Any of you guys fooled with this cartridge much? Aside from the cost of new brass, what would prevent you from owning one? It seems that the Vanguard is reasonably priced.

For those of you who do own one (Vanguard or Mark V), what's your opinion of the cartridge?

I want one of the new Vanguards, but I wish it was offered in SS. Other than that, I'm no help.

No Weatherby, but I have shot a .24-06 quite a bit which is basically the .240 Weatherby without the belt and squiggly shoulder.

Great at longish ranges.....particularly for varmits. Like all .24 caliber rifles, it is limited as to usefulness on larger game, but with care will get the job done on deer/pronghorn/hogs quite well.

I think I'd go 6 mm-06 (possibly AI) too, just because I already have the 280 AI and 6.5-06 AI and the bushing neck sizer die, plus a lot of brass that can be necked down. The belt on the Wby. doesn't bother me, but it doesn't add anything either, except for cost and more scarce brass.

After running the 6-06 for a bit, I really find no advantage to it over the 25-06. I'll go back to 25-06 when the bbl pukes.

I agree.....shot both the .24-06 and .25-06 quite a bit. The smaller 6mm gains nothing over the .25-06 and the .25 caliber rifles are so much more versital.

The cost of the new brass is why I won't own another one.
I had a Mk.5 Wby for a number of years. Hunted it along side a couple of .25-06's. After I sold it, I eventually aquired a .25-284. In short, I quite agree that a .240 Wby gives one nothing over a .25-06 or a ,25-284.
The only thing that might offer advantage would be the fancy, high BC bullets for the 6. E

Just curious, those who have owned rifles in .240 before, how is brass life?

Buy a .338WM.

The .340 WBY is hype and expense with no appreciable added value in performance.

IMO, the only Weatherby calibers worth owning are the .257, the .300, and the ,375/378.

If I owned one of those, I'd sell it to buy a rifle with less flash, hype, powder capacity (for which you get greater recoil and little added performance down range) Roy saw a bunch of you folks coming.... IMO. YMMV...

But damn - that .257 is impressive.....

240, not 340 you blind old man.............

There are several of them at my local dealer for $519 and several others on the internet for $475 or so. With shipping and transfer fees they would come out about the same as the local dealer; maybe a few dollars less.

I've had a 243 for years but never one of the faster 6mms. No real need for it other than to fiddle with it and.....well......that's what rifle cranks do.

Any of you other guys fiddled with a 240 Wby and would care to share your experiences....likes and dislikes?

By the way, you can buy loaded ammo for the 240($37) for less than a box of brass. That seems to mitigate the relatively high cost of brass for loading.

I shot deer and varmints for a while with a ballistically identical 6/284. Great on varmints, great on deer out to moderate range. Truly long range, ran out of steam. Went back to the 257WBY and have been a happy mule deer hunter ever since.

If I was going to buy a new Weatherby for deer, it would be a 257WBY for sure. Almost zero recoil, flat and hard hitting for a very long ways. Lots more ammo and components, too. In a pinch, you can make serviceable 257WBY ammo from 264 WinMag (the best of the non 257WBY brass) or the very common and easy to find cheap 7mm RemMag brass. Might have to neck turn the 7mm stuff, but you can make it work.

There is no other piece of brass that can be made into a 240WBY case. They are unique and odd and unto themselves.

Rick Jamison was liking one for California Blacktailed deer right when he retired, but that is about the only person I know who spoke very highly of the round. It has bounced back and forth from obsolesence all of its life for good reasons.

You have a gift of offering advice that's not asked and wrong all in one. Talent.

I always thought that case would make a nice .40 cal if blown out with a long tapered shoulder, kinda like a big belted 22 Hornet and use 40 Whelan data or some such.-Muddy

Not true. 25-06 can be made into .240 Wby with the right dies. Talk to Dirtfarmer�

John

I had a Mark V with a 24 inch barrel so chambered for a number of years. About 20 years, I didn't shoot it much, and hunted with with for a couple of seasons, The rifle was fine, I liked it but I gotten a 7mm-08 shortly after this is about 1981 or so and well I did a lot of hunting with that one for some odd reason! I would not say no to one, but a 243 is plenty when you are fooling with 6mm!

Judd,

It's been done. One the top-notch gunsmiths here in Helena, Dennis Erhardt, is a big fan of the .240 necked up to .40. He's built several, but can't remember what he calls it.

I had a .240 for a while, a Mark V Ultra Lightweight. Eileen used it more than I did, because the stock fit her so well. Very accurate, both with fsctory ammo and handloads. She used both 90-grain Nosler E-Tips and 100-grain Partitions and it worked great, but not a heck of a lot of advantage over either the .243 Winchester or .25-06.

John, I figured somebody had, it is just a natural-Judd

Mule Deer

I hear ya about the little advantage over the 243 but I never buy based on such things. For me it's just the experience and trying something new (to me) out. That's all.

this?

