Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 257 vs 270 Weatherby?

Unless I find a smoking deal on a used Mark V, this will probably be the way I go. I've also been entertaining the idea of a 300 bee on the same platform if one presents itself and a 257 does not.

Nothing wrong with the 257 Weatherby (speed demon) or the 270 Weatherby...but I decided that for me if I'm going to burn more powder in a bigger case than the 30/06, it would have at least a 7mm hole in it.

I own both and both are spectacular killers. I often find my self grabbing the 257 more often, as I'm primarily hunting whitetail and hogs. If I could only have one though, it'd be the 270 Wby. It's simply more versatile and has a little better bullet selection. A 130 gr bullet at 3450 is wicked!!

I shot my own new LH Mk V Ultra Light in .270 Weatherby for the first time yesterday. Not too impressed so far with the accuracy, but I expected a challenge, based on what I've read and been told. My gunsmith does Weatherby warranty work, and has said that the Ultralights get more returns due to accuracy issues than any other Weatherby model. The rifles can be fussy, are sensitive to barrel pressure, and the action screws must be torqued to the correct value. He seems to think that they shoot about the same without the barrel pressure point as they do with it. I removed mine as it was only making contact with one side of the barrel.

The rifle weights 8 pound on the nose with a Leupold 3x9 in Talley one-piece mounts. As JB has mentioned, it's a very comfortable weight to shoot.

As far as choosing between a .270 and a .257, I'll take the .270, thanks. In fact, I'd buy a second .270 Weatherby (or a 7mm) before I bought a .257. Just personal preference. I have no use for 25 caliber rifles.

I would go with the .257 mag. in the Vanguard rifle because I prefer this action over the heavier Mark V. I don't think the .270 mag is available in the Vanguard series.

The 257 is like others stated a rock star. I have a Winchester actioned Bansner custom in 257. This last summer my wife and I went to South Africa ,again. Shot everything from springbok to eland with it. Real pleasure to shoot with Barnes 115 tsx at 3425 it will hammer them. My wife has a mark V with a McMillan stock, it is pretty heavy. She shot a gemsbok with mine at 275 yards. It was laying in it's tracks. My son borrowed it at the deer lease to shoot a doe with. Forgot to tell him to be careful of deer behind. He shot a doe in the chest and the bullet exited the ham and killed the doe behind her. I love this cartridge. With quality bullets it will kill most game at any normal range, out to 5-600 yards. Have no experience with the 270-7mm.

Back when I was looking a for a long range cartridge I ended up with a 6.5-06AI. For western hunting I prefer the heavier pills the 6.5 can use and, using Weatherby's ballistic data, long range ballistics beat the .257 WBY. The .270 WBY matches the 6.5-06AI if using a 26" barrel but at a cost of more powder and recoil.

The rifle I ended up with is super accurate (24" Krieger 1-8 twist barrel on an Interarms Mark X action). My hunting load is a 130g Swift Scirocco II (B.C. .571). A load of 58.5g 7828SSC yields 3116fps.

The 6.5-06AI doesn't burn a lot of powder and brass is cheap, too. I fire-form .25-06 brass and even the fire-form loads are accurate. Last time I was at the range (2 weekends ago) I popped 8 clay pigeons in gusty winds on the 600-yard berm with the fire-form loads, which are nothing more than Hornady's max load 49.0g H4831SC) for a 140g A-MAX.

You could get a used Savage rifle and slap a match quality 6.5-06AI barrel on it for about $650. Rebarreling is where I was headed with the used Savage FXP3 I purchased a couple weeks ago for $295. Turned out to be such a good shooter that I'm leaving it as-is.

Between the .257 and .270 WBY I'd take the .270.