Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting Popularity of the 26 Nosler and 6.5x300 WBY

My neighbor has a 30/40 Kraig in a Ruger #1 if you are interested, very nice condition, shot little.

Dirtfarmer, I had my weatherby reamers with shorter freebore chambered with a .030 shorter neck, that way, no factory ammo could ever be shot in the rifle.

Only factory ammo I have ever shot in a rifle ince '68 was someone else's rifle and ammo.

I love hotrods, but few can handle the high maintenance, carbon fouling, leade growth, etc.

barrel blanks waiting in the shop, I just love looking at them...warm fuzzy feeling!

Barrel set backs with .100 leade growth if you have the right gunsmith that is willing to measure throat dia growth and get it back to within .0002 of muzzle dia. will pay big dividends. You have to plan ahead with enough shank to work with.

Barrels are consumables, don't sweat the small stuff!

Hawken .54 Rocklock by .com/photos/61286670N08/]Sharps Man, on [bleep]

Nice hawken.
Did you build it?

As a aside, my #1 hammer is a 6AI, popularity be damned.... 😂😂

Judman, I had four 6mm Rem, 220 Swift, 243, 25/06, and a #3 in 22 Hornet. New barrels, three point bedding system on forearm, great trigger, fixed all problems. Till I did the upgrades, it was a love/hate affair.

I can not remember the last time I use more than one shot on a deer.

I have the 26 Nosler, I have a number of rifles so I don’t shoot mine much. It doesn’t have any more recoil than a 7 mag to me. I use 869 and 140 Ballistic tips.

Agree on all points, except prefer 120 gr TTSX or 120 gr E-Tip.

DF

I use the 120 TTSX in my 6.5-06, I bet it really flys out of a 26!

3,450 fps, Could go 3,500, but better accuracy at 3,450.

120 gr. TTSX at that speed messes up stuff.

Hog heart.

DF

I prefer gun shops that give me what I want. I aint interested in what's popular.

So you only shop where every gun interests you? How do you find them? :-)

Any gun shop that only offered what I'm interested in would soon be a former gun shop.

I think I learned what I wanted by going into shops that had things I wasn't familiar with- and then I got familiar with them....

I meant custom builds.
If you want something bad enough, there are places to go to get it.

I built a 26 Nosler on the cheap. I bought a fire damaged 7RM M-700 BDL from my gunsmith for $400. It suffered more steam than direct fire damage. The wood was intact and when the wood is not charred, the metal didn't get hot enough to hurt. The barrel was toast, the trigger was unusable. I had a 26" SS Shilen fitted, glassed and free floated the barrel, replaced trigger with a Timney 501, bought pretty cheap on Ebay. The factory pad was sticky, Remington replaced it, no cost.

It's not that pretty, but is a half MOA shooter with selected loads So, it can be done..

DF

..............................As I recall, the 6.5/300 Bee came out after both Noslers did. Christensen may be simply waiting the market out to see what happens. Manufacturers imo tend to wait for a period of time before they offer new cartridge chamberings..........

I also believe that the 26 Nosler and 6.5/300 will have the usual short barrel life detractors. To them I would say, Well if you shoot them like varmint rifles, firing dozens of rounds per day or session, then a barrel will have shortened life. 100 rounds or so per year is a different story. Since most own multiple rifles, then that yearly average might very well be less than a 100 rounds....

Out of all the other 6.5s, these two 6.5 ers will give you bragging rights in owning either #1 or #2..........

Imo, both will be around for quite a long time. I do not believe that either Nosler or Weatherby would market new rounds if they felt that their lives would be short lived.

With care, not letting barrels get too hot, I think they’ll be good for around 1,200 rounds.

I built my 26 Nosler before the Wby round was introduced. I still think I’d go with the Nosler. I like the beltless case and performance is pretty close.

There is a market, maybe not that large, but a sustainable market IMO.

A certain gun writer who will remain unnamed, reportedly sold his .264 Win Mag and bought the 26 Nosler he was testing. So, we know there is at least a market of one.

With 869 powder, those rounds are definite performers.

DF

It's a big difference between competition & hunting.

Actually the 6.5x300 Weatherby came to life in about 1954/55, after Norma introduced the 139 gr match bullet at Camp Perry.
The creator of the cartridge was a 1000 yd target shooter by name of Wright from NM.
A PA gunsmith by name of Alex Hoyer got wind of the cartridge and contacted Wright about using his reamer.
A deal was consummated and the cartridge was dubbed 6.5x300 WWH, for Weatherby Wright Hoyer.
Hoyer popularized the cartridge among a growing number of long range hunters in PA and elsewhere.
One of them was Frank Weber an early Williamsport shooter, who used his Hoyer built gun to set an early 1000 record at that range.
At 83 Frank still competes there today, as the results of the recent World Open match shown on their website will show.
For a time the 6.5x300 WBY was the most popular long range hunting gun probably on the planet, but for sure it was in PA.
Around 1970 Hornady introduced the 162 gr match BTHP bullet, and that spelled death for the 6.5x300 Wby cartridge in PA.
Almost overnight the 7x 300 weatherby cartridge took center stage as the top choice cartridge, and along with the 7STW it is still a popular cartridge there whereas you will be hard pressed to find a 6.5 of really any description used for serious long range there.
I personally started L/R hunting at the time the change over was taking place, so i started with a 7x300 built by the late Howard Wolfe.
I always had a lingering feeling however that i had missed something by not having a hot 6.5.
So about 10 years back i had a 6.5x300 WSM built on a Savage action. The thing shot very well with 140s with velocity pushing 3400.
One day shooting at rocks on the hillside opposite our camp , i decided to compare the results with my 7x300.
Right there it became evident that I hadn’t missed anything by not owning a hot 6.5 for long range hunting.
In fact if i had my now long life to live over, I wouldn’t be owning a 7mm either for that purpose.
If 3400 is good with 140 grns, how good is it with 200s? And how good is 3200 with 300s?

Yep, different worlds...

DF