257 WBY with or without Freebore

[Ironworker]

257 WBY with or without Freebore ? I hand load and want to shoot 100-115 gr bullets .

 

[hoz53]

257 WBY with or without Freebore ? I hand load and want to shoot 100-115 gr bullets .

I’d want to start with as short a freebore as possible that will work with the bullets you want to shoot.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

If you go factory spec itll shoot well but youll be about 1/4” jump

 

[shoot4fun]

Wasn't all the "extra" FB meant to have a purpose when the Weatherby family of cartridges was developed?
I was thinking it was done to keep pressures down to manageable levels.
Anyway, I love the idea of the 257WBY and have long wanted one. I would go with @hoz53 on this one and would also get a bit faster than normal twist rate.

 

[AckleymanII]

I started out shooting factory Mark 5's, then met a gunsmith from San Diego on a jack Rabbit shoot. He had a zero freebore 257 W shooting 100's at 3850, 100g ballistic tips.

We traded off rifles and made a couple of coyote stands. I shot a large male, and hair floated down for 5 minutes.

The next Monday, I was ordering a zero freebore reamer. Prior to ordering, I played around with running 264 Win mag and 7 mag unfired brass through the 257 Weatherby full length sizer. A perfectly full formed case was the result with a tad shorter neck. So, I sent that case in to PTG and had them order a reamer off of the New Winchester brass that was formed to the 257 Weatherby spec, my reamer is on file with them, possibly.

100's run 3850 using R#22 and 215's with 100g what evers.
115's run 3600 using R#22 and 215's
87's run 4130 approximately

With the zero freebore, you get double the barrel life of std freebore reamers at a bare miminum.

With a muzzle break, you see the water vapor fly off a deer's hide in the mornings, they are always laying in their tracks.

Over the years I found three cases that created life long memories in how they blew up coyotes/chucks extremely well:

257 Weatherby with 100's going 3850; 87's at 4130
270 Winchester with 90g Sierra's at 3500
6mm Rem AI with 70-75 going 3900+

As I said earlier, ALL deer I shot with the 257 Weatherby died where they stood with the 100's.

 

[Rdlningcltchdmpr]

257 WBY with or without Freebore ? I hand load and want to shoot 100-115 gr bullets .

Why 100- 115 ? All that does is slow it down ! For deer or coyote the 80 grain ttsx barnes at 3900+ is the best out to 400 yds or so. Flat like a laser. No lead fragments , great penetration at any angle. Can also shoot through brush , twigs, saplings ! For varmint's the 70 blitzkings at up to 4250 fps.

 

[scope eye]

70gr Blitz kings in my 12 twist and 87gr speer 500ct value packs in my 10 twist, what's not to love both well over 4000fps take no prisoners or fur for that matter.

Dean

 

[FrankG]

The long freebore helped pressures for the velocities they where trying to achieve in the WBY calibers. The .375WBY had like a .375” freebore length.

You shorten the freebore/tighten it up you will drive up pressures pretty good on box/factory ammo. If your just shooting handloads and any reference to load data out of loading manuals you will have to back off the loads some more as the loading manuals are loading for a factory type chamber with the freebore.

Later, Frank
Bartlein Barrels

 

[Ironworker]

Why 100- 115 ? All that does is slow it down ! For deer or coyote the 80 grain ttsx barnes at 3900+ is the best out to 400 yds or so. Flat like a laser. No lead fragments , great penetration at any angle. Can also shoot through brush , twigs, saplings ! For varmint's the 70 blitzkings at up to 4250 fps.

Oh I like that !

 

[Ironworker]

No shortage of opposing opinions out there. More say standard SAMMI spec chamber,will give you high velocities and excellent accuracy with tailored hand loads. Some say no free bore extends bbl life,other says just the opposite. I'm going with standard SAMMI spec.

