7mm Weatherby magnum

[Eric 700bdl]

try 65gr of IMR 4350 with a 140gr accubond nosler bullet. bullets touch in my 7mm rem mag. weatherby case is similar.




accurate shooting makes good clean hunting

 

[Trickymissfit]

one thing I've learned about every Weatherby I've owned and just about all the others I shot. They are a cold barrel gun. If you shoot them one shot after another they will send bullets left and right. The best way to tell what's going on is to shoot one bullet and let the barrel cool down. Then shoot another, and another allowing the barrel to cool off between shots. Don't worry to much about this as your going to hunt with a cold bore anyway.

Secondly pull the action out of the stock to inspect the front pressure point. On those light weight barrels this can be critical! I have one with a wood stock and the skinny barrel. But the pressure points are in great shape and it's an effortless .75MOA rifle with Remington Corelocks! Better bullets and a little care reloading the ammo would probably give me an honest .60" five shot gun. Also after firing new ammo (factory), trim each case square again.

I don't ever hunt with a VLD bullet, but with two or three exceptions. I've just never saw anything out of them to warrant using them. Other guys I know use them and love them, but they spent a lot of time and money making them work. Lots of folks cuss the free bore issue, and I always get a good laugh at them. It's a rare case when a throat dosn't have some free bore in it. I have three factory rifles that have almost .20" free bore in them, and shoot just fine. One even shoots better than another with the same chamber and zero free bore. But if the free bore is very loose around the bullet you will have some issues.
gary

 

[HARPERC]

Its an older thread, but reading through I see a 1-10" twist referenced. The older ones were 1-12", they may have changed at some point, but the one I played with key holed a bit with the heavier bullets. It would shoot the lighter bullets well enough. Lighter meaning less than 160 grains. We used some of the Barnes originals 195's, the Weatherby wouldn't group them, but the Ruger 77 7mm Remington shot them rather well with a 1-9' or 9.5" i can't recall now. We weren't shooting long range then so shot well meant to 300 yards on the long end. Terminal performance was good with the Barnes Originals, when the Berger 195 gets here it will be interesting to see how it fits into 7mm guys plans. PS a friends 300 Weatherby was the worst shooter in the Weatherbies I've seen.

 

[jrsolocam]

I have experience with 240, 257, 270 and 300 wby. The factory rifles with heavier barrels like an Accumarck shot MOA the ultra lights did not.

 

[lloydsmale]

when i get a stubborn gun i sometimes take a big swing. If im shooting a 7mag and it wont shoot say 5 differnt 140s ill swing to 160s or if it doesnt seem to want to shoot any conventional bullet ill try a tssx. My 300 wby was like that. It wouldnt shoot moa with anything and i tried about every cup and core bullet from 150-200 grain. everything was 1.5-2 inch. I loaded up some 180 tssx bullets in it one day as a last resort (im not there biggest fan) an low and behold the thing shoots 5 shot 3/4 inch groups with them.

 

[NCBoy]

Do you use a concentrity gauge to measure and correct runout? I found that some dies are better than others. I had the same issue with a 7mag. Got the gauge and found that the die was not consistent. We corrected each load and it has shot everything since. Good luck.

 

[MudRunner2005]

First off....I am a big Weatherby fan, so I'm NOT knocking on Weatherby with this post. This is just my observations.

Weatherbys seem to be picky, from all I've read. My .257 Wby is not a picky gun. It likes the heavies, so I feed it 110 & 115gr bullets and it shoots ultra tight cloverleafs. I have noticed that most Weatherbys seem to like heavy bullets because they have a fast twist rate.

