Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles If your deer rifle needed a new barrel, and you could pick any belted caliber...

Still say the 7mm Weatherby. Almost as flat as .257 and still able to shoot the 175gr at over 3000fps. The 7mm Bee w/ the 120gr Barnes at 3600fps is a fearsome combination. How's that for speed and flat trajectory. powdr

Pretty impressive, but last years deerzapper(a 7mm Mashburn Super) pushed the 120's to 3700 and would have made some good velocities with the heavier bullets as well, I am sure. I still might go that way again.

Awesome, and maybe the best, all around hunting rifle cartridge ever. But, way more power and kick than needed for pure deer hunting and shooting as I already have an uberfast 33 and 416 for truly large game.

It is not so much that I WANT a belted case, it is because my build basis FN sporting Mauser rifle has already been opened up - bolt face and feed rails - to operate with medium length belted magnum cartridges. The 240 uses a 30/06 size bolt face so would not work for this application.

If I was going to go 6mm, the only viable option would be to build a 6mm/257WBY.

I hunted deer for a few years with a similarly powered 6/284, but found it wanting for power at the more extreme ranges. This experiment, however, was before the 105 A-Max bullet was released so the 6mm caliber might warrant a new look now.

If I decided to build a 6mm/257WBY, I have plenty of brass to neck down for that project.... another viable option there, perhaps.

264 Winchester Magnum! I'll post pics of my new one in a couple weeks when it gets here but you're going to hate it!

Both that one and the wildcat 264/300 WinMag are leading contenders for being my next barrel chambering i.e. this particular build.

I'd probably go with the 7mm Remington Magnum, but if it was a rfile just to be used for deer, I'd go with the 257 Weatherby.

308 norma

I meant hate my build! lol 700 clone mcmillan stock stainless/cerakote etc.

I think one of the 6.5's will do you well. You can try your light fast bullets and see how they perform and then step up to the high BC 140's to compare. Good luck!

BurninDupont,

I figured that part out, amigo. You are correct, sir, that I would not find the build particualarly to my liking as to style, but I totally dig the cartridge choice. One of my best friends in the world, and long time hunting buddy is still packing a Pre-64 Model 70 "Westerner" that I gave him a screamin "good buddy discount" deal on a couple of decades ago and that rifle has been a deer and elk killing machine for him.

I am still leaning toward an uberfast 6.5 on this re barrel. If I do a 300 WinMAg necked down to 6.5, I can drive those 140gr bullets to some pretty high muzzle velocities.

Might be the best of both worlds, this 264 / 300 cartridge....

.300 H&H is the only belted cartridge that interest me. The .300 Weatherby is ok I suppose...

Mashburn or .264 WinMag for me. As Boxer is fond of saying, it's all about the bullets...

The cartridge that I decided on, and ordered for my barrel after much deliberation is a marriage of the two! 7mm Mashburn Super necked down to 6.5/264.

I am planning to run the newly released Barnes LRX (Long Range TTSX) high BC 127gr bullet in it. Should be able to reach about 3600fps with it since I was getting 3700 with 120's out of my 7mm Mashburn. Combining that kind of initial speed with a high BC and high SD bullet, that also has fantastic terminal effect should be a real winner in the hunting fields. Wouldn't be at all afraid to use it on an elk, though I have larger rifles for that sized game and larger (uberfast 33, 416 etc)

FOTIS, Very nice shooting with that 277 Roy of yours, for sure! Can't see where that one would not work, even though I have decided on mine in a slightly different direction.

The 6.5 MAshburn should give up Weatherby Speeds with a bullet whose BC is .200, or about 50% higher than the best bullets I had for my 257Roy.

Sounds slow to me, I'd have necked that case down to 6mm and set the rifle up for the 80 gr TTSX.

Picked mine over 42 years ago...300 Win.

Limited to only the belted case magnums, I,d have suggested the 300 wby is a good choice ,especially if you hand load, and while Ive never really felt the 300 wby was my personal ideal,caliber, "which is odd, simply because its performed flawlessly for me for decades." I can,t think of any situation I've every been in when its not performed well.
my 300 wby ,loaded with 200 grain speer bullets,pushed to about 2960fps with a stiff load of H4831 and a 215 fed primer, has up to now had an un blemished record of DRT kills but to be fair Ive used it mostly on mule deer, and rarely have taken shots at over 300 yards, and I doubt the total kill exceeded 12 mule deer that Ive used it on, over the last 45 years..btw its a browning 78 with a 26" length barrel similar to this picture

No

NO to whom? To what? The response does not match the thread or conversations to this point in the least, that I can tel.... What is the point you are making?