.257 Weatherby Magnum as an all around deer cartridge?

the .257wby mag should be good well out to 500 on deer and prong horn.use a tougher bullet like an accubond,interbond or scirocco maybe even a nosler partition

dont go lighter than a 117,120 grain bullet
 
"Would the .25-06 equal the WBY if it were reamed with the same amount of "freebore" the WBY has?"

Well now you have stumped me Raynolds.
My 257 Weatherby reamer is ground without the freebore of the old Weatherby factory rifles. So other than factory barrels I have no experience with that set-up.
And of course my 25-06 reamers (2 of them actually) were and are ground to cut a standard throat.

So I have to just tell the truth here in an answer to you question-------
:confused: I don't know!
 
Jimro, the manual calls it a spitzer, however it is a flatbased bullet with a crimp to hold rear lead together. .416 BC.

Im also looking at .277 caliber, 130 grain Partitions...
Click to expand...

Spitzer just means pointed, as opposed to round nose or other profile, but either way the .416 G1 BC was used in the previous calculations, so no change to the max pbr. Whether or not that crimp on the base acts like a boat tail or not doesn't really matter for hunting inside the mpbr range. Even dropping down to a lower BC bullet like the 130gr Barnes Triple Shock with a .351 G1 BC, at the same velocity you lose all of 4 yards to the partition.

I think a 270 Win with a premium bullet is really hard to beat for a general hunting round, but you can say that about the 6.5x55 or 7x57 as well, which are just a small step down and up as far as caliber is concerned. Although I do think the 120~130 class of bullets is a tad light for elk, they will do the job. I'd prefer something in the 140 class for 6.5 and .277 bore, and 150 for the 7mm bore.

However, if anyone wants a 257 Wby, by all means use one. It will get the job done every bit as good as anything else.

Jimro
 
Ditto what mobuck says about the .257 being a specialty round. Practically speaking a .270 winchester is a much better choice (much easier on the wallet - same killing power but you have the option of shooting 150 grain too). However I feel confident most of us aren't always after what's practical but rather what's satisfying. If you want that weatherby don't try and convince yourself you want something else. Besides, there's some good bragging rights there when it comes to max point blank range that I just don't quite have with my plain old .270:D
 
Reynolds says he was advocating WBY pressures used in factory loads of the 70's era which were mid 70k. From his understanding, at the time they did not really know the pressure was that high and they backed it down a tad when they had more accurate pressure testing methods.

I doubt that's reality; mid 70k cup pressures are higher than most proof loads used for copper crusher systems. All ammo companies suscribing to SAAMI specs used copper crusher gauge measuring systems to measure peak pressure. And the peak pressure of the .257 Wby Mag at the time was about 55,000 cup; same as other Weatherby rounds at the time.
 
Bart, not mid 70k psi, but the pressures WBY ran in their factory loads in the 1970's. Their loads were hotter across the board in the 1970's than they are now. Back in the days when the CUP would be measured drastically different on every identical round that was fired through the pressure barrel. Look back at WBY factory loads, they are not as hot as they used to be. WBY either got lawyer scared or discovered they had made an error in pressure testing. Which, I am not sure, but I am guessing the latter.
 
reynolds357, The 257 Wby chamber reamer wasn't SAAMI spec till 1994 which include freebore. I have no idea when they did ammo/pressure. Roy did same thing to 300Wby wasn't till 1986 that it became SAAMI spec.

The 257Wby I had build was SAAMI spec chamber pretty nice rifle and nephew has it now mid 3400fps with 115gr/120gr bullets about what you expect from 26" barrel. I'm using published data.

I've never build 25-06 but shot few about all.
 
WBY was not SAAMI Spec because Roy did not want to give up control of his proprietary rounds until it benefited him to do so. The Freebore has always been what has made the WBY interesting to me. Cutting a WBY chamber without freebore is putting the cartridge at serious handicap.
 
When comparing 25 caliber cartridge A to 25 caliber cartridge B, and the issue is which one shoots the same bullet faster with equal pressure, unless both barrels have the same interior dimensions except for chamber, both are shot from fixed barreled action mounts (to eliminate the human variable in holding the rifle), identical firing pin hardware and identical pressure measuring systems with both cartridges producing the same average peak pressure, the data's skewed by too many variables. Anyone well versed in comparing system A to B knows that real data showing differences between them can be obtained only when one variable is changed at a time.

Nobody on either side if this Weatherby versus ought-six versions of 25 caliber cartridges has reduced the variables to cartridge case only in their comparisons. Such is normal when comparing two cartridges shooting the same bullet. SAAMI's done what's probably the best comparisons between two cartridges shooting the same bullet out with equal pressures but from different size cartridge cases. In every instance, the larger case shoots the bullet out a lot faster. Compare .25-06 to the .257 Wby Mag for muzzle velocities with equal bullet weight and note the 400 psi higher pressure of the smaller cartridge:

http://www.saami.org/specifications_and_information/specifications/Velocity_Pressure_CfR.pdf

The only variable I know of in that comparison (save 400 psi peak pressure which is miniscule) is the cartridge case.
 
When it comes to shooting deer from 300yds in, arguing about cartridge is pretty silly.

Any of the modern rounds from .243 on up will do fine and most black powder cartridges will work as well.

If the OP wants .257wby then fine and dandy.
 
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