Believe it or not, I've found that alot of Vanguards won't shoot from the factory. The Sub-MOA's will, but alot of the regular Vanguards I've noticed alot of guys getting 1.5-2.5 MOA accuracy out of at 100. My buddy's Vanguard .300 Wby Mag for example shoots average 2.0 MOA groups. My Mark-V Accumark shoots 0.5 or less MOA groups. Granted, he could probably spend about $150 and have a smith bed the action, float the barrel, true the headspacing, etc... But still, we're talking about a $750 rifle shooting 2 MOA groups at 100 yards...IMO it should be doing better than that. I've got Remington's and old tang-safety Ruger 77's that shoot 1/2 MOA groups @ 100 and I paid half what he paid for that Vanguard.

I hope Weatherby has really stepped up their game on the S2's.

 

[Trickymissfit]

First off....I am a big Weatherby fan, so I'm NOT knocking on Weatherby with this post. This is just my observations.

Weatherbys seem to be picky, from all I've read. My .257 Wby is not a picky gun. It likes the heavies, so I feed it 110 & 115gr bullets and it shoots ultra tight cloverleafs. I have noticed that most Weatherbys seem to like heavy bullets because they have a fast twist rate.

Believe it or not, I've found that alot of Vanguards won't shoot from the factory. The Sub-MOA's will, but alot of the regular Vanguards I've noticed alot of guys getting 1.5-2.5 MOA accuracy out of at 100. My buddy's Vanguard .300 Wby Mag for example shoots average 2.0 MOA groups. My Mark-V Accumark shoots 0.5 or less MOA groups. Granted, he could probably spend about $150 and have a smith bed the action, float the barrel, true the headspacing, etc... But still, we're talking about a $750 rifle shooting 2 MOA groups at 100 yards...IMO it should be doing better than that. I've got Remington's and old tang-safety Ruger 77's that shoot 1/2 MOA groups @ 100 and I paid half what he paid for that Vanguard.

I hope Weatherby has really stepped up their game on the S2's.

interesting post about the Vanguard. My first one is a 30-06 and early enough to have the MOA warranty. It shoots very well, I can get groups at the 3/4" mark at 200 yards on occassion in near perfect triangles. Yet at one hundred yards it dosn't shoot anybetter! Figure that one out! Seems to prefer the 150 thru 165 grain bullets. Brother at the sametime bought a 25-06, and that rifle was a rock solid 5/8th" rifle out of the box. The first group I shot with it was five bullets in a dead flat string, and all were touching each other. I have another one that is not a MOA warraty gun, and it shoots about the same.

Have three MK. V's, but actually have only shot two of them. (one I forgot I even owned) Two 30-06's and the 270 mag. The one's I shot have been 3/4" rifles out of the box with a good barrel break in, and not much else. The third rifle will eventually become a .338-06AI or something close to it in .338. Got too many 30-06's as it is!

I've just never had a problem with any Weatherby rifle I've been around, let alone owned.
gary

 

[MudRunner2005]

I have never had any issues, but I went straight to the top-tier when I bought mine, and went with an Accumark...

I have never heard of a Mark V having any issues, and very few Vanguards, but I have heard that some of the newer Vanguards wouldn't shoot. My buddy has had his since we went to college back in 2005, and he got it used from his sister-in-law's dad. He's killed several deer with it, so when he told me he was lucky to hit a 2" group at 100 I was really surprised. I'm gonna try to look at it over the weekend and float the barrel, and take a look at a few other things.

It would have been more surprising if his was the first I'd ever heard of....But unfortunately it isn't. I have talked to several guys over the years who pulled their factory barrels off after several boxes of expensive ammo not shooting worth a ****, and did a complete custom job on the rifle. They said it would shoot afterwards. LOL

 

[Hawkeye09]

Has anyone had any luck getting one to shoot sub minute? I have tried three bullets and 6 powders, played with primers etc and I just can't get anything under 1 1/2". I know Weatherby guarantee is 1 1/2 minute but surely it will do better. I've done searches on multiple forums and haven't found much on the 7 Weatherby. This is on a Mark V deluxe, scoped with a Leupold VX 3 in Burris Signature Zee rings.

I have the same rifle in a 30-06 and easily 1/2 minute with IMR 4895 and a 150 Nosler BT. My .243, .223's and 30-30 I can get sub minute, so I know it isn't me.

