I just purchased a Weatherby Mark V Deluxe in 7mm Weatherby Magnum. I would like to get everyone's opinion on the cartridge (good or bad) and get some load data. I am really looking forward to shooting this rifle, it is beautiful. Thank you all in advance.

Nothing but good from this cartridge.

Best of the 7's for my buck.

You can neck up Nosler 270 Wby brass.

My 7 Wea. is on a 700 action.. I seat a 160 Sierra HPBT flush with the bottom of the neck of the case.. I am not sure a Wea. rifle will permit that.. But it has been a heck of a fine rifle.. Built it as a long range coyote rifle, but we have killed antelope, two kinds of deer, elk, and moose with it.. A great caliber.. If I were not into the .30 cal. so much it would be my pick for big game.. I believe the little I tested 140's I got about 3,500 fps.. But would have to check my notes.. Part of the success of the rifle is that long magazine box on the Rem. action.

Or 7mm Rem brass.. That is what I did comes out a bit short and eliminates the need for trimming..

Cartridge is capable of great things..the rifle...not a fan. Just me.

Check the twist rate and lead length, then get back.
I`ve been loading and shooting this cartridge for a few years now and love it, but understand some that were made in Germany have slow twist rates, and short leads...that`s why I asked. My loads could cause problems in your rifle....Noslers No.6 loading manual has good updated charges in it.
Shoot heavier bullets in mine, really like Sierra`s 175 at 3040, and 162 SSt`s at 3200. to name a few.

I haven't loaded any in quite a while, but one thing I do remember from those days is the 7mm Wby's extremely consistent chronograph readings.

I had one years ago.Loaded 175 gr and 160 gr Sierras with H4831 powder. Could never get it to shoot good. Maybe it was the twist rate. I didn't know about those things 40 years ago . I killed a few elk with it.It worked is about all I can say.

I agree. The real problem as I see it, are primer pockets...push the cartridge too far, and you loose cases. So I learned not to go full bore, watch the cronie for sane reasonable loads and be happy!

My rifle was made in Japan, it has a 26in bbl and I believe it has the 1/10 twist rate.

The cartridge is as good as any for almost every type of big game. While I've not had this 7mm, I have had the 270 Wby and the 300 Wby and spent a lot of time with the 7 mmRem Mag.

The Mark V Deluxe is a bit beefy for my tastes but it should serve very well.

Disclaimer: I am not a gun writer.

My Wby Mk V in 7 Wby wears a custom kevlar stock. Scoped with a Swarovski it weighs 8 lbs. so it is no where near taxing to carry. It is accurate with its 24" barrel. I had it cut 2" before I ever fired it.

I really love the gun. I have a load that I discovered will shoot 1/2 MOA in any of the seven or eight 7 Wby's I've fired it in. It's the first one listed below.

70 gr's RL 22
140 Accubond
3050 fps

74 gr's RL 22
140 Accubond or TTSX
3400 fps

The 24" barrel will push 120 TTSX's to 3650 fps at 1/2 MOA. It will push 160 Accubonds to 3187 fps. Not much the round won't do.

I will soon rewire those loads with RL 23.

I also have a 7 Wby barrel for my Encore. I have taken several animals with it. I really like the round.

Bought mine in 1968. Made in Germany, paper thin 26 in barrel. Real accurate. Sold it to my BIL when I needed money during a divorce 37 years ago. He still has it, still shoots great, want sell it back. Hasbeen

It seems to me that one of the gun heads here has a custom 7MM WBY with a bull barrel...

Great rifle, great cartridge...very accurate, especially with 160 grain Partitions. One grain less than max in the Nosler Manual of IMR 4831 with Fed. 215 primers. If you like 7mm's you won't go wrong with this one.

Great cartridge, I use reloader 22 with 140's

You just wrote about guns.

Even from experience.

You're an experienced gun writer .

I used to own a 7mm WBY Accumark, it shot good, not great with WBY factory 160 Nosler Partitions. I killed one elk with it and a friend talked me out of it!

That might be disputed. 😉

I'll join the general chorus and say it's a great round--with one caveat.

