257 Weatherby

L

ligonierbill

New member
I've been watching the thread on 25-06 bullets and got to thinking (always dangerous, often expensive) about the concept of lightning fast light bullets. When I lived in Idaho, common wisdom was 270 Winchester as a minimum for elk. I killed a couple with a 7mm Rem Mag. And most of the guys I knew in Idaho Falls carried 300 Win Mags.

I'm "back East", older and slower, and I've become kind of a caliber collector. Frankly, if I were going back to hunt Eastern Idaho, I'd carry my 9.3x62. I can live with 300 yards as a maximum (takes me awhile to go that far in the mountains), and I have no doubt that I would drop what I was shooting at. But I'm still intrigued by the Weatherby, which is about as far from my old Mauser round as you can get.

I don't care about barrel life, muzzle blast, recoil, or other practicalities. What are your shooting/hunting impressions of this round?
 
A 9.3X62 will put one down, I have no doubt. I've only ever known 1 person who hunted with a 257 Weatherby and he did fine. When I lived in Idaho, I was surprised how many people were shooting elk with 30-30s and 243s. Elk are not bulletproof, but if you don't hit them in the right place they will go a long ways before tipping over. I saw a lot of 25-06, 270, 30-06 put elk in the freezer. I also saw a few that looked like they had been machine-gunned due to poor marksmanship. I hunt with a 7X57, I have killed deer, antelope, hogs, bear, cattle, coyotes, ground squirrels, etc, with it and I know I can put an elk down when I get lined up on one.
 
ligonierbill said:
I've been watching the thread on 25-06 bullets and got to thinking (always dangerous, often expensive) about the concept of lightning fast light bullets. When I lived in Idaho, common wisdom was 270 Winchester as a minimum for elk. I killed a couple with a 7mm Rem Mag. And most of the guys I knew in Idaho Falls carried 300 Win Mags.

I'm "back East", older and slower, and I've become kind of a caliber collector. Frankly, if I were going back to hunt Eastern Idaho, I'd carry my 9.3x62. I can live with 300 yards as a maximum (takes me awhile to go that far in the mountains), and I have no doubt that I would drop what I was shooting at. But I'm still intrigued by the Weatherby, which is about as far from my old Mauser round as you can get.

I don't care about barrel life, muzzle blast, recoil, or other practicalities. What are your shooting/hunting impressions of this round?
Click to expand...
257 Roy shooting a 90 grain bonded spitzer is a Whitetail destroyer. I have killed a lot of deer with it. Lung shots even drop like a ton of bricks dropped on them. My wife shot a nice 9 pount with my 257. Liver shot was drt.
 
Mixed feelings on this.

I have some M70 's, [.308W, 30-06, & 7mmMag], when I thought I would try WA state Elk. I wan't sure about the load for the .308.my deer reloads were; 165gr SPBT over 42-ish grains of W748, the 30-06 were the same with the W748 about 2.0grains higher.] Bought the 7mmMag [mainly remebering my Dad's cousin Sam, who hunted in IDAHO, used the 7mmMag.] But the throat was shot and I grouped five rounds ona paper plate @ 100 yds ]the entie plate!].

So, contact the Sierra techs and they recommended the following: [7mm use the 162gr SPT over the W748 and for the 30's change the bullet to the 165HPBT's with bumping the velocity up 200FPS.

This past Npvember did a sight-in table for my club, had a mid-70's gentelman,
was attempting to sight-in a 7mmMag, with OTC 175gr ammo. [He had drawn a MI ELk permit for the DEC 13/14 hunt. after 20 yrs trying.] He was having trouble with the recoil. I gently tryed to steer him to a diffent load / caliber [basically use a different powder inthe 7mm and turnit into a 7x57 load] and suggested he swing by the "bassprobelas'" store for a "extra recoil pad .
Neve heard or found out how he did.

What are you're thoughts??
 
Opinions vary and you'll find people on each end of the spectrum. Elmer Keith said to use a bullet of at least .33 caliber for elk. Apparently he came to this conclusion after guiding a number of "magnum" shooters who couldn't shoot well, and felt the bigger bullet would, at least, leave a better blood trail.

Shortly after moving to WA, I met an older fellow who had just taken his 6th elk, with a .243! He felt the .243 was an ideal elk rifle. He hunted deep timber, almost never had a shot more than 90 yds, and took only neck shots, passing up everything else. For him, using the rifle well within its capacity, it worked very well, and "didn't kick much", too boot.

Once saw a WA game dept list of the most commonly used elk rounds, circa 1949. In the top 5 were the .30-30, the .30-40 Krag, the .300 Savage, and of course the .30-06. I forget the last one might have been .270, but I do remember there wasn't a magnum in the top 5 used. People in those days used what they had, generally, rather than getting a rifle specifically for elk.

Elk are tough, but not armor plated or bullet proof, and if you put a bullet that holds together where it needs to go, you'll have elk in the freezer.
 
I have 3 of them. Balistically, it is an under achiever. In most bullet weights, it cant beat the .270 win using 20% more powder in the process
Click to expand...

Yep, it's a burner, but no more so than the 257 WBY. I personally use a 6.5-06, throated long. Pushes 140 Hornady to 2935.
 
Back in the 1990's I lived in western South Dakota but worked as a part time hunting guide for a company based in Gillette, Wyoming. The longest distance shot I ever witnessed was taken with 257 Weatherby by a hunter from Pennsylvania. He toppled a dandy buck antelope way out there. I counted about 375 long strides to the downed animal. What a shot!

Jack
 
I was a lucky one to get a free Weatherby package when the Bank of Boulder (CO)
had a deal w/ Weatherby and CDs. Put money in CD-got package as interest, immediately. Bank of Boulder was at that time (late 70s-early 80s) Weatherbys biggest dealer.

I got the 257 and have not used it much, less than 100 down the tube. Took it deer hunting few time but deer never showed to the date. Have not hunted elk but would take it on an elk hunt w/ no problem, probably 115 or so gr bullets.
 
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