Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Weatherby Ultra Lightweight, Opinions

I am looking for owner evaluations of this rifle. Has accuracy been acceptable and within the 1.5" guarantee from Weatherby? Issues?

I may buy one in 270 Win; at 5 3/4 lbs, I am considering one for backpack hunting that includes some rather steep climbs and several days in the backcountry.

Thanks for your opinions.

I have a buddy that had that exact same rifle...
I never heard him complain about it and I remember that it shot well...He didn't like it well enough to not trade it though...

The only problematic (very!) ones are the ones in 300 WBY. Too violent of a chambering for that light rifle with a pencil barrel. I have never ever personally seen one of those shoot. The other chamberings do not post the same problems.
I have one in 270 WBY and cloverleafs the 130 Hornadies factory ammo.

I have 3. I have a 243 in the ultra-lightweight grey stock. A 7mm-08 in a super predator master tan stock and a 338-06 in a Super Big Game Master. The last two are exactly like the ULW's just the model before and a different name.
I have had the most experience with the 7mm-08. It shoots wonderfully. With remington factory 140's it is under an inch, and with my handloads it is better than half an inch(@100yrds). I really love hunting with the rifle so light and so well handling. I mounted a nice zeiss conquest 3-9X40 in low warne rings and it really worked out nice. A dream to hunt with.

The 338-06 is fairly new to me. I have just ran a few through it that I loaded up to get on paper, last 2 were right next to each other. Great rifle and anxious to work with. Previous owner said it was sub .5 MOA with factory Wby ammo.

The 243 is the newest. I haven't got to shoot it yet but same thing previous owner said it was a one holer.

Some people have said they have had accuracy issues with weatherbys. I or no one I know ever have. I think some of the problems people have come from improperly reattaching the stock to the action. There is a certain way you have to do it that they show in the manual and I think on the website. Says it is very important.

I have one in 280 Rem. It lives up to the accuracy guarantee and the trigger was easy to adjust from real good out of the box to a thing of beauty. Its quickly becoming a favorite because of its accuracy and the fact that it carries like a Daisy BB gun. Naturally it wears a Leupold Ultralight in Talley mounts. Wish they hadnt painted the flutes in the barrel though, might have to do something about that.

POP----you sure hit the nail on the head with the 300's. However I finally found a load for mine.....88.2 retumbo under a 180 tsx. The gun now shoots 3"/300yds even when you push it with 3-4 rapid fire heating the barrel. I think it must have taken about 500 rounds.....several scopes.....several scope mounts....a hand lapping job.....experimenting with torque on action bolts....a couple of borescopings.....and just a tad of Forgin Frustration!!!!
The surprising thing is I took the gun to the local smith and had him borescope the throat after all that to see how much was gone and he was surprised at how good it still looked.
Whew....the gun is now a keeper but it took years to make me believe in it.

I believe you! I never had a 300 in that configuration but my buddies did and they ALL got traded after much frustration.

One in .270 WBY would tickle me to death! I still say the .270 WBY is the real sweetheart of the Weatherby bunch, but it just doesn't get the kudos around here that it deserves. I'm still kicking the tires on the 257 WBY idea. I bet it too would be a nice set-up in the ULW.

Thought I would chime in on the ULW. I have one in 7mm-08 that I picked up used in 2002. It was exactly what I was looking for - light weight, not too much recoil, excellent ballistics for a non-magnum, short action. I added a Leupold 3-9 lightweight scope to it and I can carry it all day long without thinking about it.

Once I started shooting it at the range, I started to hate it. It took a long time (almost 2 years) for me to find a factory load it liked even a little. When I got it I was living in an apartment so my ability to reload was limited. Started trying to find factory ammo it liked. Most groups were in the 3" range. Then I started to hear stories of how some people had free floated the barrels on these rifles and ruined the accuracy which I started to suspect might be the case with mine (the stock is pillar bedded and has a contact area with the barrel at the end of the forearm). I finally got frustrated enough to take it to a Weatherby repair center. The Gunsmith there took it apart and the pillar was still there. He made several suggestions:
1. When firing it off the bench with sandbags, make sure the sandbags on the forend are right against the trigger guard. The additional pressure from putting the bags farther out is enough to change the point of impact.
2. For Factory ammo, use Federal Premium ammo with the 140 gr. Nosler Partition (what the factory uses aparently)
3. He also suggested slightly increasing the torque on the action screws which he did in the shop (can't remember what setting, but if I can find it I will post).

