Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 7mm Weatherby Magnum

The one I owned, shot very well! It's a good cartridge! Mine I bought from a guy who said it would not shoot, I took the gun for a test drive, I made sure everything was tight as it should be, I didn't like the scope on it, but I got it zeroed ok, and then fired 3 shots at 200 yards, 2 inches high and a 1.1 inch group! I bought it, put a better scope on it and hunted with it for a good decade before I sold it when I paired down my collection! I shoot a 7mm RM in a Blaser R-93 these days.

Everyone should have at least one. Remington had the 7 wby in there Classic line. Probably had a 24" barrel.

I like the cartridge, used it for awhile as I've done with its sister cartridges, the .257, and the .270. Two things I've grown to dislike about them all: the freebore and the overly heavy action.

You could get a custom barrel made without the freebore, but that's a bad idea if the gun ever sees factory loads (likely too much pressure, especially with Weatherby ammunition).

I had good accuracy, pushing MOA, but suspect it would have been much better without the freebore. As Mule Deer mentioned above, I recall accuracy was better with lighter bullets (maybe also due to the freebore business?).

The Weatherby "freebore myth" needs to be put to bed. While that was true early on, modern powders have all but eliminated that "affliction" and come to think of it, just like the infamous belt on magnum cartridges, it was much to do about nothing.

Care to expound?
Define "freebore myth"?
What affliction?

Because of the "freebore", which was achieved with a long, over-sized throat, most Weatherby rifles positively hated Sierra boattails. If the long throat was cut closer to nominal bullet diameter, the rifle was much less fussy. I think the 7mm Weatherby is the best of the 7mm Magnums and it would be my choice if I wanted to build a big seven for myself. GD

Weatherby rifles' freebore has been considerably reduced for quite some time now ergo, it is no longer an issue to those that considered it an issue in the first place. My comment regarding belts on magnum cartridges was merely my comparison to those of you who viewed freebore as a bad thing, like a lot of folks also view belts on cartridges. Again in my opinion, neither belts nor freebore were "afflictions" as in a bad thing.

I have a good friend that shoots a Mk 5 in 7mm Wetherby. If you do away with the freebore be very careful. His will leave distinct ejector marks on the cases with factory ammunition.

Freeborn is trade off. Trade velocity for accuracy. I have had weatherby's that shot certain loads well, but I have never had a Weatherby that shot a large variety of loads well.
As for belts. When combined with crappy factory chambers you almost always will get a stretch ring in front of the belt. This weakens the case and frankly drives me nuts.

300 Weatherby, 1958 manufacture, LOTS of freebore:


300 Weatherby 2009 manufacture, significantly less freebore:


Both shot w exact load of 80.5gr RL-22 and 180gr TTSXs, F215 primers and Wby (Norma cases). Former has a 24" barrel, MV~3190, latter 26" barrel MV 3250+.

Never had an issue w case separation, but then again, I took D'Arcy Echols' advice and discard cases after 3X as accuracy deteriorates.

(Not directed at Jorge)

General comment: It seems to me that even when the diameter of the freebore is mentioned (greydog) it doesn't register.

I just looked at the SAAMI drawings of minimum chambers for several Weatherby cartridges. The freebore sections were specified as .0004" over bullet diameter. Less than a half thou over. It's a good bet that if production chambers were uniformly tight to this diameter spec there would be a lot less grouping variation typically attributed to the length of the freebore.

Not a huge Weatherby drum pounder, but this rifle was gifted to my boy from my elk hunting partner. Nothing special about it, Japanese MK5 and plastic stock but it took almost no load work to develop good shooting 200 grain PT loads with 7828SSC...





Haven't shot a ton of other stuff, but for a hunting rifle, it ain't horrible.... Skinny little barrel on it too..

I have had some shoot well too. I just haven't got consistently great results.
Discarding brass after 3 firings is ridiculous IMO. I have shot some of my 300 Ultra brass 6 times and that's just cheap Rem brass.

I'm with you, I've had no problems getting 8-10 firings out of Norma brass so far. I do anneal them often but I haven't lost any to this point to any failures and accuracy is still excellent.

I just picked up another Mark V Deluxe in 7 Wby Mag (and one in 257 Wby as well). The one I had was a solid 1/2" rifle....hope this one is as well.

I don't have any experience with the Weatherby action per se or WB factory ammo, but I imagine that any freebore could be offset some by handloading bullets out, no?

160s come to mind...w/MD's caveat

If not, a guy could always set the barrel back and load accordingly.

Do have the chambering in a custom barreled 1 in 9 M98 with bullet throated snugly for 150s currently. It is no doubt, as potent of a 7 as I will ever need--probably more, considering dialing.

As to brass, also can do around 8 w/annealing. Norma.

ALL Westherby rifles I've owned shot well. ALL have been sub MOA shooters. As to the three firing issue, I have observed a deterioration in accuracy after three or more firings. Although some calibers are a bit more forgiving, for example, the 257 does give me more firings than the 300 and so does the 7to get back on topic

I have yet to have a Weatherby Mark V that did not shoot extremely well and was not consistent. I have owned/own them in 270,7mm and 300 bee. I understand that the Remington ultra mags also have a bit of freebore.

I have its twin at home but in 270 weatherby. I have to scope it and shoot it in the next few weeks.

The 7mm weatherby was my primary hunting round for a number of years. I always went more than three firings.
I have owned a pile of weatherby rifles and sold many on this site. I would guess around 20, including a 300 and 240 currently . I have had plenty that wouldn't shoot MOA or would only do so with one load or one bullet weight. IMO non of them are inherently accurate cartridges.