Last year a young hunter in our group was using a .257 Weatherby. He was shooting Weatherby ammo with a 120gr Nosler Partition. His first deer at 120 yards completely obliterated the front of the deer. The deer was quartering towards him, his shot clipped the left front shoulder, high, then took out the right shoulder. From about halfway up the backbone forward it was just a mass of jelly. Two days later he shot another at over 450 yds. Less damage, but he didn't hit any bone this time. Obviously too much gun for the size of the animal and the shorter range.
WARNING: GRAPHIC PICTURES! ENLARGE THUMBNAILS AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!
Two weeks ago five of us were in Wyoming for an Pronghorn Antelope hunt. The group was made up of my, my two adult sons, my hunting buddy and his adult daughter. My buddy and I both shoot Weatherby Mark V Accumarks in .257 Wby with factory 110 gr Accubonds.
On the first day I spotted a real nice buck and gave him the opportunity to shoot. I ranged it at 302 yards and it was 1/4-ing towards us hard...almost straight on. I suggested he aim for the center of the nearest front shoulder. As I watched it through my 10x50 Leupold Gold Ring binocs I saw the hit and watched it spin around and run straight away. I saw a huge explosion of red when it hit, and when it ran away a large quantity of red organs hanging out of it's side. It was one of the nastiest things I've every seen in over 45 years of hunting. I heard my buddy rack another one into the chamber immediately after the hit, and I said DON'T SHOOT! He's dead and just doesn't know it yet.
We gathered our gear and walked toward where we thought the buck went because he ran over a hill and out of sight. Once we got to the buck we were amazed at the hole in him.My buddy had pulled the shot just behind the should closest to us and basically unzipped most of the buck's it's side before the bullet entered the hind quarter. The hole was big enough to to put a basket ball into:
We then went back to find where the buck was standing when he shot him. We found it after my friend said "hey, what's that over there.". It appears to be a red boulder. I walked over to inspect it and found that it was the entire stomach sack almost 100% intact:
The stomach sack was within a few yards of the point of impact, and literally 135 yards from where the buck dropped! ( I paced 60 yards to the top of the ridge and ranged another 75 years to the buck.)
Obviously it was not the best shot, but the amount of damage was something more than I've never seen before. This is a lot of gun for such a small animal. It's a very accurate gun and cartridge, and does an unbelievable amount of damage!
A few days later I shot a buck at 355 yards 1/4-ing slightly towards me. It double lunged him. I remember seeing the white bottom of his chin as he literally flipped up into the air going over backwards. He tried to get up and collapsed immediately. He never took a step.
ThIs cartridge and bullet are devastating deadly. I think it might be over-powered for Antelope, but it works great for long shots in wide open terrain. I think it's a great combo for White Tail and Mule Deer.