Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting 257 Weatherby for long range coues deer

The 100-grain Ballistic Tip is a lot tougher than most hunters realize, because the jacket is at least half the weight of the bullet.
If you're not shooting under 200 yards, I'm sure they'd work fine.

You better check your scope adjustments and RT if you might have to take a poke, and with CWT, you better plan on it.

Bullets won't matter if you hit 3 feet low...

Thanks John.
I've got some some 110 accubonds in bound.
Next I'll try the bt's.
What's nice, is where I live, is the elevations, as where unit 23 is.
So that's going to match well.

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If I had to use a .257" for that kind of shooting, I'd load it with a 115 VLD and call it a day.

Why are you zeroing the scope at 100 yds with a flat shooting cartridge like the 257 Wby? I have the same scope on my .222 Rem Sako L461. It is pushing a 50gr bullet at a leisurely 3000fps so with a 200 yds zero it is about 2.25" high at 100yds. I was able to make first shot kills out to 410 yds on targets smaller than a water bottle using the LRVD reticle. There were misses due to wind, but the elevation was always were it should be. You have to understand the trajectory at long range. No BDC reticle is going to have a dot where you need it at every range. There is going to have to be hold over/under from the dots. If you aren't comfortable with that get a duplex reticle and twist the dial for elevation or zero at 200yds and you will be +/- 2" of zero out to 250 yds. If you zero for 300 yds you are max high of 3" at 175 yds and 7.3 low at 400. You could damn near hold center out to 400.

I have 3 other scopes with a bdc reticle in them.
A b&c, an lrd, and one in a 1-4 ,on an ar.
I fully understand the concept of the hold overs.
This just too fast.
3,000, you say? Add another 784 fps to that, and see how it works out !
Plus the 100 gr, isn't slowing as fast as a 50.
I'm going to twist a turret, when I figure out what bullet and weight I'm going to launch at coues deer.
I'm going to make this a dedicated coues rifle, since I may be able to draw every year.

My point was, using holdover for the 257W is about 5x easier than the 222. With a cartridge shooting that flat, hold over dots aren't useful/needed IMO for game size animals until you are past 500yds because the target are is so large. Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you are saying your problem is. Good luck.

Jordan,

There are a couple problems with using the 115 VLD in the .257 Weatherby. The lesser problem is that muzzle velocities are over the 3200 fps Berger recommends as maximum--especially with longer-barreled rifles with handloads that are "leaned on." They might even come apart in the air.

The other problem, which I've encountered in various Weatherby rounds, is the "freebore" (long throat) doesn't seem to help VLD accuracy.

I'm in agreement with JB on the VLD thing. My experience over the years is long freebore Weatherby's don't shoot boat tail bullets very well most of the time. Also slow burning ball powders will and have put large dents in the sides of cases.

So I shoot flat based bullets with extruded powders.

Interesting. I've mostly used the target version of that bullet out of a .25-06, so that thought hadn't crossed my mind.

I hear you on the long throat thing, although I've managed to achieve pretty darn good accuracy in rifles where mag constraints required VLD's to be seated quite a ways off the lands. As such, I might be tempted to try the 115 in this case, but in general I would agree that those long throats aren't doing many favours for precision shooting.

While I've made some long pokes with .257" bullets, they certainly wouldn't be my first choice for a rifle that I knew was going to be used for hunting where a long shot was probable.

Jordan,

The freebore doesn't seem to hurt accuracy with other bullets, for what reason I dunno. My first .257 Weatherby was a Vanguard Sporter (walnut stock) that would group three 100-grain TSX's (the TTSX wasn't around back then) into 1/2 MOA out to 500 yards, as far as I ever shot it. It also shot flatter and with less wind-drift than any ballistic program predicted, probably because extra velocity tends to increase BC, and I was running them at 3550 fps from a 24" barrel.

Replaced that rifle with a NULA Model 28 that shoots even flatter, with less dift, using with 100-grain TTSX's or E-Tips, but weighs two pounds less.

I've used them from my .25-06, at only about 3120 fps mv on several mule deer and a couple of pronghorn. Instant death. Complete penetration broadside. Good expansion.

Recovered one bullet from the rear quarter of a pronghorn I shot in the chest at roughly 160 yards. It was well expanded.

Very accurate also...

Not a .257 Wby, but it's doing fine and likely that I'll keep using the 115 gr Ballistic Tips for my .25-06 rifle. Did use the 115 Berger VLD's, happily, for two or three mule deer as well.

Tried the 100 gr TSX at 3340 fps. Two mule deer. One at about 20 yards - that bullet expanded for sure! The other was at about 120 yards, and I never was sure if the bullet really expanded at all, but it did kill the deer.

FWIW, Guy

If the load is "for coues deer" I wouldn't choose a mono or a bonded bullet.

As Mule Deer said the 100gr. NBT is a tough bullet -I've dropped 4-5 hogs with that bullet , matter of fact not one has taken a step. The range is close [feeder] at 65 yards but I've killed coyotes/deer/badgers quite a few critters with that bullet from a 25-06.
Never tried the 115gr. NBT because the 100gr. worked so well.

Good luck on the hunt .
Mike

Why wouldn't you use a mono? We run only mono, some of our deer are not larger than a large coues.

Kills em damn quick and they travel very short distances with almost no meat loss.

I'm sure if we bone shot em they would mostly all be DRT.

And then if you have to angle shoot one you have insurance.

Whats not to like?

I'm thinking, why not a mono, is I would like a bit more dramatic expansion to cause dramatic tissue damage to anchor the little guy in place, or leave a decent blood trail off into nether canyon land that easy enough to follow.
I left all values the same on JBM, and only switch between a 100gr ttsx and a 100gr bt, and the bt flies a bit better.

110gr Accubond, or 100gr Ballistic tip ?

You do know that these bullet discussions are about #200 on the list for killing a coues deer?

What's your glass setup? Base camp or packing in? Bringing in water? Better have super boots and tough pants. Better be prepared for heat or cold. How's your pack? You going gutless method? How's your scope track? You good from field positions as a bipod is seldom able to be used? You glassing all day or missing the important 10-2 period? You better be able to judge and be ready to shoot in seconds...

I could go on for hours...

Camping, 4 wheelers, and am use to shooting sticks, or whatever.
All I'm worried about is the bullet.

I may just scrap the Weatherby, and still use my 7 mag with 160gr Accubonds.
I'm good to 900 yards with it. That's the furthest plate at the range.