Had an ULW Mark V in 7mm Weatherby for a while. It shot great with ammo it liked, whether factory or handloads, and mostly reached advertised velocity with factory ammo, and often exceeded it with published handloads. It was easy to match the 3200 fps factory velocity with the 160 Partition--and factory accuracy, which was excellent.

However, the rifling twist was 1-10, which may or may not have had anything to do with generally mediocre accuracy with longer, high-BC bullets. The long "freebore" throat may have had something to do with that, as in general that sort of bullet has shot less accurately in freebore Weatherby rounds--though not always.

The one I owned, shot very well! It's a good cartridge! Mine I bought from a guy who said it would not shoot, I took the gun for a test drive, I made sure everything was tight as it should be, I didn't like the scope on it, but I got it zeroed ok, and then fired 3 shots at 200 yards, 2 inches high and a 1.1 inch group! I bought it, put a better scope on it and hunted with it for a good decade before I sold it when I paired down my collection! I shoot a 7mm RM in a Blaser R-93 these days.

Everyone should have at least one. Remington had the 7 wby in there Classic line. Probably had a 24" barrel.

I like the cartridge, used it for awhile as I've done with its sister cartridges, the .257, and the .270. Two things I've grown to dislike about them all: the freebore and the overly heavy action.

You could get a custom barrel made without the freebore, but that's a bad idea if the gun ever sees factory loads (likely too much pressure, especially with Weatherby ammunition).

I had good accuracy, pushing MOA, but suspect it would have been much better without the freebore. As Mule Deer mentioned above, I recall accuracy was better with lighter bullets (maybe also due to the freebore business?).

The Weatherby "freebore myth" needs to be put to bed. While that was true early on, modern powders have all but eliminated that "affliction" and come to think of it, just like the infamous belt on magnum cartridges, it was much to do about nothing.

Care to expound?
Define "freebore myth"?
What affliction?

Because of the "freebore", which was achieved with a long, over-sized throat, most Weatherby rifles positively hated Sierra boattails. If the long throat was cut closer to nominal bullet diameter, the rifle was much less fussy. I think the 7mm Weatherby is the best of the 7mm Magnums and it would be my choice if I wanted to build a big seven for myself. GD

Weatherby rifles' freebore has been considerably reduced for quite some time now ergo, it is no longer an issue to those that considered it an issue in the first place. My comment regarding belts on magnum cartridges was merely my comparison to those of you who viewed freebore as a bad thing, like a lot of folks also view belts on cartridges. Again in my opinion, neither belts nor freebore were "afflictions" as in a bad thing.

I have a good friend that shoots a Mk 5 in 7mm Wetherby. If you do away with the freebore be very careful. His will leave distinct ejector marks on the cases with factory ammunition.

Freeborn is trade off. Trade velocity for accuracy. I have had weatherby's that shot certain loads well, but I have never had a Weatherby that shot a large variety of loads well.
As for belts. When combined with crappy factory chambers you almost always will get a stretch ring in front of the belt. This weakens the case and frankly drives me nuts.

300 Weatherby, 1958 manufacture, LOTS of freebore:


300 Weatherby 2009 manufacture, significantly less freebore:


Both shot w exact load of 80.5gr RL-22 and 180gr TTSXs, F215 primers and Wby (Norma cases). Former has a 24" barrel, MV~3190, latter 26" barrel MV 3250+.

Never had an issue w case separation, but then again, I took D'Arcy Echols' advice and discard cases after 3X as accuracy deteriorates.

(Not directed at Jorge)

General comment: It seems to me that even when the diameter of the freebore is mentioned (greydog) it doesn't register.

I just looked at the SAAMI drawings of minimum chambers for several Weatherby cartridges. The freebore sections were specified as .0004" over bullet diameter. Less than a half thou over. It's a good bet that if production chambers were uniformly tight to this diameter spec there would be a lot less grouping variation typically attributed to the length of the freebore.

Not a huge Weatherby drum pounder, but this rifle was gifted to my boy from my elk hunting partner. Nothing special about it, Japanese MK5 and plastic stock but it took almost no load work to develop good shooting 200 grain PT loads with 7828SSC...





