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

I think it was the 6.5 Weathrby-Wright-Hoyer. Here is a quote from Sierra's second reloading manual, pg. 171.

"This cartridge was reportedly designed by Lt. Colonel Paul Wright(ret) of Silver City, New Mexico. It is sometimes called the 6.5X 300 Weatherby-Wright-Hoyer. "Hoyer" is a reference to Alex Hoyer, a Pennsylvania gunsmith, who built the first 6.5 X 300 for Colonel Wright and many of the rifles in this caliber used in the Pennsylvania 1000 yard bench rest matches. The design of this cartridge is simply the .300 Weatherby necked down to 6.5MM.the rifles chambered for it have a standard throat with no freebore."

They go on to list some UNTESTED, I repeat, UNTESTED loads of "Frank Weber who used the cartridge to set the 1000 yard record for ten shots at that time of 8.468 and perfect score of 50." No velocities recorded:

With H870, Fed 215, Sierra MK...82-84 grs. (Up to 86 grs for hunting)
With H570, Fed 215, Sierra MK...79-81 grs. (Up yo 83 grs for hunting)

Idaho Shooter,

I haven't talked to anybody at Weatherby about the new round, but Weatherby's tradition, going back to when (and how) Roy started the business, has been to create commercial big game cartridges providing the most velocity for any particular caliber. That's exactly what the .240, .257, .270, 7mm, .300, .340, .375, .378, .416 and .460 did when they appeared.

Accordingly, the 6.5-300 will be the fastest commercial 6.5 cartridge. The claimed ballistics beat the 26 Nosler by about 100 fps with the same bullet weights, even though powder capacity's got to be pretty similar, probably because the 6.5-300 will have the typical Weatherby "freebore" throat.

It remains to be seen how many they sell, but Weatherby rifles have been quite accurate for a while now, and there's got to be some market for the fastest 6.5 cartridge. And regardless of whether they sell a bunch, it's going to remind a lot of shooters of the Weatherby brand.

One observation: It's always interesting on the Campfire (and elsewhere on the Internet) when some company brings out a new rifle cartridge. A bunch of shooters who immediately post, "Bill Jones designed essentially the same cartridge in 1957," or "My sporterized 6.5x55 Swedish Mauser kills deer like the hammer of Thor and I don't see any need for another 6.5," or "Who does Weatherby think will buy this redundant round?"

Well, Bill Jones's cartridge was never chambered commercially, and Weatherby doesn't care who's NOT going to buy a rifle for their new round. Instead, they're following an old Weatherby tradition into the 21st century, offering a really fast cartridge that fits right into the current 6.5 trend. No doubt other people will think it's about time 6.5's got some attention from American shooters, and Weatherby finally filled the 6.5 slot in their line-up.

Those powders are largely gone, replaced by Vulcan take downs such as 872. Hodgdon sells their 869 which IME, has about the same burn rate as 872, at least the lots I have.

I just got some Vv N570, reportedly a good one for those big cases. Dealing with these mega rounds is a different experience than conventional reloading using conventional powders.

These big rounds are getting pretty far into the Loony woods...

DF

Wow! I want one in an Accumark.

Me too.

PA seems to be ahead of the curve on things like this. When I was a young man I remember talking to a guy who belonged to a 1,000 yard hunting club in Tioga co. PA. I asked him what cartridge he used and he said it was a .378 Weatherby case necked down to .30 cal. That was before Weatherby introduced the .30-378.

WORD......

All of these options and choices - IT'S SO CONFUSING!!!

I wish some somebody would step in and eliminate the majority of the cartridge choices we have available and stop any more from being developed, so that picking a chambering would be simple. Hopefully there's a government task force getting lined up to tackle this problem in the near future.

David

Bob, It was Earl Etter who did the 6.5/300.. I never met him but visited on the phone several times and have several letters from him.. He used the 6.5 on a couple antelope I believe, then moved from Pa. to Idaho.. There he became a big bore fan.. But he WAS hunting elk in pretty heavy timber..

moose, you are pretty well on target with your statement about Pa.
In the 50's and 60's those guys were already shooting deer and groundhogs at very long range.. One of my friends there killed a 'chuck at 1200+ yards during that time.. 3 or 4 years ago I was there hunting deer and saw guys with custom .30-378's and .338-378's set up to shoot from mountain to mountain .. They weren't just guess and hoping for a luck shot either..

Agreed Wyo. Those 1,000 yard clubs in PA know what they're doing. Williamsport has a 1,000 yard rifle range that attracts a lot of them too.

Just what is needed - another 6.5 super mag! I can't believe that a ton of these are sold each year to justify 3 or more manufacturers offering them.

I can't imagine it costs Weatherby much to make a reamer and a roll stamp to be in the game.

moose the on you mentioned was the original 1000 yard benchrest club.. I was never to it, but near it several times..

Several years ago we were visiting friends in Pa. in the spring.. Got up to Ridgeway and watched the guys and gals shoot steel targets of crows, bobcats, and coyotes.. There was one more may a 'chuck. Anyway the coyote was 1000 yards.. the others closer.. some awesome rigs there..

moose the on you mentioned was the original 1000 yard benchrest club.. I was never to it, but near it several times..

Several years ago we were visiting friends in Pa. in the spring.. Got up to Ridgeway and watched the guys and gals shoot steel targets of crows, bobcats, and coyotes.. There was one more may a 'chuck. Anyway the coyote was 1000 yards.. the others closer.. some awesome rigs there..

What surprised me is they Bear hunt that way too. It's all mountain to mountain shooting with bench rifles and spotting scopes.

Done that with a .300 Wby mag and a 200 gr SMK about 20 or so years ago. Except the targets were chickens,pigs,turkeys and rams. They were set at 600,700,850 (?) and 1000 yds. The .300 made the chickens fly and it knocked the rams over with authority.

I am sure it would.. Up at Raton???

No,the Butterfield range west of Las Cruces. IIRC the total number of shooters was 5-6 people. Think I shot the match 2-3 times and then it went ka-put as there was not enough shooters.

Moose and others,

I met a couple of those guys shooting across a reservoir in Warren County back around '99. Came to where I was working and asked could they access the "back 40" ( A hillside on the Allegheny NF). I asked why, they said they had a deer down back there. I asked did they shoot it from up top and it went downhill, as I hadn't seen anyone accessing from this side. They told me nope, we shot it from across the lake, with a .30-378 and it didn't go anywhere. That's where I first heard of the 1000yd club.

Set up benches and stuff in an overlook and spotted deer across the lake. At the time I thought it was "interesting".

The new 6.5 might just work well for it too.

Geno

What a colossal waste of time when there is 1000 yard 243 already on the campfire, proving the lack of need of all this wasted discussion...