Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles .240 Weatherby Mag opinions

I just acquired a Weatherby Mk V in 240 WBY Mag in trade. I have no experience with the caliber and trying to decide if I want to keep it or sell/trade. Opinions on the caliber? Effectiveness for southern whitetail hunting?
Thanks

Plenty cartridge for your white tail hunting and then some, the problem is that there is just one source for ammo. The Weatherby Ammo is good, but its not cheap. Then again outside of zeroing in your rifle, you are not going to be shooting a whole lot of paper. Then it becomes a moot point. If costs per shot is an issue, then maybe selling the gun might be in order. For some reason the 240 WM is not a very good seller for Weatherby. I don't know why, I had one before I down sized my collection it shot great, and it would put deer down as well as any. Besides those MK V's were just so neet to look at and own back in the day.

I want a 240 Weatherby.

95 gr. Nosler BT will do it all in the 240 WBY. Superb cartridge with very little recoil - one of the best in the 6mm.

Been thinking about one of these for a while. For deer and antelope out here it would be a mighty good ticket. Fast, flat and with good bullets it should do well. I use a 243 for some things but it just doesn't have enough pop for me on bigger deer and especially at longer range. That said, the 240 sure would cover both of those concerns.

Shoot the thing, bet you will keep it!

You asked for opinions:

I have had both a .240 Wby and a 6mm-06. Brass for the 6mm-06 was much cheaper, the rifle cost less to build (compared to what I had to pay for the Wby rifle), was more accurate (the Krieger barrel probably had something to do with that) and it did everything the .240 Wby did. The only thing better about the Weatherby was that a guy who worked for me fell in love with it after I loaned it to him for a deer hunt. He bought it for a little over two hundred dollars more than I had paid for it, when two hundred dollars was worth a lot more than it is today.

Vanguard?

It's also a unique case which can't be easily formed from any other case leaving you stuck with Weatherby as your only choice for brass.

The one I have is a German, Sauer built,Mk V. Very nice rifle.

I'd keep it with the awareness that brass nor ammo will ever be cheap.

Very cool cartridge, I've wanted one for a long time.

Whoever heard of getting rid of a perfectly good rifle because the brass costs too much? If that was the case, nobody except those who frequent Africa would ever have any big-bore rifles and we all know there are a lot more owners of big-bore rifles around than those who hunt Africa.

Lighter. I do know it wouldn't be a 57 lug Vee

How bad do you need one??

I am cogitating on a 6-06 AI build for the wife.

Case capacity is close to same/same. Brass is cheaper.

But then I think, why not a 243AI?

Have fun.

I big time agree! I use a 6/06 (same thing basically) and totally love the rig. Amd on my 2nd barrel and the third aint far off.

The round is incredibly capable and not toxic in the least.

Dober

I want one too, but I will be going with a little stainless 6-lugger.

Funny how folks complain about the brass. Rarely hear that when folks are crowing about the 257 Bee.

You can make .257 Wby cases from any number of magnum cases.
The .240 is utterly unique, a belted .473" casehead.

I've got a Mark V 240 Wby that I also acquired in a trade. I love mine and it's instant death on white tails. I load 85 grain Barnes TSX's on top of a healthy dose of RL 19 in mine. Brass is expensive, but it's a Weatherby so it's to be expected. I use Norma brass in mine and it simply won't wear out or stretch, even with full length sizing. I have some that are on loading #6 and have never been trimmed. The barrel on mine is pencil then and groups open a little when it gets warm, which doesn't take long. But the first 3 shots from a cold barrel are usually 1" or less and since it's a hunting rifle and not a match rifle, that works for me. I'm sure you'll fall in love yours as well.

I ran the heck out of a 340 for years, for a while made some cases out of 8 Rem mags. But, I just went to buying Wby factory cases. I had wonderful case life (12-13 loads) out of them and liked them.

Only beef I have with the Wby cases is that they went away from the hella kool old animal boxes...

Dober

I love old style packaging like those, and old Kleanbore and Super-X boxes.