Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Tell me about the .340 Weatherby

The good, the bad, the ugly.............

I use a wildcat that is very similar, the 338/8mmRemMag. I call mine the 340 Tyrannosaur. It is an VERY deadly long range Elk and Plains game cartridge. I do not find the recoil objectionable, but my stock is semi custom and fits me quite well. The Extra fat Limbsaver recoil pad is a big help also. My cartridge has a tad bit more case capacity than the original WBY version so can run 225GR TTSX's out of my cut rifled lapped barrel at 3100FPS with a stiff dose of 7828SSC. Since mine has been used by me AND clients in Africa I guess one could say I like it. If one can shoot his well there are no downsides and lots of killing power. Not really that much difference in performance between the 340WBY, my 338/8mmRemMag aka 340 Tyrannosaur and a 338 Lapua. Especially with the newer propellants we have.

The Good

Hammers chitt

The Bad

If it is in the wrong wrapper you will feel more recoil then necessary

The Ugly

Better Reload if you plan on shooting it much

I love my .338 Win.....and I'm sure the .340 is more of a good thing, but the only one I ever shot...a Fibermark...had the nastiest sharpest recoil of anything I've ever touched off.

maybe it was the stock....I shoot a .375 and a .450/.400 double so it wasn't my first rodeo with a kicker, but the recoil was really fast and nasty.

I'm sure it's even worse for whatever is on the receiving end.

Well put! Sums it up nicely.

I can just bet a fibermark in 340 would be pretty bad. My 340+P has a straight comb laminated stock with, as I mentioned above, a PHATT limbsaver recoil pad. Heavy 1917 action, 26 inch bbl, 30mm tube 2-10x44 Eurodiamond posi lock scope so have over 10lbs soaking up the backsmack. Pretty comfortable to shoot in that configuration, for me at least. MUCH nicer, to my bod anyway, than my hot loaded 416 Rigby.

It'll check your dental work and neck bones.

You can hunt the world with it.

They are the perfect "when you absolutely positively need it dead right now" cartridge. I have owned two and will have another one down the road. I've had one in an Accumark and a custom lightweight and they both shot very well and were comfortable to shoot.

I own two, an Accumark and a Lazermark. Arguably one of Roy's better creations right along with the 300 and 257. It's one hell of a cartridge. It has the range of a varmint rifle and the power of a 375 H&H. I've settled on two bullet weights, the 210 TTSX and the 250 TSX. Recoil is sharp, but to me manageable. The down side is expense. Brass (Norma) is expensive and case life is short and of course loaded ammo is hugely expensive. Perfect for Big Bears I would think. jorge

What type of accuracy/range is to be expected from the.340 ?

Depends entierly on the rifle and the shooter. Mine is a consistent 3/4 inch gun at 100, but as stated before is a full on custom from butt to muzzle. A ROY rifle should be able to do an inch or a bit better with decent well crafted handloads.

JORGE, if you ever sell that LAzermark, please put me on your contact list. I LOVE those beautiful WBY's! Need a picture of it here, PLEASE????

I don't own one but have shot my pal's rifle plenty out to 300-500 yards....and watched it work numerous times on hunts out west,since back in the 80's.It kills well when pointed correctly.A 210 Partition at 3150 is no toy....

Even formed cases from WW 375 H&H brass to get around the brass cost issues...this works pretty well.I think Paul just passed them through the 340 die and then fireformed with a lighter load...it has been awhile but IIRC he had no special form dies.

Great cartridge and IME very accurate as well. His is a left hand Weatherby Mark V from years back,bedded in a Brown Precision stock and for the caliber,is a pretty handy rifle....maybe 8.5 pounds scoped.

It groups in clusters at 100 yards with 210 Partitions.

I despise muzzle brakes but this is one rifle where I would suggest Magnaport....this does not attenuate recoil so much as it brings the recoil straight back and just about eliminates muzzle flip,while not having the obnoxious blast of a brake....with that straight,Brown Precision stock and Magnaport, the whole outfit is more manageable than it should be.

Still not for the faint of heart but a hell of a lot better than it is otherwise.

If you like to romp and stomp with a big 338,and a bit of Weatherby panache,this is your huckleberry!

I had one briefly in a Fibermark. Recoil was about the same as my .375, which is a lightweight at 7.5 pounds all up. Interestingly enough, I thought my .300 Win Mag NULA recoiled more, but don't think the stock fit me all that well on the NULA.

In the end, I sold the .340 because I saw my .375 as a bigger hammer with similar recoil.

if limited to one elk rifle, a synthetic stock stainless wby mark v
with a good leopold scope is my choice, loaded with 250 grain hornady bullets

Here you go:



As usual, TSXs rule the roost in accuracy...

I have a .340 that I bought from Mule Deer here at the Campfire. Its a 700 BDL .338 Winchester that was rechambered.

With full house loads it will get your attention on the bench.

MD worked up a somewhat reduced "deer load" with the 200 grain Hornady and IMR 4895 @ around 2760 fps for it that is very manageable on recoil and still packs a good wallop.

I get between 1.00 and 1.50 inch groups out this rifle.

Not a whole lot to add to what others have stated. Mine is a Stainless Fibermark with an affinity for keeping 210gr TSX's pushed by RL19 in pleasingly smallish groups. With a trajectory essentially identical to my 7mm Mag's favorite 150gr TSX load it shoots flat and brings a righteous amount of attitude upon arrival. 250 grainers (I've been remiss in putting together a load at that weight) can be taken past 2800fps without much fanfare in the 26" barrels and bumping right up against the venerable .375 H&H.

I don't find the .340 particularly punishing but some people have the Weatherby stock fit them better than others so I might well fall into that group.

In short I like the cartridge quite a bit. If I have a complaint about my .340 it is as I get a bit older lugging the Fibermark around becomes less appealing than other rifles I have at my disposal.

I think it is one of Weatherby's very best cartridges. It is a handloaders dream, as everything you can load in it will work well enough or better still.

I have loaded bullets from 175 grain X's through to 300 gn Woodleighs. Without being unreasonable, it is hard to name an animal or hunting condition where the .340 is out of place.

Why is it not typically included in .338 talk?

A fellow I know has one. His big problem with the gun is bullet set-back in the mag caused by recoil. It is a Wby rifle too, but I don`t know what model.

...................Thought about getting the 340 Wby in the Accumark, but instead got a new 338-378 Accumark w/brake about three months ago. A 340 Wby on steroids.

Although not quite the power of the 338-378, I`d still expect the 340 Bee to be an excellent longer range round. With the exception where a 375 is going to be the minimum caliber, the 340 Wby will cover any worldwide basis.

Where the 340 is concerned, I really cannot see any bad nor ugly categories.

As long as you are aware of its recoil (assuming your potential 340 rifle has no brake) and can handle that ok, and it fits your hunting needs (probably more so), then by all means go for it.

But I will tell you this. When firing my 338-378 w/its brake, I don`t get any close bench fellowship from anyone at the range, especially from any poor guy who happens to be bench shooting next to me. To those on either side, I usually offer a rotational firing sequence anyway.

In part, it is a scatter gun too! Really makes `em scatter!

A 340 Wby w/brake won`t be far behind in the scattering dept......