Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 257 Weatherby Build

I shot deer past 300 yards with the little 250 Savage...worked fine.

Thanks for all the great feedback.What bullet and grain would you recommend that would give the best overall performance and speed for either caliber at ranges from 100 to 300 yards for deer?

What is lacking here? How do you improve on this?

I guess you could call me a rifle looney. Always looking for something different and helping to justify buying another rifle or trying out some different ammo😋 To many guns blessed with enough money from a great job and not enough sence😊Most of all I have a very understanding wife...

For your application there appears to be no justification with respect to a performance oriented, logical question.

So what? If you can swing it then get a new rifle because you want one.

My camp mate has had great luck with his 257 Wby. and 100 grain Interlocks. Lately he's mostly been using two shorty rifles, a 7mm08 and a 243. I've been using a 308 loaded to approximate old Lake City match ammo with a 165/168 at about 2550 fps. All have been sure fire killers.

Surprised to see all the Loony's in this thread attempting to talk you out of a 257 Weatherby. If everyone thought as they did, we'd all own only 3 guns...a 22 LR, 30-06 and a 12 gauge. How frikken boring!! If you want a 257 Weatherby, I say go for it! They're an absolute gas to own and shoot. Furthermore they're a real terror in the field. It will also be comforting to know you have the ability to go beyond 300 yds if needed. Like you, I've had a few 25-06's over the years, but after picking up my first 257 Wby, the 25-06's have all been sold or passed on to my kids.

My current 257 is built on a Howa/Vanguard action with a 10 twist, 26 in Brux #4.. Had the smith reduce the freebore from the factory spec'd .378 to .250. This still allows factory ammo to be used in a pinch if needed. B&C stock and Timmney Trigger. Shoots 100's extremely well at 3650, but my go to bullet is the 115 Nosler Ballistic Tip at 3450. No issue whatsoever with stabilizing and is sub-moa out to 500. Have killed various thin skinned game from 100-425yds and have experienced zero issue with bullet integrity. It just flat hammers game. As an aside, If you want a 257 on a budget, Weatherby is now specing the new 257 Vanguards with a 26 in barrel. I've never owned a Vanguard that would not shoot. Either way, I'd stick with 26 inches as a minimum barrel length.

Good luck with the build.

the 257 weatherby has been my go to gun for 20 years killed many nice bucks whitetail and muledeer,antelope,caribou ,coyotes too "its not a good rifle too sell your coyote hide-blows the hell out of them" I have killed antelope out to 700 yards,deer to 600 yards,caribou 500 yards laying down with a bi-pod and range finder. mine is a Ruger no.1 with a custom 27 inch brux barrel shoots 1/2 groups at a hundred yards also, I do have a bigger nite-force scope with custom picatinny mounts and a timney trigger. this caliber in the hand of a handloader is by far much faster than any other 25 caliber factory cartridge. my friends now all have went to this caliber/cartridge too for a few reasons fast,shoots a long ways, is accurate and they beg me to build them ammo too. we all use 100 grain swift a-frame bullets or 100 gr. partitions. if you want more advance P.M. me Pete53

I had to scratch the 257Wby itch myself a few years ago. I'm glad I did, even though that rifle doesn't see a lot of use any more. It's a fantastic round that hits like lightning and is laser-flat out to 400yds. Mine only gets pulled out of the safe when I intend to hunt over a couple of fields where shots over 500yds are not uncommon. Otherwise I've completely gotten away from magnums of any sort and gone to mainly short action rounds.

Will it accomplish anything inside 300yds that your 25-06 won't? Nope. However, you'll always wonder what you might be missing out on until you try one for yourself.

If you plan to use it any at relatively close ranges, I'd go with the 100gr TTSX. The kind of speed a Wby generates can do strange things to normal bullets at close range. This won't be a worry with the Barnes, since you can't push them too fast.

100gr TSX/TTSX is where I start and stop for the .257 Weatherby

Heartily agree!^^^^^^^^

I have had 3 or 4 257 Wea..'s.. Killed a lot of game with them.. I would forsure have a 26" barrel.. The only draw back I would see with a Vanguard is the action.. All of mine were built on 700's.. With the long mag action bullet seating is easy.. I have a barrel for the 257, but it is a 1-12... Roy's original pick.. May stick it on an action soon.. You will enjoy the .257 I doubt you will see much difference between it and the .2506, but as some pointed out different rifles are the thing that makes shooting and hunting enjoyable...

