Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters What the heck is Weatherby thinking, another big 6.5?

Was reading today about the intrduction of a factory 6.5-300 Wea.

This prompted me to check the newest Hogdgon annual manual for the 7mm STW vs 28 Nosler.

Top velocity goes back and forth between the STW and the 28 Nosler by a very small margin. Charge weights are nearly identical. The obvious conclusion would be they have nearly the same capacity. And we already know the STW is nearly identical to the 300 Wea in capacity.

Layne Simpson introduced us to the 6.5 STW well over 20 years ago. Nosler brought us identical ballistics with the 26 Nosler a while back.

And now Weatherby thinks we need to turn the identicle twins into a set of triplets?

Yawn!

Check out Kenny Jarrett's 284 Jarrett and compare to the 28 Nosler introduced 20 or so years later. Pretty dang similar

Aaa....they're late to the 6.5 party.

They were ALL late to the 7mm Mashburn Super party. And the 7mm Weatherby too for that matter

Generations come and go; old cartridges and performance levels get forgotten,fall off the radar,get recycled and introduced to newer shooters.Rather than major improvements we get refinements. Slightly shorter/fatter cases to fit certain actions,no belts for those who don't like them.newer bullets and powders and brass, slight tweaks in capacity, etc etc.

When Simpson necked down the 8 Rem Mag to 7mm he was taking advantage of a new source of brass,even though you could always make the case from 300 H&H brass;by then shooters did not know he was simply duplicating the 7mm Mashburn Super in terms of performance. The 6.5 version was not as likely to be popular because 6.5's in general did not have the traction they do today.I think Nosler and Weatherby are following the trend to more modern, updated 6.5's.

Due to the popularity of LR shooting, everyone wants a 6.5.

Layne has done a lot that folks here seem to not recognize or even talk about. He competed where about nil writers here have.

I would have been much more interested in a 6.5 on the same case as the 257/270/7mm case but wish Weatherby well on their new cartridge. One thing is for certain, it's going to shoot flat..........

That would make Much more sense, for sure. On a 300 Wby case it would just burn a helluva lot more powder to get to the same place as with the 257/270/7mm case.

Isn't that called the .264 Win Mag?

Now that I think of it,the 6.5/300 Weatherby was a wildcat that had some notoriety back in the 70's(?),named then the 6.5 Wright-Hoyer or something like that. I remember an article in Rifle or Handloader about it back then. It was used for 1000 yard work as I recall.

Got to meet Layne at Kenny Jarrett's place when I was placing my order for one of his rifles. Layne spent two and one half hours with me (yep, 2.5 hours) going over options, choices, etc. I came away very impressed with both his technical and practical knowledge, and his willingness to share it with some peon from Georgia. He was another one of those I like to call down-to-earth type folks we all can relate too very easily. Ended up with a 280 Ackley that was very beloved to me.

If memory serves me correctly, the 6.5 x 300 was done by Alex Hoyer from Lewistown, Pa. back in the 1960's. He would shoot mountain to mountain across the Juniata River

I'll bet when the next generation of powder woofin bore burning 6.5 wiz bangs come along in 20 or 30 years the 6.5 X 55 will still be chugging along, making dinosaurs like me happy.

Pretty much but it looks cooler

Seriously though I would prefer the longer neck and the freebore would probably add a bit of speed like the 7mm Wby does with the 7mm RM. You know standard rifle looney stuff here

Calling the same old thing "something new" is the opiat of the masses of the gun world. The two most powerful words in selling are "new" and "free". In this case "new" is being sold in disguise of previous endeavors.

Another great new cartridge is the 22-204...

Good one.

Bob, I was just going to mention Hoyer and the 6.5-300.. It was popular in the 60's and 70's.. In Pa. it was used in the 1000 yard benchrest matches and for shooting deer at long range.. They were killing deer at 1200 yards plus back then.

WCH: Yes you and Bugs jogged my memory. Cant remember whether it was Earl Etter or Jim Carmichael who interviewed some guy who was using the cartridge for LR target work and did an article for Rifle magazine (Handloader?).

Actually the cartridge is likely a better bet now than back then,what with so much better bullets and powders today.

Bob, I was just going to mention Hoyer.. They had the6.5-300 back in the 60's & 70's.. It was used in the 1000 yard bench rest matches in Paa. and they also used it for long range deer shooting.. They were killing deer at 1200 yards back they..

The 6.5-06 is still my favorite and then the 264 Win Mag

Good stuff, guys. I always like Bob's analysis of a topic. He's dead on this time, as well.

The 6.5/300 Weatherby Wright Hoyer (WWH) was indeed an early wildcat, so Wby didn't introduce a "new" round, they just repackaged an old round. And, they had loads of data already worked up by those early pioneers.

And, as Bob pointed out, these new powders really turn large capacity rounds like the 6.5/300 WWH into better, more efficient rounds.

I guess Nosler, rolling out their 26, stirred something at Wby. And, of course, Wby had to beat Nosler by a few fps.

Seems to me, we hit a wall trying to squeeze a few more fps from an already big, overbore round, burning a lot more powder for only a modest gain in velocity.

I personally like the Nosler version. It's a 3.4" round and my 700 has a 3.6" box, so I can load long, heavy bullets out where I want without restraint. The new Wby round is full mag, 3.6". We'll see how it sells.

DF