O.K.,
At the suggestion of Fishhead I am goint to modify my approach to acquiring advice about where to go with load work-up.
I am going to have the barrel "slugged" to see where I am at on the integrity of the tube. I am going to review the bedding job, remount the bases and rings and remount the scope. At the completion of that, and assuming all turns out well I will start load workup again.
The barrel was cut back some as was referred to in another post, so now we have a barrel that was 24 inches that is now 22.8 inches long. That will cut back on performance somewhat, but the fact that it was a 24 instead of a 26 never made me super excited. Bottom line, we will lose some performance.
It is a West German manufactured Mark V and from what I can gather those rifles had a twist that would not reliably stabilize bullets greater than 100 grains. That is per the Nosler reloading manuals.
This gun will be utilized mainly for mule deer here in the west with the occasional bonus coyote or wolf if we hit the jackpot
There aren't alot of options out there for cases, so I will just use what we have (Weatherby branded .257 Wby Brass).
As far as powders go I have the following:
IMR 7828
IMR 4831 (mucho)
IMR 4350
RL 19
RL 22
RL 25
H1000
I am also willing to purchase additonal powder if there is an overwhelming concensus to lean a different way.
Bullets I would like to hunt with in order of preference would be:
100 gr. Barnes TSX
100 gr. Nosler Partition
100 gr. Hornady SP
So, I would greatly appreciate any suggestions, proven loads, and general advice before I get started on this.
Thanks.