Yep.

I'd go with a 26" tube too. I see little sense to restrictor plates on that chambering.

I have a 257 Weatherby, i have hunted with a 25-06 . I have yet to do anything with the 257 that i could not have done just as easily with a 25-06. IMHO The only real advantage the 257 has over the 25-06 is past 300 yards. My farthest kill shot wth my 257 was an antelope at 350 yards, with my 25-06 it was an antelope at 425 yards. For the ranges you are talking about a 243 would do nicely. My 257 has a 27 inch barrel without freebore, I get right at 3500 FPS with 100 grain TTSX, and 3450 FPS with 110 grain accubonds. I could push it faster, but I decided that was plenty fast enough as it is a tac driver at those velosities.

I agree that a 25-06 may suit your needs BUT the 257 weatherby will yield quite a bit more power for long shots with a very flat trajectory.

A friend and I decided to build two 257 Weatherby customs. We chose to buy our reamer with some changes. Had freebore shortened to .100" and throat angle changed to 1 1/2 degree with the intent to use of moly coated 115 Berger VLD. Used Lilja SS 3 groove 1 in 10 twist 28" #5 fluted. Dan and I used RL-25 and got some outstanding velocities of approx 3650 fps.

We liked the combination so much we built two lighter versions with 24" and 26" #3 profile barrels, also the same 3 groove lilja.

Tim liked our rifles, borrowed the reamer and also used a 3 groove Lilja. Then his friend Allen talked me out of my lighter 257.

We then went out and killed the following with some very spectacular DRTs with ranges of 200 to 550 yds:


20 coues wt

6 elk

4 mule deer

2 antelope

I found a slightly used 3 groove Lilja with a brake on line. Got it installed on an old push feed model 70. Deason and I helped a youth hunter get his coues wt using the 115 Berger. Deason liked it so much he bought it. His daughter shot her first coues wt this past fall.

This combination yields fantastically flat trajectory with moderate recoil and it kills deer and antelope with authority. Sure ammo and barrel life are issues but this is a high performance package.

If you do decide to built one I suggest you get a custom reamer. If you want to know more about the reamer we used give me a PM.

Incidentally Bullets.com is going out of business. They have 257 Norma brass on sale $108.72 per 100:
http://bullets.com/products/-257-Weatherby-Brass-Cases-Box-of-25/BL10485

If one is going with a 25, might as well do the best. Could not afford Weatherby's as a kid. Now I'm quite fond of them.

Don't get me wrong, I love my 257 Weatherby. I have had it for 5 years, and have yet to miss with it. I no longer own a 25-06, as I have no need for it, i replaced it with a 6.5 creedmoor.

My first .257 caliber rifle was a Mod 700 Classic in .257 Roberts which I later had reamed to the Ackley Improved. I seated the 120 Hornady HP ( discontinued now, what a bummer!) way out over what seemed like a case full of IMR 4350. No idea how fast but it was awesome! I later had a Mod 700 Classic in 25-06, shot a muley with it around 80yds, used the Sierra 117sbt. Good killer. I had that rifle reamed to the .257 BEE. That rifle had a 24" barrel and shot the then available Federal Premium 115 Partition load into 1/2". I did get to clock it, and they were going a flat 3200fps. My very first kill was a nice Blackbuck right at 375yds. Laser beam and down and out! I also shot a nice Black Hawaiian at 250...shame on him time! Traded that rifle for another hunt (another Black Hawaiian) I then bought a beautiful custom made Interarms Mark X in .257 BEE with a 26" Douglas barrel with a highly figured Marble Cake English Walnut stock. I loaded Barnes 100 TSX close to 3700 and shot a realy nice Black Hawaiian ram about 150yds. I sold that rifle to the same Outfitter for several hundred more than I had paid for it! "I felt" the BEE was a quicker killer than the 25-06. They both were loud, easy to shoot, but to be honest...if 300 for sure is the furthest...do the 25-06 or at most, the Ackleyed version. The 240 Weatherby is a humdinger also for those ranges and does OK with a 24" barrel if you just want something new...Just my humble opinion...