How to figure out freebore? How much is too Much??

[pig ranch deadeye]

Yes, exactly. The philosophy was just hit that elk anywhere in the heart-lung area with as much bullet energy as you can. In other words, high velocity. The early Weatherby philosophy saw no requirement to cover three shots at a hundred yards with a dime. The Nosler Partition 200 grain was preferred as it held up under the stress.

 

[Bret GRAVELINE Graveline]

Yes that's him. I'm terrible with names! I can't remember my own half the time. Not to hijack the thread but I have a seating depth question. I worked up a load several years ago tha my Ruger M 77 really likes. I found some bullets that are the same profile just a little heavier. Can I expect the same over all length to work for this bullet to or do I have to do the latter test for it also? Most of my loadings in this rifle like .5 grains back from the listed max charge. I expect this to be the same.

Only way to know for sure is to try it, some rifles are very user friendly while others are so finicky that any change at all can turn a favorite rifle into a clunker, with luck yours will he the for former, if its the later you may have do a little component juggling to find the sweet spot.

 

[Bret GRAVELINE Graveline]

Trying to establish the OAL from blue prints works if the lands and grooves are to exact diameters, years ago black star barrels were popular, they tapered the lands at the breech were all over the place, the OAL could vary as much as thirty thousands from barrels that were ordered and received at the same time, I found a difference of 3/16 when chambering a black star and a pacnor at the same time with the same teamed, you can have the mag box lengthened by a good smith, I converted a good number of rugers to true magnum length, 416 rem ultra mags 338 Lapua, having the mag box lengthened is likely to result in a longer turn around time which is always a down side

 

[StumpGrinder]

Only way to know for sure is to try it, some rifles are very user friendly while others are so finicky that any change at all can turn a favorite rifle into a clunker, with luck yours will he the for former, if its the later you may have do a little component juggling to find the sweet spot.

That's what I thought, with stuff being so hard to find right now I was hoping to save some bullets. I would have just gotten the same bullet I loaded before but it wasn't available. The past few weeks I have been stuffing all my empty brass with something even if not ideal! This is just a hunting load so minute of deer is good enough.

 

[Its204fast]

I'm of the mind set, that a long freebore is great if you're specifically using VLD or secant ogvie bullets, the down side is, if you have to go back to using tangent bullets, you have too much freebore to get good pressure, reducing accuracy.

170 Gn. for a .270 is a hoss! before I started reloading, I had a guy loading 90gn Sierras for me and he said by the book they were around 3200fps.

I load for 2 Remington 700's, one chambered in .204 Ruger, it likes a rolling start, I can't remember exactly how far off the lands it is but I know its way back. The other is a 7mm Rem Mag. If I remember correctly, I have the bullet about .020 off the lands and it shoots better than you'd expect for a used rifle.

 

[jackthebear]

Just toying around with a ole Ruger m77 270 win ... I have been shooting the 170 berger at 2900 from a sami chamber but the bullets seem to shoot better longer than my mag box.. If I am going to make this thing a single shot why not give it some freebore, to free up some case capacity..?

How do you know when too much is too much? I would like to move the bullet up to where the neck shoulder junction meets.. I just don't know if this is doable or not?
I don't have the availability of a good gunsmith unless I drive 3 hours so I was hoping someone might help me out.. I really think I might gain at least 50-75 fps with the extra room in the case if I do this.. Maybe I won't..

Anyone got some great advice..??

Thanks..

What's the barrel length on that? 2900 seems high with a 170 from a factory Ruger

 

[Hard rock]

What's the barrel length on that? 2900 seems high with a 170 from a factory Rli

What's the barrel length on that? 2900 seems high with a 170 from a factory Ruger

I personally like being able to reach the lands then back off from there no matter what cartridge the over bore cartridges like weatherby reduces chamber pressure by having a lot of freebore so jumping the bullet isnt necessary a bad thing just not optimal for the best accuracy when you run out of magazine length seating closer to the lands for me has allways given me one thing to rule out of the equaision when looking for the best load every now and again some rifles are inherently accurate with bullet jump runout commpressed etc .such as my 7x57 mm mausers but like I said personally closer is better

 

[tobnpr]

Ok, thanks for explaining. So apparently it was simply bad engineering when Weatherby put .750 freebore in the earliest .300 Weatherby mags.

No clue what you're talking about.
Mine was a "generic" reply. I don't know a **** thing about how/why Wby throated their rifles.

The OP stated he wanted to seat his bullets out further to gain case capacity and-he believes- velocity by doing so.
I stated some considerations to keep in mind.

Not a thing to do with Weatherbys in general, nor the .300 Wby Mag specifically.

 

[pig ranch deadeye]

With the .300 Weatherby you can seat the 200 grain Nosler partition all the way out putting the bullet tip to the edge of the magazine box, and still have the bullet base below the neck. You can do this without jamming the bullet into the lands, and in fact, there is still substantial free-bore left. I am the first to admit that I am not an expert on this! But I have done this and gotten good groups with H4831 and Ramshot Magnum.

 

[pig ranch deadeye]

With the .300 Weatherby you can seat the 200 grain Nosler partition all the way out putting the bullet tip to the edge of the magazine box, and still have the bullet base below the neck. You can do this without jamming the bullet into the lands, and in fact, there is still substantial free-bore left. I am the first to admit that I am not an expert on this! But I have done this and gotten good groups with H4831 and Ramshot Magnum.

 

[FEENIX]

Got a new barrel from mcGowen 1:8 twist barrel 25 inch barrel with Ramshot magnum behind it.. I can actually get 2950 but i get a stiff bolt lift and some ejector marks.. I rebarreled it just for the 170. So this is not a stock rifle now..

That's pretty good velocity out of a 25" barrel. I am current accuracy load is propelling the 175 Matrix at 2993 FPS with H4831SC out of a 30" Lilja 1:8" 3G. I got close to 3100 FPS, but the groups opened up and started seeing pressure. Others are seeing 100 FPS more with RL26.

 

[pig ranch deadeye]

That's pretty good velocity out of a 25" barrel. I am current accuracy load is propelling the 175 Matrix at 2993 FPS with H4831SC out of a 30" Lilja 1:8" 3G. I got close to 3100 FPS, but the groups opened up and started seeing pressure. Others are seeing 100 FPS more with RL26.

Why don't you try the new 165 grain bullet intended for the 6.8 Westerner?

 

[FEENIX]

Why don't you try the new 165 grain bullet intended for the 6.8 Westerner?

Because I have enough 165/175 Matrix to last me the life of my barrel.

 

[dxlbaile]

Why don't you try the new 165 grain bullet intended for the 6.8 Westerner?

Well because I love how accurate all the Bergers are that I have shot... I might do it though.. we'll see.