Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting 6.5-300 Weatherby – for Elk?

Ain't nothing to do but bolt it up!

Sounds like it is doing pretty decent across the board though.

Agreed Beretzs. I was, and still am, hoping to get it close to the NASA-like accuracy of my .340 Wby, but I also realize I don't need that. I just like the idea of precision.

Whatever you're confident in. The only experience I have on a non-bonded/non-mono hit on an elk shoulder was a 162gr ELD-X at 285yds from a 7mm Mag. Impact velocity of around 2500fps, and after hitting the shoulder blade, the jacket and shrapnel only made it into the first lung. Granted, an ELD-X has the ballistic tip to initiate greater expansion, but it's still only got an interlock ring just like the 140gr that MarineHawk is shooting. And that's a pretty mild impact velocity to only make it a few inches.

I'd bet it'll be good once that barrel settles in a little as well.

Thanks Beretzs. I still have most of the ammo in the three variants I have. The stock is in, or has passed through, Earth City, MO. Allegedly, it should be here Friday afternoon.

I got the new stock.





I installed it. It’s free floated now.



I’m hoping to shoot it this afternoon.

One question though: When I first installed the action in the stock, when I was done, it had just a little bit more room between the barrel and one side of the channel than it did on the other side. So, I loosened the action screws and pulled it a bit toward the side of the wider gap when I retightened them.

So, now, it’s centered, at least optically, in the middle of the channel:



Q1: Would it have mattered if I didn’t do that?

Q2: Did I use the correct approach (that I just made up) for remedying that?

Many thanks in advance for any comments.

If it shoots well like that, I’d tape the barrel so it’s centered in the barrel channel and bed the recoil lug with a little Marine Tex or whatever your choice is.

Off center and touching the stock definitely could make a difference. Hard to tell though without shooting it.

Good luck at the range.

Thanks Beretzs. It wasn't touching the stock on either side, at least at rest, it just was a bit closer to one side. I think I'll shoot it and see what happens.

This one was an impulse buy a couple of years ago. Accuguard in a B&C and factory free floated all the way to the reciever. The forend on mine looks noticeably thinner. I guess I should get out and shoot it.

Nice looking rifle JL.

That's 6.5-300?

If so, what does it like to shoot?

My stock is the "M40" style, which was the only one B&C currently carries for the long-action VGs that has a free-floated channel for the #3 contour barrels.

I've got loaded shells along with brass, bullets and powder with a set of dies so I really should get off my arse and shoot the thing-it's been sitting in the safe.

Maybe I'll take it to the campfire hog hunt this year to perforate a hog or two and perhaps another Oryx.

Thanks for the info JL. If you don't mind saying, does your rifle prefer any particular bullets or loads?

I just got back from the range. Got mostly 3/4” to 1-1/4” groups with all three of the 6.5-300 loads I have. This time, the 140s underperformed the other two. Don't know if the new stock could make that happen or it's coincidence.

I was waiting about four minutes between shots to keep from overheating the barrel.

Then, when it was time to go home, I just let it rip with the last five rounds I had with me of the 127gr LRXs, one after another.

Oddly, that was my best result.

I shot the last two on a separate target, but the center of all five would have been within 1/2” of each other.



Maybe the barrel's settling in. Who knows? I think the new stock helps. The action didn’t budge by all appearances during my shooting spree.

Probably going to go back again this weekend and play around some more.

Myself, I shoot 3 rounds thru the gun about as fast as I can accurately as I can run the bolt, breathe and aim. I have found that waiting in between shots definitely doesn't help us much as a shooter nor tell us what the gun will truly do as it heats up in a hunting scenario. Your last group kinda bears that out as well, you buckled in, ran the gun then let it cool. I know the gun will get hot, but shooting 3 rounds like that and you'll probably have more years out of that barrel than you can imagine, even with the firebreathing 6.5.

The LRX's look really darned good right there.

Might be worth trying to shoot 3 shots without getting off the gun next time MH. Seen if it nets you any different results, but to me, it looks like you have a shooter on your hands with the 127's.

Thanks for the good advice Beretzs.

Part of it is I seem to get tighter groups with my .340 doing the way I did, but that also could be a coincidence.

Either way, I generally fire the first three shots of a range session in fairly quick succession, including today, which makes me think that, in the hunting scenarios, the rifle never will get hot, because those first three never seem to cause the barrel to get very warm. It's just that, after that, it seems to keep getting hotter and hotter if I don't leave some time between shots. I usually bring two rifles, so I can rotate. I think I'll do that next time, and do what you're saying, only maybe waiting ten minutes between each group while shooting something else and/or reading the 24HCF on my phone--to let the rifle cool between sets.

Unsurprisingly, the heavier barrel I have tends to heat up more slowly, but it also cools down more slowly.

Have a good weekend.

Give it a whirl. I’d bet in these temps 10-15 minutes between groups is plenty to let it cool.

Can’t hurt. Your 127 groups bear that out.

Unfortunately, it was about 70 F where I was.



Elite Shooting Sports.

A bit delayed so I could bring my son along, but my almost 17-yr-old boy and I went to the range with my 6.5-300 Wby Accuguard and “his” 7mm Wby MkV ULW. Because I liked the preliminary results from putting a B&C free-floating stock on the 6.5-300, my son bought one for his 7mm Wby with his Christmas money from grandpa.



Great session. The two groups below were our best, but they were all good until the barrels started getting hot.

He was firing Cor-Bon loaded 160 TSXs at a MV of 3,240 fps, and I, as indicated above, was firing 127gr LRXs at 3,376 fps.



His, on the left, measures right at 0.3”, and mine, on the right, was 0.4”. I still couldn’t get the Siroccos to come in under an inch. Maybe that will change, because I’d like to do that.

Note, we had to use those silly targets because the range was out of the normal ones.

I won’t be able to take him elk hunting until 2022 because of school and that he, unfortunately, is the son of my ex-wife. But, we’re both getting lined up as far as rifles. I think I’ll take the 6.5-300 this year, even though it’ll be hard to leave behind my beloved .340 Accumark.

I’d say you’ve got two sure things right there. Nothing to blame on ammo there. That 127 LRX would be some serious elk medicine in my opinion. Bet it’d take a lot of elk to stop one.

Thanks Beretzs. I'm collecting a fair amount of brass for your brother.

Excellent. It’ll be good to meet up.