Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 264 Win Mag vs 257 Weatherby

What will a 257 Weatherby do that a 264 Win Mag wont. In comparable bullets weights velocities are close and you can go to heavier bullet weights in the 264 over the 257. Trying to decide on one of these two calibers for my next build.Also one plus brass is a lot cheaper.

That's exactly why the .264 gets the edge in my book

There's a huge difference...same case capacities, .007" in bullet diameter.

Both excellent cartridges but the .264 gets the nod with me.

The only thing a .257 can do that a .264 can't do is fling an 80 grain hunting bullet in the TTSX. Whether or not that is worth anything is up to you.

Yea but the same can be said about the 264 you can shoot a 140gr bullet.

Or a 160......

In my mind they are same same til you go long.

I am now a .264 junkie! The bc's and sd'd are some of the highest of all the calibers and there is a bullet weight for almost anything in North America. Probably the most under-rated caliber in existence.

That said, the .257 Roy has absolutely no flies on it. They'll both do the same things very well. Pick your favorite, as you'll never remember the logic only the things you wish you'd have done.

264 for me just because I happen to have a pre-64 Westener so chambered that really gets the job done, that being said I plan on getting a 257, probably in one of the new Vanguards.

The 257 is about 1.2" flatter at 500yds with comparable bullets. Not enough to matter.

Both good carts.

loader: just curious, not looking for a fight...what comparable bullets were you comparing?

.264 Vs. .257?! What decade is this? Wasn't this settled in 1969?

No, and the 270 vs 30/06 wasn't settled in 1925, either.

100grn NBT @ 3700fps for each. It's a wash IMO.

yep, I agree. Cep the 264 is, of course, cooler

Do like I do and own them both! Then you can find out which one is "better" (if that is possible)!

I could do either one, though I have always liked the 6.5 bore better than the .257 myself.

At hunting ranges can't imagine what the difference would be.

The only difference for me is that I was offered a trade for a Roy rather than the 6.5... if it'da gone the other way, I'd have jumped on that, too.

My Vangard is pretty freakin' accurate and squeezes enough from RL22 in that "little" 24" barrel to make it worthwhile over my 257 AI.

I love it.

Oh... and you can easily form 257 WM from either 264 WM or 7 RM brass, so that is a non-issue.

When comparing similary weight for caliber bullets there isn't too much difference out to 500yrds. After 500yrds they start to separate in favor of the .264

Here's a comparison:

At 500yards

.257 115 grn berger bullet BC of .466 drop of -37" drift(10mph) 16.4" 1312 ft/lbs

.264 130 grn berger bullet BC of .552 drop of -41.4" drift(10mph)14.7" 1453 ft/lbs

At 1000yards

.257 drop -253.9" drift 80.3" 559.2 ft/lbs

.264 drop -262.00 drift 69.8" 709.2 ft/lbs

So the big difference is in wind drift. So for me I chose the .264 due to the much higher BC bullets you can get and the higher Sectional Density of those bullets.

Can't go wrong with either one.