Haven't shot a ton of other stuff, but for a hunting rifle, it ain't horrible.... Skinny little barrel on it too..

I have had some shoot well too. I just haven't got consistently great results.
Discarding brass after 3 firings is ridiculous IMO. I have shot some of my 300 Ultra brass 6 times and that's just cheap Rem brass.

I'm with you, I've had no problems getting 8-10 firings out of Norma brass so far. I do anneal them often but I haven't lost any to this point to any failures and accuracy is still excellent.

I just picked up another Mark V Deluxe in 7 Wby Mag (and one in 257 Wby as well). The one I had was a solid 1/2" rifle....hope this one is as well.

I don't have any experience with the Weatherby action per se or WB factory ammo, but I imagine that any freebore could be offset some by handloading bullets out, no?

160s come to mind...w/MD's caveat

If not, a guy could always set the barrel back and load accordingly.

Do have the chambering in a custom barreled 1 in 9 M98 with bullet throated snugly for 150s currently. It is no doubt, as potent of a 7 as I will ever need--probably more, considering dialing.

As to brass, also can do around 8 w/annealing. Norma.

ALL Westherby rifles I've owned shot well. ALL have been sub MOA shooters. As to the three firing issue, I have observed a deterioration in accuracy after three or more firings. Although some calibers are a bit more forgiving, for example, the 257 does give me more firings than the 300 and so does the 7to get back on topic

I have yet to have a Weatherby Mark V that did not shoot extremely well and was not consistent. I have owned/own them in 270,7mm and 300 bee. I understand that the Remington ultra mags also have a bit of freebore.

I have its twin at home but in 270 weatherby. I have to scope it and shoot it in the next few weeks.

The 7mm weatherby was my primary hunting round for a number of years. I always went more than three firings.
I have owned a pile of weatherby rifles and sold many on this site. I would guess around 20, including a 300 and 240 currently . I have had plenty that wouldn't shoot MOA or would only do so with one load or one bullet weight. IMO non of them are inherently accurate cartridges.

I am not sure about the rest of the Ultras but the 3oo does have free bore. .125 in the example I currently have. I should note that this gun was chambered with a off the shelf Manson reamer.
I also have a 300 weatherby current and it's freebore measures .438. This is a late 80's/early 90's vintage made in Japan Mark V.

Capiche, grazie.

That's one of the saving graces of the 300 Wby. It's as if 7828 was designed specifically for it. Mine shoots 180's like that with 84.5 gr of 7828.

I have worked with numerous 300 Wby Mk V's and never had any problem getting them to shoot.

Then it begs the question, why do yo keep buying them?

I haven't bought any in years and the ones I currently have were inherited.
My original model 700 classic 7mm weatherby was rebarrled to 300 win mag some time ago.
And I just related I currently have 3 weatherbys. In addition to the Mark v's mentioned early I also have another 700 in 7mm weatherby.
To be honest I was quit a churner years back. Thankfully I realized the futility of it all and invested my money into actually hunting and the gear required to DIY.

I have a deal in the works for a Sako L691 in 7mm Wby. It has a 1 in 9.5 twist barrel. I’m hoping it will stabilize long bullets like a 175 ABLR or ELD-X. So, Norma is the preferred brass?

Norma is good stuff. I use it first in cartridges I can get it in.. Second comes RP brass if necessary. I have just purchased Lapua for my 308 to test.

Brass of any kind seems to be a scarce commodity. Might as well buy some ammo for the price of a 20 round box of brass

Norma or Weatherby is the way to go.

That is the way to go apparently, and its fireformed to your rifle

Any belted magnum needs to be neck sized and annealed after about 3 reloads.I have got over a dozen loads from a 7Rem mag and 338 Win mag doing that.If you full length size you are lucky to get 3 or 4 reloads from a case.

My Wby cases fail more from primer pocket expansion than head seperation, so I keep my loads for it within reason.
The 7 Rem Mag. shoulder gets set back 3 thous, and I do anneal both. Working for both so far.