How do you load for a Weatherby?

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pyscodog

Active member
Trying to touch the lands with a bullet is near impossible due to the long throat in the Weatherby rifles. Every bullet falls out of the case about the time it reachs the lands. Tried 68 grain Bergers and 75 grain V-Max with no luck. Just tried a 87 grain V-Max and I can barely keep it in the case. Barely. Max mag length is 2.881 and the 87 touchs at 2.881 but may not have enough left to safely stay seated in the case. Lots of jump? Didn't want to shoot to heavy of a pill but may not have the option.
 
Sure lots of freebore in them Weatherbys aint there? And unless you get you a custom barrel made up of the factory one set back a bit that is what you have to live with.

What caliber are you loading? You did not mention.
 
Yep lots of freebore. Even though they jump quite a ways in my .300, I found a load that shoots just fine.
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Why do you want to reach the lands? Better accuracy? Higher pressures? Weatherby has put a lot of development into their cartridges and rifles. Sure, its not benchrest stuff, but it was never meant to be. The most accurate load I've found for mine was the same oal as the factory rounds. At the advertised velocity, which isn't slow.
 
I would seat them to book spec for starters and go from there. You might be surprised. My fishing tournament partner has a Mark V in 270 that he brought along on a cow elk hunt last year. He had some factory nosler ammo, and was quite surprised as was I when I shot 5 130 accubonds into about a 35 caliber hole at the 100 yard sighter. That Swarovski he had on it didn't hurt anything of course.

I would try to stay away from bullets that are sensitive to seating depth, which it looks like you are so good deal!

I never met a VMax that minded hopping into the lands a little.
 
I just got a Vanguard Backcountry in 240 Wby Mag. I seat them where the book suggests and have great luck with the 55gr varmageddon, 75gr vmax and 90gr ballistic tip. I have only shot a few groups with each, the vg's were the smallest group but the other two were at or just under 1MOA at 100 yards. That works for me for a light weight carry/hunting gun.
 
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One of my hunting buddies bought a Weatherby in 30-06 last fall. He was pretty set on using 165 gr SST's. I started load work up and it was apparent seating length was going to be an issue, a combination of limited mag space and excessive freebore. I decided to just seat to book length and play with powders and primers until I was happy with the results.

It was a challenge to say the least, I must
have went through 10 powders. But when I found the magic powder the results were really great. Of all the [beeep] powders available to me H380 (who would have thunk it) what did the trick, I went from 1.5 to 2 inch groups to consistent sub moa groups. Now a lot of rifles are capable of this but what impressed me about this Weatherby with this load is that it was extremely consistent and consistent at distance.

I don't know if this helps you, but I left seating depth alone and payed with other factors until I came up with a load that I was happy with.
 
Here is the Sammi spec for weatherbys! Yours may or may not be in spec.


What is the throat length (free bore) on your Weatherby rifles chambered for Weatherby magnum calibers?

Code:
Cartridge (free bore)
.224 Weatherby Magnum .162
.240 Weatherby Magnum .169
.257 Weatherby Magnum .378
.270 Weatherby Magnum .378
7MM Weatherby Magnum .378
.300 Weatherby Magnum .361
.340 Weatherby Magnum .373
.375 Weatherby Magnum .373
.378 Weatherby Magnum .756
.416 Weatherby Magnum .239
.460 Weatherby Magnum .756
.30-378 Weatherby Magnum .361
.338-378 Weatherby Magnum .361
 
The way Roy got those incredible velocity numbers was with a lot of powder, and the only way to keep pressures down with that much powder behind a bullet is to free-bore the rifles. I can guarantee you that if you try to push the bullet up tight against the lands and succeed, the first shot out of the rifle, even at the bottom of the load chart data, is going to be well above safe pressures.

I found out a long time ago that the safest thing to do with a Wby was to use cannelured bullets, seat to the cannelure, and work up. It worked for me, and it still should. As has been already stated, there may be a fair amount of work involved, but I would start with something like IMR 7828 or Reloder 22 and see where it put me.

And by the say, the same thing goes for the 308 Norma Mag. Ken Waters, in his Pet Loads book, states that Norma specs required 8mm of freebore for their ultra-accurate 30. That is a bit over three tenths of an inch!
 
Found a load today thats giving me a nice tight groups at 100 yds. A Nosler 80gr Ballistic Tip Varmint with 42.5 grains of H4350 and a CCI LR primer.OAL was 2.725. Problem now is I only had 9 bullets left in the box, shot 5 and so far everyone is out of stock. Looks like I start over.
 
Originally Posted By: pyscodogFound a load today thats giving me a nice tight groups at 100 yds. A Nosler 80gr Ballistic Tip Varmint with 42.5 grains of H4350 and a CCI LR primer.OAL was 2.725. Problem now is I only had 9 bullets left in the box, shot 5 and so far everyone is out of stock. Looks like I start over.

http://store.thirdgenerationshootingsupply.com/browse.cfm/4,3202.html
 
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