Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting 6.5 X 300 WBY Load data?

Can someone help me find some load data for 142-160 grain bullets for the 6.5 X 300 WBY?

Thanks for any help in advance.

Thinking of starting with light loads listed for the 26 Nosler?

I’ve searched too, not much out there.

142 and 143
https://www.hodgdonreloading.com/reloading-data-center

Thank You, Anyone with 150 data. Thanks

Back in the day the go to powder was H570 with the 139 gr Norma match.
Which was the only good long range bullet on the planet at the time, and became the reason the 6.5x300 Wby was created.
The bullet came to the U S in the early 50s, and Al Huntington became the sole U S importer.
Soon after, a Camp Perry shooter by name of Wright chambered a rifle using the 300 Wby case with that bullet.
And that brought about an agreement with a Pa gunsmith by name of Alex Hoyer who used the reamer for a long range hunting rifle. It was known as the 6.5x300 WWH for Wetherby, Wright, Hoyer.
It became the most popular cartridge among the growing number of long range hunters, especially in Pa.
Hoyer died in 1970, about the same time as the 6.5x300 died as a top choice of the L R hunters due to better bullets coming along.
Especially the 162 gr Hornady match, which caused many hunters to rebarrel their guns to the 7x300 wby.
I came along in the early 70s, so i never got to experience a 6.5, but i knew guys who used them.
My first long range gun was built by another well know Pa gunsmith by name of Howard Wolfe and was chambered for the 7x300 cartridge.
Howard was also well known at that time at least locally for building 30x378s on large actions he had created himself. He later built one for me on Wolfe action #29 which i still have.
Powder was then and still is today what makes those type cartridges perform.
H570 was a WW2 surplus powder, and not everybody had it.
What i had was reserved for the 30x378, so i was using H870 in the 7mm.
The 7x300 Wby really came to life when 7828 powder came along.
My velocity went from 3250 to 3450 using the same bullet, and it will even do it in barrels of 27” long.
But go slowly if you use it and be listening to the gun as you do.
There were never any manuals and of coarse no internet for information for those cartridges.
We loaded for velocity first, and worked on the accuracy later with seating depth.
And these are hunting guns, not target guns, so tiny groups dont matter much.
So load just one, and just shoot it into a dirt pile, then load another, and another, till the guns tells you to stop and back up a bit. Then try a 3 shot group at a target.

Neat stuff yobuck, that is some interesting info.

Did you have good luck with the 7-300 back then in the hunting grounds? Do you remember your longest shot?

Well first i need to make a correction as to Huntington, his name was Fred, not Al, and he later started RCBS.
Als last name was Freeland, and he was also well known in the shooting world back then.
As for the 7x300 Wby, yes it was and still is one of the better long range cartridges in 7 mm.
Its as simple to load as running a standard 300 Wby case thru a 7x300 die in order to neck it down.
It was sorta pushed aside when the 7 mm STW came along due to that becoming at least for awhile a factory offering. But balisticaly they are pretty much identicle.
The 7 mm ultramag has a slight edge velocity wise over both of them, assuming it is loaded to its max of coarse.
We have killed lots of deer over the years with the 7x300 Wby, and many of them were shot by kids.
My personal longest with one was 1200 yds, but i would be recommending more gun for shots that long on large animals.
When the 180 gr Bergers came along we bought a box and compared them to the 162 Hornady for trajectory out to 1200 yds.
In both the 7 ultra mag and the 7x300 Wby the 162s took less clicks on the scope at 1200, no doubt due to initial velocity diference.
So there is a correlation between B C and B S. at least to some point.
And that point is further than we should be using 7 mms.
And 6.5s also i might add. lol

Great stuff! Thanks Yobuck, I run a 7mm Mashburn Super myself, so it's cool to hear about the old big 7mm's of the day.

I'm going to tag in here. I bought a 6.5x300 Roy a few years back on a deal and still haven't shot it yet. I was thinking it would make a decent old school pre range finder type flat shooter. With 140 partitions about 3300 it would work well in my old desert deer area where things happen fast usually at 300-400 yards. Don't always have time for a rangefinder and running shots are common. I got some decent bucks down there with a 264 win on longish running shots.

Bb

Sierra’s second edition, 1985, gives loads for H870 and H570 with the Sierra 140 Matchking, Fed 215 primers. No velocities are given. These are loads used by Frank Weber who set the 1000 yd bench rest record 8.468”. He used 80 grs of H570 for the record.

H870
Starting 82 gts and up to 84 grs.
“Up to 86 for hunting” Sierra’s words

H570
Starting 79 grs and up to 81 grs.
“Up to 83 for hunting” again, Sierra’s words

Frank Weber is now a very old man and in poor health.
He is also one year younger than me. lol
But he still shoots 1000 yd competition at the Williamsport club.
He was part of the group that became my mentors when i started long range hunting.
He had a 6.5x300 wby on a Sako action built by Alex Hoyer when i first met him.
When i had my 7x300 wby built i didnt have a click chart for it.
Frank gave me a copy of his for the 6.5, and said it should be pretty close to your gun.
And you know what? it was very close, and its still varnished to the top of my old bench.
I dont know anybody today who is using a 6.5x300 wby for long range hunting in Pa.
About 10 years ago i decided to try a 6.5x300 WSM, and it gave very good velocity as well with 140 gr bullets. Pretty much the same as my 7x300 with the 162s.
But they didnt hold up at distance as well as the 162s, so the gun found a new home.
That was the problem with the 6.5s initially, and time hasent changed that.
They are all good to a point, after which you need bigger bullets and more powder.

As for the heavy gun record at Williamsport.
Frank Weber had an (unofficial) group record at Williamsport very early on using his 6.5x300 wby.
However, the first (official) group record there was set by a woman by name of Mary Louise Devito, in the early 70s with a 10 shot group of about 7 3/4”, using a 7x300 wby built by Howard Wolfe.
In the late 80s, Frank set a new record of roughly 3.5” for 10 shots with a 308 Baer, which is a 340 wby case necked down, and built by Bruce Baer.
The current 10 shot record is now about 10 years old, and shot with a 300 WSM, and is about 1” smaller than Franks now roughly 30 year old record. Most of the guns used back then had Unertl scopes on them also.
So this is the actual reality of just how far the long range accuracy world has progressed over the last 50 years. At least as for the heavy gun 10 shot groups.
But if we just listened to and read what people are saying, we might not be getting the entire story would we?

I worked mine up to 89 grs of US869 with 147 Eldm. I d think upper 80 s on charge will be good for 140-150 gr bullets. Work up to it though.

Mines giving 3250 fps which is plenty with a .697 BC!

Your approach is solid.

Nosler lists the 26 Nosler having a capacity of 93.0 gr of H20 (140 - 142 gr bullet)

It also lists the 300 Wby as having a capacity of 92.0 - 93.0 gr of H20 (depending on which bullet is being loaded)