That helped a lot. I was able to get my groups down to about 1.5" with the Noslers. Once I started reloading for it, I had a tough time finding a load that would do better than the Noslers. I also decided that since I wasn't shooting a magnum, I wanted to shoot a premium bullet in it. The Barnes TSX had just come out so I started reloading the TSX 140 Grain with Varget and Federal LR match primers. Huge increase in accuracy. I fell in love with this rifle! I have also since had the action bedded by a competent gunsmith. I have shot 0.6" 5-shot groups with it. Best loads were shot about 0.03" off the lands measured from the ogive (Barnes suggests starting with 0.05" off the lands and working in and out from there between 0.07-0.03" for best accuracy). It has been my constant deer hunting companion for several years now and has accounted for a half-dozen bucks going into my freezer. I have also tried to find a load it likes with the 120 grain TSX with my best results using Reloader 15. This consistently shoots between 0.9" and 1.1" groups, so I have stayed with the 140 grainers. It's been a long road but worth it with this rifle.
Elk

I bought one in 270 winchester caliber a few months ago with a Zeiss 3-9 Diavari scope. I love the rifle. At first, the best group I could shoot was 1 1/2 inches at 100 yards. I found out that the bolts from stock to action should be set at 65 inch/ pounds. I then free floated the barrel by inserting shims in said bolts and torqued to the recommended 65 lbs. The rifle then immediately and consistently shot 3/4 inch groups at 100 yards. I then moved out to 300 yards and it shot a 2 1/2 inch group.Mine has a muzzle break and has very little recoil. It reminds me of shooting my 25-06 in recoil.

My 7mm-08 will put just about any 140gr bullet into .5in at 100 yrds in front of 48-49gr of H4350 and fed210. I bet the others will too when I get time to shoot them.

When I hear people dog weatherby's I would like for them to hunt with my SPM 7mm-08 for one day or shoot my SVM 22-250 at targets or p-dogs.

I have the model you are looking at, a 270win with a Zeiss conquest 2.5-8 in leupold mounts. Have only tried one load,the Hornady 140grain btsp. It will place two rounds from a cold clean barrel in less than an inch, the third round opens the group up to about 1.5moa but I'm not giving the little barrel any time to cool. Two shot groups out of such a light rifle are good enough for me. I am pleased with this little gun and think it is a real keeper. I bought it after a kimber 84M in 308 that I had bought for the same purpose turned out to be a real dog, shooting several different loads in 3 inch groups at 100 yards. I have a good buddy with the Weatherby in 7mm-08 that shoots 3 shots in less than 1 inch. IMHO nothing for the money will be as light or accurate. I also have an older version of the same gun in 270 weatherby. It shoots the 130 grain factory loads in 3 shot groups of about 1 inch@ 100 yards.

MikeT 81, did you think I was 'dog'-ing Weatherby?? That's not the case.
Elk

Oh no. not at all. I just have read on this forum and and others guys who talk about how crappy and overpriced weatherbys are. Makes me laugh.
It's typically guys who don't shoot much and try to shoot a 6# 300wby and flinch terrible or have never shot one and just hate the name.
Mike.

Have had 3, will have no more. The 06 and 708 I had in the ULW variety were marginal shooters at best. Gimme a ti or Montana, which I now have both, and I will be happy. You can have the Weatherbys.

I'll take em. .5 MOA is good enough for me.

Thanks Miket_81. I'll keep mine too. By the way, when I had my 7mm-08 bedded, I took it to a very high end gunsmith who does competition and tactical sniper rifles for the services and Police throughout the region. He's a certified aircraft machinist.
http://www.gruningprecision.com/index.htm

He gave high praise to Weatherby products and most he had seen were as close to being 'blueprinted' as a mass production rifle could be. Made me smile at the time. It doesn't matter what others say when you know the truth of a thing.
Elk

Ya, I am an oddball. I don't think that accuracy is a good hunting rifles best feature. In 99% of hunting sutuations 2 or so MOA is more than enough accuracy for big game hunting. Thats the main reason I like weatherbys the way they hunt. Something about how those SPM's/ULW's shoulder.

It is my understanding that the 257wby and 270wby use the same
case so I would expect the 257 to be the cracker of the two
and burn up the air. Just my 02cents worth. Cheers NC

NorthCountry, you reminded me of something. I used to pour over the charts looking at performance for various cartridges. One I always wanted to play with was the 270 Weatherby. Here's a comparison of the 257 and 270 Weatherbys with the same bullet weights (100 grains). I'll also include the 25-06 and 270 Win for comparison (these are from my Barnes manual which is all I have at my fingertips today. Granted these are different bullet designs (HPs in the 25's and solid spitzers in the 27's) but you can draw your own conclusions. Also assume that the pressure limits are safe in all test guns.

25-06, 100 grain bullet, Max velocity range over several powders = 3100-3300 fps
257 Weatherby, 100 grain bullet, Max velocity range over several powders = 3300-3500 fps

270 Win, 100 grain bullet, Max velocity range over several powders = 3300-3400
270 Weatherby, 100 grain bullet, Max velocity range over several powders = 3600-3700 fps

There is a listing for a 25 caliber 75 grain solid spitzer in the manual which tops out in the 257 weatherby from 3700-3900 fps, but is that an apples to apples comparison? Again, that's for you to decide.
Elk