Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles a lil help please with .257 wby rifle decision

good afternnon fellas. i really want a .257 wby,i think, for a greenfield/long range shooting house all round whitetail rifle. i just need a lil convincing from y'all quarter bore fans. i am usually a 7mm-08 or .308 win guy but the .257 wby mag has piqued my interest as of late. i have a weatherby vanguard series 2 rc in .308 win and love it. so, on to my delimma. i'm having trouble getting past the light bullets that the .257 wby will shoot as i've always believed in at least a 150 grain pill was needed for deer hunting. i think that i want to shoot 110 grain nosler accubonds or 115 grain barnes ttsx bullets in the wby. this is on the heavy for caliber scale for the .257 i believe. i also understand the .257 wby kills with its devastating speed that creates more shock to the intended animal. also, i am batting back and forth rifles choices between the vanguard series 2 back country or the mark 5 ultralight both in the aforementioned .257 wby mag. is the mark 5 worth $800 more than the vanguard? i know you get 2" more barrel with the mark 5 but what about longeviety and barrel life with this hot cartridge? is there any difference between the barrel steel in the mark 5 and the vanguard? sorry guys i know this is alot to digest but i just have some reservations about this cartridge as like i said i'm usually a 7mm or .308 cal guy.
thanks and sorry for the long post,
whitearrow->>>----------->

24 inch barrel is fine.

Folks shoot a lot of deer with .223's and 60gr bullets so worrying about shooting deer with a .257 is wasting a lot of time. I have the WBY Backcountry in SS in .257 and it works great with the 100gr. TSX.

Quit worrying and buy the one you want. It's a deer hammer.

I am no expert, but I like my 700 SPS SS' 26" tube, but then I'm a big, tall guy, and if 2" of extra barrel slows me down, I haven't noticed it. And if it does, I have a 24" barreled .25-06. I've not shot anything with the Weatherby, but the .25-06 sure wrecks deer clockwork. I can't imagine a little extra speed making it less effective. (And there is a boatload of deer killed by .243s every year!)

I've had two of them. First was a Vanguard S2. It was very accurate with a great trigger. Sighted in at 2.5 inches high at 100yds it was dead on at 300 and it hammered deer and hogs at all distances in between with the cheapest 100gr Weatherby factory ammo. A friend borrowed it to hunt beanfields in AR and had to have it so I bought a custom here on the 'fire. It has a 27.5 inch barrel and I shoot 100gr tsx in it at about 3800fps. I let a buddy use it to shoot a doe at 350yrds. He didn't even have to adjust for any holdover and she never took a step. No need for 150gr pills at the Wby speeds!

Tatelaw,

That 27.5 inchj bl'ed 25 Roy sounds AWFULLY familiar.... Wouldn't have been built on a pre 64 Model 70 rifle action would it? With a re shaped Boyds JRS laminated stock, checkered? <G>

That thing was the single deadliest deer hammer ever made by the hands of man!

To the OP, I prefer the longer barrels for maximum velocity. As to the original question, once you have a 257WBY and shoot a few deer with it you will NEVER be satisfied or happy with a 7/08 and similar ever again. And that, is a very GOOD thing. Life is just to short to hunt with slow, boring cartridges or ugly guns.

I shoot the 100TSX on mine and it has accounted for 2 nice black bears that showed up while deer hunting (open season and I had a tag). One was at 215yds broadside and one was 423yds slightly angled away from me. Both were shot through the point of the onside shoulder to angle into the off shoulder. Both tomes the bullet punched both shoulders and exited and both bears collapsed at the shot and were dead upon my arrival.

Everything I've shot with my weatherby has died on the spot and with very minimal damage. Some guys like the accubond and it seems a fine bullet. The only warning I would have is to use a well constructed bullet for big game hinting due to the 257 weatherby velocity.

I can tell you that most coyotes i shoot tend to end up with basketball size exits and massive devastation to almost 400yds when shot with the 85gr ballistic tip at close to 3800fps.

I blew a baseball-sized chunk of spine out of a hog at 215yds with my peewee 243, so just imagine what another 400-500fps would do. The 257wby will kill deer far beyond the capabilities of most hunters.

I had a lefty Mark V Ultralight 257 that I bought from a forum member here. It had a good feel to it and it was lighter than a Mark V Deluxe, but not noticeably light. I traded it off for a 300 Wby Accumark, which will probably be traded off itself.

I have one of the older Back Country rifles with a 24" barrel. The velocity you are gonna lose with the 24" barrel isn't worth worrying about. 100 grain bullets of different flavors have all run in the mid-high 3400's. It is one of 2 guns I use for antelope and I shoot the 110 AB and it runs right at 3400. 80 TTSX's run at 3792.

I have a 257 Vanguard S2 that I got late last fall. I've not shot an animal with it yet but the first 3 shots out of it went into less than .240. It runs the 9" plate at 500 everytime! I got a B&C Medalist coming for it just cause the green thing it came with is too damn ugly to hunt with and I wnated something lighter. I figure I've spent enough so don't need another Mark V.

Good Luck!

Mac

That's the same rig I have. Awesome rifle. Trigger sucked until recent Timney purchase.

Put a Timney in mine as well.

Nothing wrong with a CDL SF in 257wby either!

Nothing wrong with a CDL SF in 257wby either!

That's what I have, except mine was converted to ADL and put in a Bansner sheephunter blank. Simply awesome!

not a fan of model 700's as of late. i got burned on a model 700 LTR in .308 win. it wouldn't group 3 shots into a inch at 100 yds for anything. i tried several 150-165 grain bullets and finally it shot just over an inch with some trophy bonded tip 165 grains but that rifle shoulda put 'em all in one hole at that distance imho. think i'm gonna stick with either a vanguard series 2 or a mark 5.
thanks an keep the stories coming,
whitearrow