Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles 300 Weatherby OAL?

I have a 300 Weatherby Mark V that I am starting to reload for. The rifle is German made if that makes a difference. I loaded a few rounds yesterday with the 168TTSX and found that the bullet doesn't touch the lands even with a OAL over 3.9". The magazine will accept rounds up to 3.7" in length but they are a little to long to get in the mag easily. I ended up seating them to 3.61". That puts the front edge of the top groove right at the case mouth. I figure if I need to crimp them that length will work out well.

How do the Weatherby shooters decide on OAL? Does it help accuracy to fiddle with it? Or is it just about function through the action?

I'll be interested to hear how this one turns out.
G

Got an old Classicmark 1990/1991 IIRC, anyway I always have set COL's in Wby rifles to function in the mag. and have room to eject loaded rounds.
The COL on my 300 WBY is 3.650 w/ 200 gn. NP's @3150 w/ Retumbo powder, just an FYI in case You ever want to try a different load, this is a very accurate, consistent, and brutally effective load in my rifle.

Gunner

edit: spelling

The OAL length is only important if you want the cartridges to work through the magazine. There is also no need for a crimp.

Weatherby's are free bored, at least I assume they are. So yes, you can 'fiddle' with seating depth and possibly find a load that is more accurate than another load with the same components but with a different seating depth.

That has been my experience with my Weatherby. The most accurate load I have found is too long to function through the magazine, so unless I want to use it as a single shot, I have to seat the bullets slightly deeper.

This causes groups to open up slightly, to about 1 1/4", but I don't spend a lot of time worrying about it.

I have your rifle but Jap made and it is a real shooter with the 168 TTSX, IMHO the best elk load made by man! Yeah, got on my fireproof's! Back to the subject. No way to get close to the lands and be comfortable with seating depth that will hold the bullet in the neck! Thus i load mine to 3.58 with a 3.60 magazine. Load for mine is 84 gr RL 22 and Fed 215 mag primers. work up to this load. It shoots little bitty holes in my rifle, good luck on yours.

Since you did mention that it is a West German, I doubt if you could even touch the lands in the barrel with a seated bullet. I have a number of Weatherby rifles, LH WG's, one Jap LH .240, and a set of LH Accumarks made in the USA. In some of the WG's there is over one inch of freebore, if you had a French Brevea (sp) Weatherby it's barrel would have more freebore than that. IN OLDER WEST GERMANS: the magazine is generally the limiting factor on OAL. I am not guessing at this, I have been loading for my Weatherbys since the fall of 1970 and have worn out twenty something barrels in the Weatherbys alone.

You might even gain some info on your WG Weatherby from Weatherby, but don't mention you ever heard of me. After Roy passed away, I would call to find out when they were going to be running a run of left hand rifles off and they would commonly hang up on me. I guess they thought I would go away, but not so to this day. Now a days, I just find LH's in Gun Digest and the Weatherby Collectors Association (another good source) for Weatherby info.
Good shooting,
Marcus.

The ammo needs to work through the magazine as it will be a hunting load. While the magazine will handle 3.7" it is a little difficult to thread them into the magazine at that length. Don't want to have to fumble around reloading if my fingers are cold and stiff.

My rifle has an aftermarket barrel but it does have a looong throat. The original owner used 180 Hornady flat base bullets and 84 gr.IMR7828 seated at 3.59". The rifle is scary accurate with that load and I killed a cow elk with his ammo. I just want to load a little stouter bullet. I loaded starter loads with IMR7828 and RL-22. So I will see how it goes.

If Weatherby is stamped on the barrel, it will be rare for one to ever touch the lands with even the heaviest of slugs. I've take them out to about 1/8 inch of neck grip on several cartridges, and found that near full seating in the cartridge neck gives the best accuracy. With Weatherby factory loads, I think one would be on dangerous ground if the slug was touching the lands.

A friend recently worked one (300) up, and IMR 7828 was the cat's ass. Same powder works the best in a 240 of mine. I could not get Reloader 22 to really come around in the 240. I have some other cartriges too that I want to give 7828 a go in. Let us know how it works out please.

I have a 7MM STW that was originally a 7mm Bee. Have the same issue even with the barrel set back one thread. I load at 3.640 AOL for my best accuracy. Mine likes H-1000.

I finally tested my starting loads for the 300 yesterday. The barrel had a copper mine in it! I soaked and scrubbed for two weeks to get it clean. That and deer season held things up.

I tried 82 grains of both IMR7828 and RL-22 with the 168TTSX and Fed 215's. COL was 3.61" to 3.62". Velocity with the 7828 was a little under 3100 FPS and the three shot group was close to 5". That was probably because I forgot to tighten the set screw on the height adjustment screw on the bench rest. The "group" had very little vertical dispersion. I should retest it.

After I tightened the set screw the RL-22 clocked just a little over 3100 FPS and made a 1.1" three shot group. I have room for more powder with both loads. Since the RL-22 shot as well as it did I am going to work that one up a bit more and leave the 7828 be for the time being. Barnes data shows a max of 3381 FPS with RL-22 but I will be happy with 3200 or so if it is accurate there.

FWIW...there is probably no perfect answer to your question. I have alot of wby's and many perform well at near "clip" length. That said I probably shot out 25% of the barrel on a 300lw trying virtually every credible hunting bullet and slow powder only to get horrible groups at 200 and 300 yards.
THEN I SET THE BULLET much deeper in the case...at least .100 and shazam the gun starting shooting great.
If I had to give you advice I'd say start at near clip length....if you can't quickly find a combo set the bullets deeper in the casing.

You might want to check out Wipeout bore cleaner. It's a foam. If you can put the rifle in a horizontal rack overnight, you squirt it in the bore, let it sit, and it'll take the copper out without all that scrubbing.

Mark you may find that 7828 load does as well...but don't baby it....run the loads up to what the cartridge is capable of giving....under 3100 with a 168 in the 300 Weatherby is well under what the case can do.

Many larger capacity mags shoot best run at full throttle.Good luck

Many applications of Wipe Out went into that barrel! Also scrubbing with JB and bronze brushing. There was layer after layer of copper and carbon. That barrel was the worst I have ever cleaned.

I hear you Bob. The reason I may not push it is I had a bad concussion last year and recoil aggravated the symptoms for a long time. I still have some symptoms. Because of that, I put off load development as long as I could. I am going elk hunting in a month so I am being careful.

Oh.....got it....

I am about done with this one. Went to the range today and tested 84 and 85 grains of RL-22 and 168TTSX seated at 3.615". The 84 grain load averaged 3227 FPS at 15' from the muzzle. I did not hold onto the forend and that was a mistake. My three shot group was a diagonal string almost 2" long.

I held onto the forend for the 85 grain load and got an .8" three shot group. The first round in the string clocked 3264 FPS which is what I expected. The last two went about 3212 which was puzzling until I noticed that the shadow from a tree had moved off the Chrony. I can check velocities again when I tweak the zero.

Playing with overall length might improve the groups a little but what I have now will kill an elk at any range I will shoot. This is the easiest rifle to get to shoot that I have worked with in a long time.