Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters What Cup & Core bullets hold together at 257 weatherby velocities?

Looking to make some less expensive loads that I can still use on deer and hogs without wasting a lot of meat at closer ranges, if a bad shot is made.
Not sure what all I have but the 115 BT and 117 SPBT interlock are two I am sure I have in stock. Or should I just stick with mono & bonded bullets for this purpose?

I don't have a .257 WBY, but do have a .264 WM. Hornady interlocks have worked well for me with that round.

100 gr Hornadys, deer/antelope killin sumbitches

true but they have been discontinued...along with the excellent 120gr HP!

I've not seen much in the way of any cup/cores that don't damage meat at close range when MV is over 3,200fps. Mono-bullets do fare better there. Then again, I'm not opposed to a good lead-core bullet at that speed, so long as you stick it in the ribs.

The 117 Hornadays should do well as they do in my 25-06, just wondered what others work.

Have also seen decent results from Nosler Ballistic Tips, especially the 115-grain. They tend to retain about as much weight as Interlocks.

Not the cheapest cup and core bullet, but I'm a huge advocate of the 115 Ballistic Tip for the 257 Weatherby. I've found it holds together extremely well and kills like no other bullet I've used in my 257. I've used it on coyotes, bobcats, hogs, whitetail, axis and a few sheep. All were instant one shot kills. Pretty amazing killer. As a bonus, it has a great BC(relative to the TTSX) and is typically very accurate. Usually close to a max charge of RL-25 will give you the best combo of speed and accuracy.

Here's a 115 BST I recovered from a Central Texas Whitetail I shot at 160 yards. Bullet punched through both shoulders and was recoverd under the skin on the offside shoulder. Starting velocity was 3450.

100g Speer HOT CORE and 120g Speer BTSP

Hot Core bullets are tough, very accurate in my rifle

I should think they all will at a certain distance. That's a flat shooting round for sure so, if used as intended, i.e. long range then a cnc bullet will have slowed down considerably when it reaches its target allowing the cnc bullet integrity to remain. I don't suspect WTs at 100 yards is it, either.

Looked at some of the most expensive: partition and TTSX which were in the neighborhood of 70 cents each vs the least expensive cup and core for as little as 20 cents. What price for performance? Saving as much as 50 cents a shot for hunting is probably the least expensive cost for a hunt.....just saying.

FYI the barrel life on a 257 Weatherby is short. I know. Played around with several brands of bullets and powders learning the rifle's likes and dislikes. Barrel went south in less than 1000 rounds. IMO If you have a load that works stick with it and save the barrel.

This the best advice I have seen on any thread for the 257 Weatherby.
I have loaded for 4, including my own and documented barrel life and with some occasional range use that is around 800+ rounds then accuracy falls off sharply. My documented barrel shot just over 600 rounds at game and the balance during range testing and load development. By 900-950 rounds you are shooting 4 inch groups and just sending bullets down range to save the brass. I clocked the death knell at 1012 rounds fired but it was finished for hunting accuracy much beyond 100-200 yards at 900 rounds.

If the .257 is used as a hunting only rifle, it will last a lifetime and more and just load the 100gn Barnes TTSX as it will take any animal the cartridge is used on and you may get 1500 or more rounds out of a barrel. That is a lot of carcasses to cleanup.

Back in the Hornady and Solid Base days of Nosler - mid 70's - mid 80's, I would have sworn that a side by side comparison between the .257 Bee and he .270 Winchester favored the Weatherby on deer sized game. High velocity does register more frequent faster drop to the shot kills if you ever have the chance to cull and keep culling until you no longer have to guess, extrapolate or assume anything. I swapped to Barnes X's in 100gn and never looked back though I also had wonderful results from both the 100gn and 115gn Nosler Partition.

I also tried the 87gn Hornady bullet at over 3800fps which was the preferred load for Roy E. On deer sized game with the lung and shoulder shots I took it worked very well but that velocity really pushed the integrity of that bullet so even though it would be fine of pronghorn and whitetail, I would still favor going homogeneous bullets for this cartridge.

If starting out fresh, the Barnes 100gn TTSX is "the" .257 bullet whether Weatherby or .25/06 and if there is a back up bullet, it is the 100gn Partition.

Thanks for the sage advice. The 257 Bee is not made for economical shooting so I will mostly stick with the Barnes and Accubond for hunting. I will use my 25-06 as a test vehicle if I want to experiment with other bullets. The hunting I do you can never tell if the range is going to be at powder burn distances or way out there. It seems if you carry a longer range rig it insures you get closer shots.

Is there enough difference in using Ball or cooler burning powders to be significant in barrel life? I have good loads with R-22 and 25 but thinking about Magnum and the 800 series of powder. H870 & AA 8700 show really low pressures with decent speed and I imagine they run cooler too. Some claim the spherical powders are physically less abrasive to the throat, this may be conjecture or only valid in machine guns, not sure. I think the freebore may also help in delaying throat erosion, sort of like cases with a longer neck?

There you go

John,

I totally agree on the 100 TTSX in both the .25-06 and .257 Weatherby--but would also add the 100-grain Nosler E-Tip, which is what I've been shooting in my present .257 for a while now. It actually shoots a little more accurately than the TTSX in this rifle (a New Ultra Light Arms Model 28), and the ballistic coefficient is somewhat higher. it shoots even flatter!

The Barnes TTSX 100gn are great in the fast .25 caliber cartridiges.

If you do like the Barnes, I'd suggest consider taking a look at Hammer Bullets, too.

https://hammerbullets.com/product-tag/257/

Another two cents worth-

My Wby .257 has been my 'go-to' rifle for over 35 years now. After several spectacular blowups on mule deer and a Desert Bighorn, I switched to 100 gr. Barnes TSX bullets, and later on, TTSXes. I push them at 3700 fps MV, and they are reliable takers of game up to and including elk.
My Wby Mk. V nowadays gets treated with great care, coming out of the safe only for a couple of shots at the range to confirm zero, and then off to whatever we are going to hunt. This barrel is going to remain accurate for my lifetime, and probably one of my son's lifetimes, as well.
As far as my rifle 'range time' is concerned, it is accomplished with any number of other rifles, in varying calibers.

I'll throw another punch for the Speer Hot-Cor. The 120gr is a very good bullet that I've been using for over 30yrs in my 25.06 with excellent results in accuracy and on game performance. Unfortunately they don't make the 120gr anymore but I wouldn't hesitate to use the 100gr either. I'd be glad to send you a few of the 120's to try out if you want them, just let me know. Mike

in my 257 Weatherby Mags. i still like 100 gr.Nosler partitions or Swift A-frames at 3800 fps these 2 brands of bullets still stay together and just go thru the buck i have shot out to around 200 yards at longer distances they just mushroom nice.

Guybo thanks for the generous offer but if I can't get more then I don't want to work up a load for them. Does anyone use the Swift Sirocco, it seems to have potential? The Hammer bullets look good but the BC in the lighter weights are not that great. I was going to get a custom 1-7 twist to use them in but am now going stock 1-10 twist. I may re-barrel another with the fast twist but for now I would have to shoot two rifles at once to begin to keep up with what I've got.