257 weatherby

grinder67

Member

I am looking to buy some 257 weatherby ammo for shooting some coyotes and also to have the brass for reloading. I have noticed that there is a box of "weatherby select" at midway usa for 39.99 with a 100gr norma spitzer, a 100gr soft point from norma usa for 42.99, and a hornady 90gr gmx boat tail lead free for 45.99. I was wandering if any of you had any thoughts on any of these or any other suggestions? Thanks
 
Invest the money in brass and start reloading:

71.5-73g of R#22
100g Sierra btsp
fed 215
3600+ in factory chamber
Seat bullets to mag length

Do not super heat your barrel in load work up

De copper your barrel every 20 rounds

I bought several Mark 5's where the guys trying to get them sighted in just fouled the barrel very badly, then the gun shot like a shot gun.

Super hot barrels do not group as well as cool barrels. YOu can use a wash cloth that is soaking wet with a mix of 50/50 rubbing alcohol and water, rub the barrel where the fluid is dripping off the bottom of the barrel. Cool barrel every 3 shots in load development, and forget shooting 5 shot groups.

good luck!
 
Originally Posted By: grinder67
I am looking to buy some 257 weatherby ammo for shooting some coyotes and also to have the brass for reloading. I have noticed that there is a box of "weatherby select" at midway usa for 39.99 with a 100gr norma spitzer, a 100gr soft point from norma usa for 42.99, and a hornady 90gr gmx boat tail lead free for 45.99. I was wandering if any of you had any thoughts on any of these or any other suggestions? Thanks

Buy the Weatherby Spitzer ammo for the high quality brass. For Coyotes, hogs and whitetail, the Spitzer bullet will work just fine. Skip the Hornady ammo. Their brass is junk compared to the Weatherby. Additionally, it has less case capacity than the Weatherby brass.

Once you begin loading, buy yourself a pound of RL-25 and a box of Nosler 115 BST's. You'll find your sweet spot between 70 and 72 grains with a velocity of 3300-3400fps. This combo has easily provided the greatest accuracy and velocity in the 3 257's I've owned. The 115 BST at 3400 fps is magic. It absolutely just hammers anything in it's path. The bullet holds up extremely well at 257 velocities. Additionally, with it's high BC, it's pretty much spanks all the 100 gr bullets. Run the numbers, you may be surprised.

 
Originally Posted By: MOJO67Originally Posted By: grinder67
I am looking to buy some 257 weatherby ammo for shooting some coyotes and also to have the brass for reloading. I have noticed that there is a box of "weatherby select" at midway usa for 39.99 with a 100gr norma spitzer, a 100gr soft point from norma usa for 42.99, and a hornady 90gr gmx boat tail lead free for 45.99. I was wandering if any of you had any thoughts on any of these or any other suggestions? Thanks

Buy the Weatherby Spitzer ammo for the high quality brass. For Coyotes, hogs and whitetail, the Spitzer bullet will work just fine. Skip the Hornady ammo. Their brass is junk compared to the Weatherby. Additionally, it has less case capacity than the Weatherby brass.

Once you begin loading, buy yourself a pound of RL-25 and a box of Nosler 115 BST's. You'll find your sweet spot between 70 and 72 grains with a velocity of 3300-3400fps. This combo has easily provided the greatest accuracy and velocity in the 3 257's I've owned. The 115 BST at 3400 fps is magic. It absolutely just hammers anything in it's path. The bullet holds up extremely well at 257 velocities. Additionally, with it's high BC, it's pretty much spanks all the 100 gr bullets. Run the numbers, you may be surprised.



Thanks! Excactly the kind of information I was looking for!
 
One thing for sure, you will be shocked at how fast deer die when shot with this caliber!

For a custom, I had a 26" Pac Nor three groove(sendero taper) in a 10T with ZERO freebore, Pac Nor did an excellent job. I shot the 100g at 3850 and the 115's at 3600.

It took a while to stop shooting over stuff. I hunted crows, coyotes, deer, and a few antelope. A crow at 300 did not have a prayer, really good at building up your confidence in your rifle.

I shot R#22 with Fed 215's, worked up accuracy load in less than 20 shots with each bullet. This seems to be a very, very accurate and easy to tune case.
When I got the rifle back from Pac Nor, I went to the range with 5 rounds of 71.0 of R#22 loaded with a 100g Nosler ballistic tip. It took two round to get sighted in after bore sighting. Then shot three rounds of 71.0g, let the barrel cool, then three rounds of 71.5g of R#22, shot a group in the high 2's, then 72.0g, shot a group in the low 3's. Settled on 71.5g at 3850. This is how long the load development took.

Next trip to the range, tried 67g, 67.5g, then 68g of R#22 with the 115g Nosler BT, 67.5-68g both shot around .300 or less at 3600.

How's that for load development?

At 300 yards, groups were in the 1" or a tad less range, with an occasional 5/8" group(wind).

I put a Burris signature 6x24 on the rifle, marked target knobs to 500 to be used as a bean field rifle or a power/gas line rifle. No animal I ever aimed at took more than one shot.

I had a muzzle break on the rifle, and saw every bullet strike on every animal.

Best wishes!
 
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My favorite for the .257 was a 90 gr sierra bthp over reloader 22. That bullet is also very good for deer, as long as you don't hit large bones. For brass, you can also neck down 7mm rem mag brass. The neck will be shorter, but it works very well at a much lower price.
 
Originally Posted By: GaryLCMy favorite for the .257 was a 90 gr sierra bthp over reloader 22. That bullet is also very good for deer, as long as you don't hit large bones. For brass, you can also neck down 7mm rem mag brass. The neck will be shorter, but it works very well at a much lower price.

My last reamer I necked down Winchester 7 Rem mag brass, had the reamer ground for that neck length, then zero freebore, worked like a charm. I did this because Winchester was tougher than Norma, Was...I don't know how or what is going on today.

Necking down was a easy, grease the case, run it in the die...no fuss and no cases lost!
 
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