Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters What powder does Weatherby use??

AggieDog

Care to elaborate?

Maybe Remington will take them over and that should guarantee that only 1 of the 9 lugs bear <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

Mike

MIke, I heard that from a guide over in the Paso Robles CA area. Atascadaro, CA, home of Weatherby, is only a few miles from there. That's all I know, and I did say it was a rumor. Personally, I hope they are OK, as I happen to like the weatherby cartridges, and probably would own several of their rifles if I could free up the cash.

AggieDog,

I just posted a duplicate of your two postings on AccurateReloading's Africa forum and their Big game forum as exposure will be much greater than the tail end of this thread.

Mike

Man, what a thread! I think I can shed some light on the original question and to the ensuing discussion. Weatherby uses NORMA MRP powder for their loads. If you find an old Weatherby Guide, the factory equivalent loads DO use MRP and they match pretty well the POINT OF IMPACT that corresponding factory loads print using both Hornady and Nosler Partitons, the only bullets loaded by Weatherby back then. Keep in mind that the Weatherby Guide went out of print in 1984 so the newer cartridges are not listed. However, the 30/378 Weatherby was used by Elgin Gates as far back as 1959. It's in his book, Trophy Hunting In Africa. Weatherby just chose not to release it back then.

Also as previously stated, the bullets used by Weatherby in 1984 were just two, the Hornady Interlock and the Nosler Partition, so if you try and load say, a Barnes X you might get into trouble and if you read further you might see why.

As far as hot loads in concerned, when I was preparing for my safari in 01, I elected to use 180 gr Barnes Xs FactoryWeatherby loads in my 300 Weatherby, producing less than 1" groups ( I bought 6 boxes all the same lot numbers). In July ( temp 92 deg here in Jacksonville), I took them to the range one more time to check zero. The bolt locked up, needing a rubber malet to open. The primers was blown. I tried one more with the same results. I immediately called Weatherby and they asked me to send them the ammo which I did and they replaced it with 180grain Factory Hornady ammo. No problems with those. I kept a few rounds of the hot stuff and will make it available to anyone that cares to analyze them. Weatherby NEVER did get back to me on their analysis. My conjecture is that Weatherby used the same powder charge for the Barnes X as they did for their Hornady and Nosler Partition tipped ammo and the pressure was excessive. I have continued to use Weatherbys and Norma MRP ammo, I just limit myself to Nosler Partitions and Hornadys and feel totally comfortable. jorge

We have some very bright minds working way too hard on theory above.

The complete facts should be known first.

In the mean time can someone list the causes of gun blow ups in order of frequency?

Something tells me that the guy with the bolt in his neck didn't care whether it was the locking lugs or the bolt handle that gave out.

Relative to the rumur, that is all it was a rumur. Sorry if I started a flight over it. For the record, I would own nothing but Mark V's if I could afford it.