 

[scope eye]

My load for the 70gr blttzkings is a full compressed case 75gr+ RL17, with no signs of pressure which yields a whopping 4400fps. I can get away with this due to the generous amount of freebore. I would not have it any other way, back when I did not have a pot to piss in, I use to neck down 264 WinMag brass and even 7mm RemMag which worked fine only did not last as long as the WBY Brass. I remember once I loaded 100 rounds and they were a little to hot even for me, so I ran them through the press again and pushed the bullets in another 100thou which tamed them down a lot and that has been my load ever since. The load was 70 gr of RL17 with those 87gr Speers, I use that 70gr load in a lot of calibers since it allows you to get 100 rounds per pound. my 257 WSM is another good example.

Dean

 

[wboggs]

You guys are getting higher velocities than I was ever able to obtain without expanding case heads. I suspect the 100's at 3850 and the 115's at 3600 are running very high pressures. I did have a custom chamber on mine without the Wby freebore. It was determined many years ago that the freebore used more powder to reach the same velocity and decreased accuracy in P.O. Ackley's experiments. The Wby shoulder was an attempt to improve compustion and was also proven to be to be no better.
Bill

 

[scope eye]

Original factory WBY ammo of 50 years ago use to run pressures well into the 70000 psi if not 80000, they have since tone it down the 460 use to advertise over 8000 FPE you can't get those numbers by loading conservatively.

Dean

 

[AckleymanII]

The long freebore helped pressures for the velocities they where trying to achieve in the WBY calibers. The .375WBY had like a .375” freebore length.

You shorten the freebore/tighten it up you will drive up pressures pretty good on box/factory ammo. If your just shooting handloads and any reference to load data out of loading manuals you will have to back off the loads some more as the loading manuals are loading for a factory type chamber with the freebore.

Later, Frank
Bartlein Barrels

Frank, that is one main reason that I had a reamer with a tad shorter neck ground, no possibility of the barrel ever chambering a factory round. Also, with zero freebore, factory bullets would have to be re seated.

You made a very valid point.

 

[AckleymanII]

Remington 700's, Savage 110's, Winchester model 70's all have done well with zero freebore.

100-s at 3850 out of 26" barrels with R#22 is a home run in every barrel
30" are 4000 fps

H1000, IMR 7828 suck hind tit

Bug holes abound with R#22 with 100's, 87's at 4130 out of 26" 10T tubes

Deer act like they have been hit by the Fist of God Himself!

 

[Rdlningcltchdmpr]

My load for the 70gr blttzkings is a full compressed case 75gr+ RL17, with no signs of pressure which yields a whopping 4400fps. I can get away with this due to the generous amount of freebore. I would not have it any other way, back when I did not have a pot to piss in, I use to neck down 264 WinMag brass and even 7mm RemMag which worked fine only did not last as long as the WBY Brass. I remember once I loaded 100 rounds and they were a little to hot even for me, so I ran them through the press again and pushed the bullets in another 100thou which tamed them down a lot and that has been my load ever since. The load was 70 gr of RL17 with those 87gr Speers, I use that 70gr load in a lot of calibers since it allows you to get 100 rounds per pound. my 257 WSM is another good example.

Dean

My fast load 4250fps is 68 grains of r17 with 70 grain blitzkings, krieger 12twist

 

[Rdlningcltchdmpr]

Oh I like that !

For strictly accuracy i found a secret load that is beyond the beyond , 88 grain bib boattails, 85 grains Us869 powder= 3500 fps and tiny tiny groups. One's

 

[scope eye]

My fast load 4250fps is 68 grains of r17 with 70 grain blitzkings, krieger 12twist

So 7gr more powder for 150fps gain, mine also is a 12 twist although it is a 30" barrel whether that makes a difference or not, a lot of folks I am sure are not aware of this, 12 twist is they original offering for a 257WBY.

Dean

 

[Rdlningcltchdmpr]

So 7gr more powder for 150fps gain, mine also is a 12 twist although it is a 30" barrel whether that makes a difference or not, a lot of folks I am sure are not aware of this, 12 twist is they original offering for a 257WBY.

Dean

Yes it seems odd but i was afraid to even attempt more powder . when i saw the chronograph reading. I believe 68- r17 is max in my gun. That was my starting load and i disassembled the higher ones.

 

[wboggs]

Weatherby liked slow twist barrels because he was looking for every fps.