Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game 257 Wby from up close to 500 yards

I've been quite satisfied with the 25-06 on mule deer, pronghorn and coyotes from 20 yards to 400+ yards.

But I'm intrigued by the 257 Weatherby... It strikes me as more of the same. Just faster.

How is it near and far, on mule deer, black bear and similar sized animals? Accuracy? Performance on game?

Thinking of a Vanguard with the 26" barrel, 1:10 twist.

Thanks.

I have a Vanguard Sub MOA in .257 Wby that I have doctored up a little. Superbly accurate with 80 gr. TTSX @ if memory serves correct, about 3975. I've killed several deer and antelope with it and it kills them with authority if you shoot some bone. Nothing to dislike other than the poor factory trigger.

I've had great luck on coues deer, antelope, elk, ND javelina from up close to 600 with 100 TTSX

My brother has had great luck with his Guy. He’s used 120 Partitions at 3250 and 100 TTSXs at 3575. Both have been great deer getters.

My Remington LSS likes the 110 Accubonds!

I moved on from the .257 Wby last year but there wasn't much about the chambering that I could complain about it.
I shot a handful of deer and a wolf with it (100gr TSX) – both near and far. And all had happy endings.

I’ve had a couple. Do your self a favor and take a look at the 270wby. It will do all the 257 will and a little more. Hasbeen

It’s only 200 fps faster, nothing to be amazed about.

I have a 257 Roy in one of the Vanguard Backcountry models. It weighs in at 6 lbs 10oz and has a fluted 24" barrel with the grey cerrakote. I love it and will probably never get rid of it, but if I were in the market for one I would take a long hard look at a 6.5 PRC. I have looked at the load data over on the Nosler website and it will whirl a 120g about a 100 fps faster than the 257 Roy according to their data. They do not have any data for the 100g class of bullets.

Edit to add: One of my bucket list items is to use my 257 to shoot a wolf.

Older Weatherby Vanguard in .257 Weatherby.
Leopold 4.5 - 14 x 40 Boone & Crockett reticle.
Timney 2.5 trigger.
Blacktail Deer at 505 yards.
120 Gr Factory Nosler Partition.

I've been shooting 100 gr E tips at 3600 fps from mine. 2" high at 100 yards puts it on at 300 and 7" low at 400 yards. It has worked quite well for me on about a half dozen deer plus a couple of antelope. Shots have ranged from 100 to 425 yards. It is an ideal cartridge for quick shots when you don't have time to use the range finder. I just picked up some 90 gr Hammers that they claim will do 3900 fps. It should shoot even flatter out to 400 yards and have better terminal performance.

I've only shot out (5) 257 Wby spouts,Custom 700's all. Hint.

Pass a 21" Seex Kreed and hold The Fluff,with a .620 BC at 3050fps. Hint...............

My LSS won’t shoot Barnes for [bleep], loves Accubombs, Partitions and the 100gr soft points.

I used to hunt with a guy that hunted everything with a 257. I have seen him kill 3-4 cow elk with it. It worked for him.

I have owned/shot a Mk V Fibremark for about 35 years.
It is the only gun I have never thought about selling. Superbly accurate with every bullet save factory 120g partitions. Everything else I buy or load I get 5 into a nickel when I do my job. I may just need to figure out why it is only 1 moa with the partitions but everything else is so good I just do not bother.

Kills dead, period, at any range I will shoot. Put a good scope on it and anything up to/including elk is fair game.

RAS

Let me at a really good deal on one including 100 plus brass and dies, low round count, im in.

Barring that, I'm 6.5 PRC.
Or a fast twist 25-06 if I wanted to make life harder for gains that would be more
on paper than in the field.

Clean it to bare metal, then try the TTSX again. Trust me.

The 257 is a great one!

A friend and I acquired a custom 257 Weatherby reamer with less freebore and a 1 1/2 degree throat. We built four rifles for ourselves. Two heavies and two lightweight. Then several friends used the reamer to make their 257s. All rifles use Lilja 3 groove 1 in 10 twist SS barrels.

The rifles use the 115 Berger VLD hunting bullet exclusively. This bullet has a good mix of BC and velocity. IMO a great advantage is the flatness of the trajectory and mild recoil. Most rifles use RL-25 for very accurate, lethal loads. Barrel lengths vary from 24" to 28". Velocities run from 3350 fps to 3700 fps.

While few animals were killed at close distances, many were taken from 250 yds to just under 600. Many kills were spectacular DRTs.

The list just keeps growing:

29 coues wt
8 elk
4 mule deer
2 antelope
2 javelina

IMO it is the one of the best chamberings for coues wt. This is my rifle's trajectory for 4000 ft:

100 +3.0
200 +4.9
300 +3.7
400 -0.9
500 -9.3 drift in a 10 mph 90 degree crosswind 8/9"

+1, 200 fps isn’t that big of a difference. More powder, more recoil, more noise, more cost, and factory ammo cost are just crazy. But if it’s just something you want go for it.

I have had a number of 257 Weatherby's, Mark 5's, Vangaurds, one custom Mauser, and 700's. I shot the barrels out on coyotes, chucks, and jack rabbits....one heck of a splat with 90g Sierra bthp.

I had a reamer ground with zero freebore than another with .070 freebore where you could neck down 264 WM brass to 257 Weatherby in one pass through a full length sizer with it's slightly shorter neck with a perfect double radius shoulder.

ON short freebore 26" barrels, 100g bullets are doing 3850 shooting groups in the 3's and smaller, 80g TTSX is bug hole accurate at 4150 fps with R#19. 115's are doing 3600, with both the 100 and 115g shooting R#22 with Fed 215's, all of these are with zero to .070 FB chambers.

I have one left today, a 9T, 25", shooting 115g Bergers at 3590 fps and it is a Hammer of Thor., R#22 and 215's taking about 15 or so rounds for load development.

A lot of us older guys cut out teeth on super fast, low BC Rounds. In today's world, we have the advantage of higher bc rounds. My world was turned upside down(the light came on) when I started shooting 180g Hornady ElD-M_.796 BC) in a 280 Rem...jeez, where the heck have I been?

You may want to re think your bullet choices?