257 Weatherby

[Hatrick]

Wolf, I am with Sable on this. With my one problem Browning in 300 Rum I spent 2 years on and off trying to make it shoot. I went to the Harrisburg show talked to some people and rebarreled it. Shoots 1 hole at a hundred now. You get to pick your twist also. Can't believe it took me that long to get rid of the aggravation. It was either that or sell it.

 

[sable tireur]

It was a fun purchase.

If you don't want to invest in this rifle, sell it and do something you enjoy. Otherwise, make an excellent rifle by re-barreling with a great barrel and then enjoy it!

Would you guys recommend keeping the insane freebore of the original weatherby chambering when I rebarrel?

I did away with the Weatherby freebore. As above start fresh and work up your new loads and enjoy shooting your rifle again.

 

[Overkill338]

ive heard of them going south with 500 rounds

If the .257 has that much trouble, I really feel sorry for the 30-378 guys.

 

[Dr. Vette]

If you do away with the freebore, be sure to note it somehow on the barrel. In theory, factory ammo is loaded to take advantage of this, and loads may be over pressure if shot without it.

I'd probably go factory freebore with a faster twist, and shoot longer Hammer bullets from it. That's what I am working on with one of my 7mm Wby rifles.

 

[Dean2]

Weatherbys shoot just fine with their normal for Bee free bore. It was how the cartridge was designed to work so even though I am in the minority, I keep the usual long free bore. These aren't benchrest guns and short free bore just means more heat and faster damage. It also means you can get some wonky pressure excursions you will never see if you can't get the bullets to the lands.

I have had quite a few Weatherby cartridges that would shoot 1/2" 3 shot groups pretty consistently with factory free bore so to me that is good enough. I have never had a 257 Bee barrel go south until I had at least 900 rounds through it and most would go 1100 before there was a noticeable drop in accuracy. IF you like the gun put a new barrel on it. Six hundred bucks for the barrel installed is way less than the cost of the ammo to wear it out again.

 

[Iron Worker]

My 257 Bee has a Bartlien Rem contour bbl it took 9 rounds to find a great load. My point is re-barrel it with a heavier contour bbl. Also mine has the standard Weatherby freebore.

 

[MudRunner2005]

I have a Mark V 257 weatherby. This gun will not shoot. Like 2-4 moa regardless of powder / bullet combo that I've tried. I'm handloading this b itch and once in a while get a 1-1.5 moa group. But won't replicate it on the next go around.
Details:
Round count: unknown (I have about 170 through it), but bought it used.
Using Redding competition dies
Changed scopes
Has a timney trigger
B&C stock, fully bedded
1:10 twist
Factory barrel #2, free floated, Fouls easily
Has the standard weatherby freebore (about 8 miles)
Have tried 100 ttsx, 115-120 partition, 115 BT, 100 Sierra
H1000, rl 22/25,
And no, i don't have a bore scope. Barrel does feel smooth/ consistent when the patch goes through.
Should add that I'm shooting my 338 edge at the same time and getting .4-.6 moa, so my form is good.
Please help.

This sounds vaguely familiar......

 

[Wolf76]

I'm getting to the point where I'll be keeping about 6 totally awesome rifles. All built for a specific purpose. My 308, 300 wm, 338 edge, and 45 raptor are bad A S S. The 257 would kind of round out the options. So I'll likely get another barrel (hopefully find a 4th of July sale) and make it great.
It's expensive buying a barrel, chamber, thread, true the action, etc. Almost cheaper buying a new gun.

Really appreciate all the advice and sharing your experiences.

 

[MudRunner2005]

Yup. From what I've read that cartridge (although quite sexy in my opinion) is the Poster child for being "Overbore". I'd get it scoped and I hope it works out for the OP.

That's why you build a .25-06 AI 40º the next go-round instead. When you can get within 100 FPS, and get double the barrel life, and cheap brass (.270 Win) for forming, it's really a no-brainer. I've had both, and while I like the .257 Wby, and still have all my brass, handloads, factory ammo, dies, etc.. it will be a long time before I buy/build another one.

 

[MudRunner2005]

I got rid of the freebore in mine. Work loads up and watch for pressure.

Best thing anyone can do with a .257 Wby is eliminate the massive freebore in the SAAMI reamer specs, and use minimal freebore.

 

[Dean2]

Best thing anyone can do with a .257 Wby is eliminate the massive freebore in the SAAMI reamer specs, and use minimal freebore.

Maybe if you keep the barrel for its usable life, mark the barrel with the no free bore warning and don't shoot factory ammo in it you might be able to make that argument. I still do not understand what you guys that advise no free bore think the advantage is to making a Wildcat out of a SAMII spec hunting round though.

As far as the 25-06 AI, I have never liked the feed reliability of AI shouldered cases. I would never have one in a hunting rifle. If it is all about barrel life the 25-06 is a WAY better idea than the 25 Bee but as far as the 25-06 AI, happy to give up the 150 fps to the regular 25-06 for 100% reliable feeding.

 

[MudRunner2005]

Maybe if you keep the barrel for its usable life, mark the barrel with the no free bore warning and don't shoot factory ammo in it you might be able to make that argument. I still do not understand what you guys that advise no free bore think the advantage is to making a Wildcat out of a SAMII spec hunting round though.

As far as the 25-06 AI, I have never liked the feed reliability of AI shouldered cases. I would never have one in a hunting rifle, happy to give up the 150 fps for 100% reliable feeding.

If you're going so far as to rebarreling a rifle and building a custom, shooting factory ammo is just plain asinine to your gun and it's potential performance. That's like buying a brand new Bentley Continental GT and then putting a bumper sticker on it before you pull out of the dealership.

As for what advantages it has... There's no "thinking" to it. Facts. Well, seeing as to how I owned an Accumark .257 Wby for 5 years, that was not only a complete pile of ****, and must have been a Friday/Monday gun...For many reasons, the defective barrel being a big one... It had so much freebore, that I couldn't even touch the lands without the bullet falling completely out of the case mouth. The closer you get your bullet to the lands, the more consistent your groups will be, because it has less wobble-room before it hits the rifling. That's what the advantage is.

I've never had a single feed issue with any of my AI's with the 40º shoulder. I have several AI's, all 40º shoulders, and have been shooting them for almost 7 years now, and nary a single feeding issue. I think that's internet ******** that keeps being spread, just like people who are always bitching about belted cartridges, but have no proven facts to throw behind their claims.

Also, it's more than like 250+ FPS over a standard .25-06 Rem... But it's only about 100 FPS shy of matching the .257 Wby's velocities. I spent a lot of time with the MSv2 at the range comparing both of my rifles side-by-side. They both had 26" 1:10 twist barrels, and were shooting the same 115 VLD's and 7828 SSC powder. It was as close to apples-to-apples as I could get, being one is a magnum, and one is a standard cartridge.

 

[chickm1]

That round has great performance. It also has great barrel destruction capabilities. From my studies, about 750 rnds, and that barrel has seen it's batter days. Mine is being rebarreled to 7mm Rem Mag, right now

 

[gator378]

Besides crap barrel, I've heard of several mark 5 in the last 5-6 years needing their bedding jobs redone from the factory. Just another thought

I just had my new 300 Accumark bedded. wow what a difference. Went from shotgun groups to small groups. My gunsmith said I would be happy. He was right