Birdhunter: I know that this is a fairly old thread, but I was searching the internet high and low for any reloading information on the 7mm Weatherby. The .300 Weatherby kind of overshadows the .7mm in a big way. The .7mm Weatherby is almost like a lost puppy in the Weatherby world, it was popular for a short time, then *POOF*
I live in Northern BC Canada and I was having a horrible time trying to find anything to do with the .7mm Weatherby. None of the shops had any factory ammo, dies, brass etc. I ended up driving 700 miles South just to buy components from different dealers. Well, I know that Weatherby factory ammo is expensive ( I could probably get a root canal cheaper than a box of shells ) but it is usually fairly accurate. I ended up having to reload my own, and after 6 different ladder tests, the only bullets that it seemed to like were 154 grain Hornady Interlock, SST's and Accubonds. It also liked 150 - 160 Grain Nosler Partitions. My rifle is a 1958 .7mm Weatherby Mark V Made in Germany with a 26" barrel, 1:10" twist. I found that heavier bullets wouldn't stabilize as well, and I could only get 2.5-3" MOA @ 100 yards. Today when I went to the gun range, I loaded 154 SST's as a ladder test and I kid you not, I shot .25" MOA @ 100 yards. The 3 shot group that I managed to make was: Federal 215M Primer, Weatherby factory brass Case trim Length 2.540, 154 Grain Hornady SST with 61.1 grains of IMR 4831. COAL 3.359" The Muzzle Velocity was only 2767 FPS AVG for the three rounds that I shot, but I've never managed to shoot that well with any hunting rifle. Maybe I'm lucky....?

Most of the other groups were scattered all over the paper about 3-4" apart, but besides the one I mentioned, I had 2 other loads that were shooting .75" of each other as well. ( IMR 7828 ) one of the loads was 70 Grains and the other was 72.4 Grains, 2993FPS and 3167 FPS respectively.

I have found that IMR 7828 worked very well for me, a powder that I came across on another .7mm Weatherby Magnum thread. I found that CCI 250M primers didn't work for me at all, and Hornady brass was not as good to work with as the Weatherby brass. I'm not partial to any brand of rifle or manufacturers, I just used what I could get my hands on up here in Canada.

Hopefully you have found something that works for you by now if you still have the rifle, but to any other .7mm Weatherby owners that are frustrated like I was last year, don't give up, just keep trying till it comes together!

Cheers

~Hawkeye09

 

[Birdhunter1]

I guess I should have updated this last year. I restocked the rifle in a B&C Medalist, ended up sending it to Weatherby where they bedded the lug and torqued the screws and sent it back in their specs.
Somebody at Weatherby may have told me, but not officially, this gun will like a 140 gr. Barnes TSX pushed fast.

SO using Norma MRP, Federal 215 match primers and a 140 Barnes TSX I am getting 1 moa groups at 100 yards, sometimes 1 1/4 or 3/4 but averaging in the 1 region. I can live and hunt with it, shot an Antelope Doe at 350 yards last year right where I aimed.

 

[Hawkeye09]

That's awesome. Glad to know you got the issue fixed and that it's shooting well. My Opa used it for 30 years from the Canadian Rockies into the badlands of Alberta, prairies of Saskatchewan and back again, taking everything from antelope, mountain goats, moose, elk, sheep, bears and deer. I shot an elk @505 yards with it this fall, longest shot I've made on a big game animal. Two shots across the river into his shoulder and the big bull hit the dirt

Happy shooting gun)

~Hawkeye09

 

[Khensley]

My 7 Weatherby ultralight shoots better than I can. But nothing heavier than 140's....tight 200 yard groups with 140 AB's, never could get the 160's to do anything.

And definitely no more than 3 shots at a time. Has to sit for at least 15 minutes before I shoot again.

 

[Orange Dust]

Try H4831 and a 150gr Ballistic tip. They are made for each other in every 7mm Wby I've shot.