ 500 yds. Antelope beware

 

[DIRTY 30 RUM]

Gamedog, what barrel length were are you going to use? I also have thought of doing the same. I have go the 87 to run right @ 4k, and the 75 v-max to hit 4.2K. Speed Kills.

 

[gamedog]

Gamedog, what barrel length were are you going to use? I also have thought of doing the same. I have go the 87 to run right @ 4k, and the 75 v-max to hit 4.2K. Speed Kills.

I'm going to use a 24" with a brake coming out @ 26". I would of preferred a 26" , but that's the way it goes. Check out Layne Simpson's article on the 257 Wby in Shooting Times. Out of his testing, only one load had a higher velocity on a 26" barrel vs the 24". And some in the 24" were actually higher. I know a guy doing these rechambers for a good price. Let me know if your interested.

 

[DIRTY 30 RUM]

Gamedog, I was thinking of using the 300 win, due to the fact you can get brass from Lapua. To me it seems that the Norma brass is soft, especially the primer pockets @ pressure. Just a thought though.