Bghunter338
Well-Known Member
Gotcha
Quarter bore fans; opinions wanted, what would you do?
- Thread starter Calvin45
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Calvin45
Well-Known Member
Then I'm a click baiter as charged!
A click is better than a master.Then I'm a click baiter as charged!
Graf and Sons have it for $41/lb. And if you buy 4lbs or more you get free hazmat
Bghunter338
Well-Known Member
Thank you.
Not trying be devil's advocate but .... I've spoken to one of the previous partners/owners of blackjack and I will be the first to tell you that they "screwed" each other for a loooong time before any customers got "screwed". That was a bad deal where greed definitely killed a good company. Not saying that customers didn't pre pay and get screwed! Because that definitely happened!! Sierra was making the 131bj for blackjack to their spec. I'm not saying that Sierra has the 131bj tooling ...... but they have the 131bj tooling! I was also told that Sierra was "very difficult to work with" for what it's worth. That 131gr 257cal bullet is out there but Sierra would probably rather make bullets for uncle Sam to get shipped to the Ukraine at an inflated price than dick around with making bullets for us.If it wasn't for the 131 Black Jack, .25 cal would be stuck at 1:10", unfortunately they failed on their attempt to corner the market and screwed a lot of people in the process. This prompted me to build a 1:7" .257 WBY for the heavy bullet offerings.
For a long time .27 cal was stuck with 1:10" until Matrix came up with their 165 (1:9")/175 (1:8") Matrix. Unfortunately, the new owners, no longer make rifle bullets. I built my .270 AI thanks to Matrix.
The barrel industry responded to the demands and has been a game changer. Bergers are my go-to bullets, but I am open to try bullets that are out of the norm like what Chinchaga (AB) offers, esp. if I can take full advantage of its benefits. I for one am thankful of our Canadian friends providing a niche for us to ponder.
Having a choice is great!!!
@Bghunter338 , the .33 cal 350 might be max for me. Hurry on your load development so I can benchmark from you.
As far as the barrel industry goes you might get a kreiger by 2026 if you ordered it today. Bartlein is about the same and I've heard of numerous barrels that they let out that were very tight.
Phil Rizzo
Well-Known Member
And visually rough.
I am fully aware of the BJ story, I just provided the short story, I did not think airing the full version was necessary. There were a few threads about it at a few forums.
I simply gave them the credit for starting a faster barrel twist trend. How one source their barrel or build is another story. The point is, faster barrel twists are available now. There's a few of us here with 1:7-1:7.5" barrel in .25 Cal.
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You might be aware but that doesn't mean that everyone is. Just trying to provide some insight for some folks.
Regardless...... Sierra "has" a 130gr 257cal bullet that they could start pumping out. But they are going to need some poking and prodding!
Without the blackjack we wouldn't be having this conversation or looking for fast twist 257cal barrels.
That's exactly my point, and no one is being forced to use heavy bullets or fast-twist barrels. If people want to stay with the norm, there is nothing wrong with it.
hawg chaser
Well-Known Member
Precision reloading has 8 lbers in stock as of a few minutes ago.
Calvin, a friend has a 257 Weatherby cut with my reamer. At 26", my 10T shoots the 100s at 3850 at the accuracy node while his 30" does 4000 on the nose. Your 32" would possibly do a hair more. My friend shoots rock chucks with his 30" tube.Hey all, I have a barrel I want to build with, not now but in the next few years. Originally I was going to go full throttle and pursue the highest velocity possible just for fun, no practicality needed.
It's a 32 inch bartlein .257 1:10 twist very heavy barrel, and is presently chambered in 25-06AI. Throat is in good shape at present.
I was originally going to build either a 25-300 wby, 257 stw, or even a 25-300 RUM off of it, leaning mostly towards the .25-300 wby for a few reasons, Peterson making 300 wby and 6.5-300 wby brass among the greatest reasons but also I already have 257 wby dies for the neck sizing portion of this and 450 ackley dies that with the decapper expander unit removed should do just fine to resize the body. And with the lightweights that the 1;10 twist is limited to I have serious doubts that even out of a 32 inch pipe the RUM capacity would meaningfully outrun the full length wby or stw case but I could be wrong. It's already threaded for a savage action which I have. And if I went full length magnum it'd clean up the existing chamber completely without any need to set back or rethread the beast.
But now I'm second guessing this too…
I already have a 257 wby and a pile of brass for it…and I'm sure that out of a 32 inch barrel the .257would already be STUPID FAST, perhaps there's not much to be had going bigger than that, again with a 10 twist and the bullets were limited to here. If I could shoot the 130+ grain bullets it would be different. I would have to have the barrel set back and rethreaded I think though based on my studying of case dimensions/chamber prints.
I'm also reluctantly considering just leaving it alone as the 25-06 AI that it is except inexpensive dies for that chambering seem to not exist or be hard to find so that's the downside, I'd also need to obtain brass and fire form it which kinda lessens its appeal regarding longer barrel life if I'm using that life to fire form cases too. But maybe that's a non-issue, I've never actually had to fire form before, no experience yet with builds or wildcats. But I do imagine that a 32 inch .25-06 ai would likely outrun my current 24 inch .257 weatherby, possibly by a bit.
Anyway, what would YOU do if you wanted a .25 cal speed demon on a bit of of a budget with the supplies on hand I've mentioned? Leave it as a .25-06AI, set back and rechamber to .257 weatherby on account of existing supplies and that round being about the practical top end, or just listen to your heart and go flat out with a full length magnum overbore monstrosity to take full advantage of the 32 inch barrel length and see just how fast we can go, barrel life be damned….it is a long enough barrel that a person could easily set it back quite a few inches after the first 500 rounds or so if need be.
Input please, and as always I just like talking about all this stuff with you people so do chime in!
@Fiftydriver you're about the foremost authority on big 25s in my opinion, again IF LIMITED TO A 10 TWIST what route would you suggest?
MagnumManiac
Well-Known Member
I can honestly say I am very happy with 10" twists in all 3 of my 25 cals for now.
Would've liked a 9" or 8" twist in my 257 Bee, but it's a near new factory rifle and shoots lights out with 110g Accubonds, all I need.on our small Fallow deer, or my 25-06 shooting the same bullet, or my 257AI shooting 117g SMK.
Cheers.
txaggie1
Well-Known Member
In the same boat I shoot 100 grain scirocco's out of my 257's mainly i have a couple ruger 1's and several mark v's - haven't had one run yet from white tail, fallow and axis deer plus many hogs. My wife shoots 115 partitions in her 25-06 and I have some 110 accubonds for 257 roberts. Last 25 would be the wssm, finding components is tough actually have that one and his cousins 223 and 243 wssm for sale. Pretty much only shoot my LH wby's or ruger 1's for hunting these days.
