257 weatherby bullet choice

[emtyhopper]

I recently acquired a 257 weatherby that I plan on using for antelope and mule deer out to 500 yards. I want to start load development soon and am trying to decide which bullet I want to use.

I'm leaning towards 100 grain bullets at around 3500 fps. For those of you who have experience with this cartridge, should I use a premium bullet ( barnes, scirocco II, partition ect.) Or will any of the cheaper bullets work just as well?

 

[elkaholic]

At 500 yards, your choices are numerous! I would consider a Hammer or Badlands mono as well

 

[HARPERC]

I'd try the 92 grain Hammer Hunter. Other bullets will certainly work for antelope, but the Hammers generally easy to find a load for, and foul less. Fewer rounds load developing off sets some of the cost, and saves barrel wear.

 

[MudRunner2005]

Shot/hunted with one from 2008-2014. Berger 115 VLD and Nosler 110 Accubonds both worked well for me.

 

[emtyhopper]

The hammer hunter looks great, I just can't spend $1+ per bullet for my uses.

 

[Wolf76]

110 accubond will be a great all around bullet for your application. Scirocco bullets as well.

 

[AZShooter]

It is your choice. I have mentioned this before:

Five of us use the 257 Weatherby with 115 Berger VLD hunting bullet.
To date we have taken:

25 coues wt
6 elk
4 mule deer
2 antelope (hard to get tags in Az)
2 javelina

The coues are very similar in size to an antelope. There have been some very spectacular DRTs with this chambering and the VLD.

 

[sable tireur]

I'm leaning towards 100 grain bullets at around 3500 fps. For those of you who have experience with this cartridge, should I use a premium bullet ( barnes, scirocco II, partition ect.) Or will any of the cheaper bullets work just as well?

Hunting and cheaper has never been a conclusion I aim for. If I draw one tag a year I'm lucky so my one shot is invaluable to me. It takes me 7 years to draw for elk..., so I hunt out of state. If that bullet cost $1 and load development cost $40, I consider that to be a worthy investment. But to each his own.

Staying with the bullets which have a lower price, I can strongly suggest either the Nosler Partitions, Swift A-Frame or the Scirocco II for failsafe performance on deer or elk. In addition I've had excellent performance from the Berger Hunter VLD. I generally stick to the slightly heavier 115 grain bullets just because I can. These will often run around the 3,400 fps mark as opposed to your 3,500 fps.

Enjoy the process!

 

[stx]

The hammer hunter looks great, I just can't spend $1+ per bullet for my uses.

With the price of Weatherby ammunition, I wouldn't be worried about the cost of premium bullets to load.....like HARPERC said, your cost will be offset due to Hammers being so easy to develop a load with. I've converted many of my rifles over to them and have developed loads with as few as 9 rounds.....they're extremely accurate and they've really "Hammered" everything I've shot with them.

 

[Gary in MD]

I think for deer and antelope, it won't make that much difference. My 257 Wby is on its third barrel, I have killed numerous deer and varmints, Mostly with 100 grain bullets - Ballistic Tips, Barnes, Sierras, Hornadys. Recently I have used the 115 Berger and Ballistic Tips. For the ranges out to 500 yards, I would lean towards the 115 grain bullets. There have been a lot of guys that swear by the 87 grain bullets! But really - just find the load that shoots good in your rifle.
Gary

 

[Canhunter35]

I used the 115 ballistic tip on numerous deer and worked very well out of my 257.
90gr gmx also worked well.

 

[Wachsmann]

When I had mine I used the 115 ballistic tip that are loaded by the factory. I also was going to use a 120 or 117 grain I think it was a game king or the likes but now I would go with the 115 Berger or the 110 accubond. Now if you had something like a 1-8 twist then there are some 130's on the market now I just don't remember who makes them. I would bet the 257 could push them around 3100 or better also.

 

[emtyhopper]

Hunting and cheaper has never been a conclusion I aim for. If I draw one tag a year I'm lucky so my one shot is invaluable to me. It takes me 7 years to draw for elk..., so I hunt out of state. If that bullet cost $1 and load development cost $40, I consider that to be a worthy investment. But to each his own

I somewhat agree with you, but I have a lot more going on than just working up a load for this rifle and going on one hunt. If I could do it for $40 that would be great though!
It seems to me that one of the slightly cheaper, but still very expensive bullets should still work wonderfully.

 

[Swamplord]

My wildcat has similar h20 to the 257 Wby but fits in a short action, I'll be messing with the 140 gr Chinchaga bullet here soon, got 500 pcs a while back and have 1200 of the 131 Blackjack Ace bullets, just gotta have my gun finished first