About a year ago I got an old rifle that was a .270 ackley on a Zastava m98 action which had been through a house fire. The stock was charcoal, the barrel was burned and bluing was scorched off. Same with the action. I was a bit worried that the action may have been annealed, but after talking to some experts and getting their opinion, I decided the house fire wasn't hot enough to anneal the action.
First thing I did was take a long list of calibers that had the same case head size and settled on .240 weatherby mag. I'd never heard of it before now, but the possible velocities were astonishing! I could find close to no reloading information on it and forums helped me a ton when it came to deciding on the caliber.
In the end, I bought a #3 24" 1:8 twist McGowan barrel. I built a stock from scratch to put it on (it wasn't my first). After truing the action, reaming the chamber, mounting the barrel, mounting the muzzlebrake and cerakoting the whole thing, it was time to start load development.
For the load, I found that my .240 would not shoot Berger bullets under 1.5" at 100 yds...... Yes 1.5! That is awful! I was completely distraught... Switched powders 4-5 times and then tried different bullets. Berger vld, Berger hybrid, Berger match, nosler LR ect.... All around 105 grain and all very inaccurate. I ended up picking up some 72 grain Sierra bullets I had laying around and loaded them up...... They were flat base and tangent ogive (unlike the secant ogive boat tail Berbers I tried) and they chrono'd above 4,000 fps! Also printed under 1/2" group at 100 yds.. This made me think the weatherby throat didn't like the longer skinnier bullets. I did a lot of looking around for high BC bullets that fit this new profile. Settled on Hornady 105 A-max. I'm getting 3,307 fps and a .25" group at 100 yds. I've done a lot of long range hunting with it (past 700 yds) and it performs amazingly! Definitely sad this caliber never caught hold in the market.
First thing I did was take a long list of calibers that had the same case head size and settled on .240 weatherby mag. I'd never heard of it before now, but the possible velocities were astonishing! I could find close to no reloading information on it and forums helped me a ton when it came to deciding on the caliber.
In the end, I bought a #3 24" 1:8 twist McGowan barrel. I built a stock from scratch to put it on (it wasn't my first). After truing the action, reaming the chamber, mounting the barrel, mounting the muzzlebrake and cerakoting the whole thing, it was time to start load development.
For the load, I found that my .240 would not shoot Berger bullets under 1.5" at 100 yds...... Yes 1.5! That is awful! I was completely distraught... Switched powders 4-5 times and then tried different bullets. Berger vld, Berger hybrid, Berger match, nosler LR ect.... All around 105 grain and all very inaccurate. I ended up picking up some 72 grain Sierra bullets I had laying around and loaded them up...... They were flat base and tangent ogive (unlike the secant ogive boat tail Berbers I tried) and they chrono'd above 4,000 fps! Also printed under 1/2" group at 100 yds.. This made me think the weatherby throat didn't like the longer skinnier bullets. I did a lot of looking around for high BC bullets that fit this new profile. Settled on Hornady 105 A-max. I'm getting 3,307 fps and a .25" group at 100 yds. I've done a lot of long range hunting with it (past 700 yds) and it performs amazingly! Definitely sad this caliber never caught hold in the market.