Landrum,
I built a 240wby on a Mauser action. I went with a 1/8 twist barrel and with 105 & 115vld's I believe you achieve a ballistic advantage over a 243 or 6mm.
I believe the Vanguard has a 1/10 twist?, so it's hard to see an advantage. A 1/9.25 twist 243 punched to an A.I. would make more sense.
The gun will be shorter and lighter, long range ballistics will be better and brass cheaper and more available and consume less powder, that's a real advantage these days.
That being said the 240wby has a much higher "cool" factor!
So scratch that itch!!

Five rounds from a converted Yugo 24/47.

Need to tweak it over to the right a bit. As to brass, I simply went to the Nosler shop in Bend, Or and picked up 200 rnds.

A perfect mule deer cartridge. The 6mm Rem in the stable is a perfect pronghorn cartridge. Duplication? No. If one tells Cookie anything different, I'll hunt you down and shoot your dog.

240 WTBY not offered in stainless Vanguard, just blued.

Sorry.

Best of luck, and have fun! Tom

I have the 243 Win, 6mm Rem , 6mm-06 and the 240 Wby . I have killed deer with all four and if you use a good bullet they are all good killer on deer . My personal opinion is the 6mm-06 is the best of the 6mm's .

Landrum: I have owned and used a wonderful custom Rifle in 240 Weatherby for about 24 years now.
My Rifle was built on a Winchester pre-64 Model 70 action by Riflesmith Jim Cloward and has a 27" Hart stainless medium heavy barrel.
I have a Leupold 6.5x20 scope on this Rifle.
I have shot many groups (5 shots at 100 yards) in the low 4's! In fact the norm is 5 shots under 1/2" with any of several bullets I have tried over the years.
My Rifle is especially accurate and is easy on brass.
I have only owned two other Weatherby Rifles so don't have much to compare amongst the Weatherby's but the 240 is a long range Antelope, Coyote and Mule Deer killing machine!
I have also taken Whitetail Deer with this Rifle.
New brass is indeed pricey AND hard to find but once found does seem to live long enough to make me happy that I tried one.
Back when I was "contemplating" my 240 several of my friends (who had never owned a 240!) contended to me that the radiused shoulder of the 240 Weatherby precluded "good accuracy" coming from that cartridge.
If nothing else I proved each of them wrong and the flat trajectory and speed of the 240's bullets makes for easy heart/lung shots and very quick type kills, even at long ranges!
I highly recommend the 240 Weatherby.
Good luck if you decide to try one!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I have custom made .240 that is built on a Remington 700 and I am running a 1:8 twist 27" barrel. The rifle is very accurate and a pleasure to shoot. It is definately the pill to cure a coyote problem. I have not used it on anything but coyotes, but I love it.

I had a .240Wby custom built a couple of years ago on a Brno VZ33 action, Recknagel trigger, Lapour 3 pos safety, Wiebe bottom metal, Lilja barrel, NZ walnut stock & wearing a Swaro Z3 3-9x36 scope. An ideal cartridge for the feral pigs, feral goats & the smaller deer species we have here in Australia, like Fallow, Chital, Hog Deer.



I love it, and on a good day, it'll do this!

Beautiful rifle! Whats your favorite load?

That really is a fine looking piece; not a single tactical bone in its body.

What's the twist?

Be still my beating heart! You just cost me some money! Thank you, sir!

Would you believe that group was shot with factory ammo out of a cold clean barrel? The rifle had been bore sighted by the gunsmith but never fired. The first shot I fired at 100m hit paper so I decided to throw another couple at it to see what happened. Those 3 shots were the first 3 ever fired from my rifle. Ammo was the Weatherby 100gn SP load.

Thanks.

Lilja 1 in 10" twist, Number 1 contour & finished at 24".

Dangit, still only offered in .257 and .300 Bees...

I would have guessed 26", but at any rate, everything is in perfect proportion. Somebody, either you or the gunsmith, had really good taste. Did the same guy do all the metalwork and stockwork?

I've had a 6mm-06 for 18 years. It's a LH Model 700 with a Brown Precision Stock and a 24" Stainless Douglas in 1X10 twist and #2 contour.

I've killed Mule Deer, Whitetails, Antelope, Caribou and Sheep and a bunch of varmints with it. Couldn't ask for more. Minimal recoil and shoots three 100 grain Partitions (or 70 grain BTs) into 3/4 MOA. I start out the Partitions @ 3270fps.

It weighs just over 7.5 lbs with a Leupold 2.5X8 on it.

Yeah it's got a bit of a short fore end which makes the barrel look a little longer than it is.

2 different artists involved but they work together all the time on projects. Metalwork by Bob DeVries & stock by Ross Waghorn. I had very specific ideas of what I wanted, but full thumbs up to these 2 for bringing it to life & I couldn't be happier with what they produced.