Just how much freebore does a Mark V have?

[YZ-80]

about 3/8,s of an inch

In other words - A country mile!

 

[scottishkat]

Here's some light reading about the Weatherby Alaskan. I have a friend who owns one in 257 wby and is a super accurate firearm. He's not one to spend a lot of time taking care of things its plenty durable.

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Good luck and shot straight y'all

 

[Wolf76]

I can't even make the bullet touch the case and rifling at the same time in my 257 bee. Utterly stupid chamber design.

 

[R100RS]

Long free bore was all about getting safe velocity back in the 50's. Less free bore would have equaled less velocity due to pressure spikes. Also in comparison to what we know today Roy was well ahead of his time with respect to high velocity hard hitting cartridges. I have been shooting big game with my 300 wby since 1985 took 2 years off to hunt with a 6.5CM (which is supposedly the ultimate killing machine) and again this yr back to the 300wby. 300wby makes the 6.5 look like a 22lr in comparison however there is no way I would ever expect the 300 to out shoot the .25 in groups the 6.5 is capable of shooting. Both have there place in my safe, even though the 300 does not shoot much better than 1 moa it just plain get the job done in a more convincing manner. 6.5CM still needs to convince me.

 

[Dr. Vette]

Wow. I'm just batting a thousand today. My Mark V is indeed made in Japan and is silver colored. This is a recent acquisition and obviously I'm not the original owner. So, it's an Alaskan model? How does the nickel plate hold up to extreme weather? Most of my elk hunting is for Roosevelts on the Olympic peninsula, so in extreme wet weather.

Some context to my original question. I knew the amount of freebore in a Weatherby was long, but just didn't expect this much. I'm reading all of these posts about seating depth and seeing values of 0.020 off the lands as a starting point. I'm reading this and thinking "There's no way I could ever get close to this close".

Right now, I'm wondering if I really have enough of the bullet seated at 0.250 off the lands.

The nickel is very sturdy, so don't worry about it at all.

It's a Weatherby - ignore comments about attempting to reach the lands. You can't, and shouldn't try.
With Barnes, I usually try to load just shy of magazine length so that I can easily run them through the magazine. Often the first groove of the bullet is showing.

 

[Quintus]

The nickel is as good as it gets for weather protection and durability. They only made the Alaskan for a couple years due to the expense of the process, but I still have not seen an Alaskan with the nickel worn off. It makes CereKote look like house paint. They were also among the very first synthetic stocks which Weatherby was the front runner in again. It is pretty cool to look back at what Roy and his company brought to the shooting and hunting world.

 

[Slibey]

Don't know if true, but weatherly long throated to gain more velocity for specs

 

[rsnell]

The 300 Weatherby magnum has a freebore of 0.361 inches.

 

[MJN030]

Hi, I also have a 300WBY (made in Japan) when I do load development I either start a 3.700 max length that fits in magazine or whatever loading manual suggests. Once I find a promising load I retest the load at different AOL's using .030 differences between 3.560 and 3.700 to see if anything is a clear winner. Good Luck

Guys it's also a function of the length of the magazine box . You can load relative to the ogive all day long and get the bullet closer to the lands, but it it doesn't extract it's useless . So measure the magazine box . Weatherbys need a lot of freebore .

For example my magazine well measures 3.760" if you load to that size the cartridge doesn't extract. So I have to seat the bullet deeper . 3.740 works great for extraction.

Now to test the accuracy and the pressures .

 

[MJN030]

Guys it's also a function of the length of the magazine box . You can load relative to the ogive all day long and get the bullet closer to the lands, but it it doesn't extract it's useless . So measure the magazine box . Weatherbys need a lot of freebore .

For example my magazine well measures 3.760" if you load to that size the cartridge doesn't extract. So I have to seat the bullet deeper . 3.740 works great for extraction.

Now to test the accuracy and the pressures .

The barnes ttsx and all lead free bullets should be loaded for a starting point of the minimum load to check for pressure signs and accuracy .

So what I do it load 5 at a time
With the starting load
Then 5 more with a medium load
Then 5 more with 1 grain lower than max .

Look for pressure signs and see which load is the most accurate . Once you find the most accurate you are comfortable with , seat the bullet .030 from your original starting point and shoot that . Repeat …. It takes a while but you should be able to find your sweet spot for that bullet and that rifle .

Every rifle and bullet are different.

Shoot straight !