New barrel for a 7mm Weatherby

[GW Hunter]

After the latest cleaning and borescoping of my 30+ year old Weatherby, I believe that I am in the market for a new barrel. I can't decide whether to have a Weatherby barrel put on it or an aftermarket brand. Will the aftermarket brands have the same free bore as the stock barrel? Is that an option that you can get with them? Or can the free bore be eliminated? I know that it is there in the factory barrels for the extra pressure that Weatherby cartridges generate. Any opinions would be appreciated. Thanks, GW.

 

[TonyQ]

I have a weatherby barrel with 234 rounds down it. It's chambered in 300 weatherby with a accubrake if you want to go that route. It shoots Berger 215 hybrids at 2900fps at a coal of 3.65 so it fits in the factory mag.

 

[GW Hunter]

Those are nice numbers but I am not interested in rechambering the caliber. I want to keep it a 7mm.

 

[MudRunner2005]

After the latest cleaning and borescoping of my 30+ year old Weatherby, I believe that I am in the market for a new barrel. I can't decide whether to have a Weatherby barrel put on it or an aftermarket brand. Will the aftermarket brands have the same free bore as the stock barrel? Is that an option that you can get with them? Or can the free bore be eliminated? I know that it is there in the factory barrels for the extra pressure that Weatherby cartridges generate. Any opinions would be appreciated. Thanks, GW.

Give a call to Bartlein. A nice stainless 26" 1:9 barrel with their 5R rifling would restore some excellent life to that old Weatherby.

You will be much better off putting an aftermarket barrel on your Weatherby, as their components quality has drastically taken a dive since your rifle was made. All the newer Weatherby barrels are cheap button-rifled Criterion barrels, and are no longer cut-rifled Kriegers, like what used to be put on the higher-end rifles.

After my experience with Weatherby, I will not be buying another new one. But I would not be opposed to buying a cheap used Mark V Deluxe and rebarreling with a nice aftermarket barrel.

 

[TonyQ]

I am in the process of rebarrel myself. When I looked at reamers the had an option of the standard wby throat, short throat and no throat. I would go with a short throat and a 8.5 or faster barrel. Then when the Berger 195 come out you will be ready to go.

 

[Lefty7mmstw]

Shilen Barrel Blank 284 Cal 7mm Centerfire


I am doing a 7mmstw build @ present. My old barrel shot decently but chewed up brass and wasn't any faster than a 7mm rem or 7mm Weatherby.

I decided to have the headspace reset to make the rifle easier on brass, and the smith found the threads so loose on the barrel that he wouldn't put her back together.

I am going with a 28" shilen ss match with a 8" twist. We will be using a saami spec manson reamer for the chamber. a .25" ptg recoil lug will be going in also.

With your 7mm weatherby barrel, I would choose the saami throat (and make sure your chamber dimensions are rather tight) if you want to use book data for the weatherby. The short throat/no throat reamers will give you little to no freebore and you will run no faster than a 7rem. I would also go with a minimum of a 9" twist, and an 8" twist if you can find it. You will be able to spin any 7mm bullet up to 200 grains or so with an 8" twist.

 

[Edd]

Any opinions would be appreciated. Thanks, GW.

I would remove the old barrel, send it to Krieger and have them make me an 8" twist barrel and duplicate the original contour. Then I would send it to a good Gunsmith and have him chamber it to SAAMI specs.

 

[Deleted member 46119]

There are 2 sides of the long thoat vs. normal/short throat. Pressure Relieve/Speed vs. "Accuracy potential".

IIWM I'd stick with Weatherby throating for Weatherby chamberings.

 

[TonyQ]

Maybe take a look at 28 nosler. The 7MM Weatherby Magnum freebore is .378 it's a pretty big jump and you will not be able to get close to the lands.

 

[MudRunner2005]

IMO, if you want to shoot anything larger than a 180gr bullet, I would go with an 8-8.5" twist, and I would jump up to a bigger cartridge, like the 7x300 Weatherby or 7mm STW.

Just my opinion.

 

[roninflag]

which weatherby?? accumark? I would get a Krieger 9 twist.

 

[GW Hunter]

which weatherby?? accumark? I would get a Krieger 9 twist.

It's a Mark V Deluxe. I think I've narrowed down the choices to Shaw, Hart, Bartlein and Kreiger. not necessarily in that order. With an 8 or 9 twist...it's probably going to come down to availability.

 

[MudRunner2005]

One more thing, I wouldn't go under 26" in barrel length for that caliber, just to ensure you get a proper burn with all that powder. Plus, the added velocity is nice, and the extra weight is not even noticeable.

 

[GW Hunter]

One more thing, I wouldn't go under 26" in barrel length for that caliber, just to ensure you get a proper burn with all that powder. Plus, the added velocity is nice, and the extra weight is not even noticeable.

Totally agree. It presently has a 24" barrel that as much as I've wanted it to, hasn't grown... GW