Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Is the 257 wby worth it?

I am trying to decide on my next hunting rifle and I am trying to weigh the pluses and minuses of the .257 wby and .25-06. The country will be west texas and the critters will be Audad, Mule deer, and Antelope. The guns are .257 weatherby vangard s2 and the 25-06 would probably be a model 700. I know the .257 gives you some extra juice but it squeezes it out of your wallet. What do you guys think?

Do you reload? If not, 25-06.

I was in the same position last year, had it narrowed down to those two, and wasn't really sure. Caught the Vanguard s2 stainless on here for a great price, bought it, slapped an FX-3 6x on it, took it to Colorado and took my first antelope. Having said that, I still lust after the 25-06. Not an expert opinion by any means, but I'm still glad I picked up the .257, factory ammo is expensive, but what the hell...............now I'm lurking on here waiting for the perfect 25-06, because I clearly still need one. How's that for a non-answer?

Have a 257 Weatherby in a S2 Lazerguard and it makes for one heckuva whitetail round. Flat shooting, makes range estimation out to 400 yards or so kind of a moot point.

Engineering up from the 250 Savage and down from the 257 Bee brought me to a 257 Roberts, so I took the plunge and bought a 6.5 Swede!

The Weatherby is a death ray.

I have both but bought my 257 weatherby before I discovered RL-17 now the only reason I take my wby is because I feel like I have to because I have so much money tied up in that rifle.

Even if you reload the Weatherby will be more expensive because the brass costs more and it takes much more powder. Also, the weatherby often needs a longer barrel than the 25-06 to reach those published velocities.

One example is the 115gr Nosler BT I'm using in my 25-06. In the Nosler manual it shows a max load of 49.0 grs of IMR 4350 yields 3095fps w/ a 24" bbl.

The "bee" max load w/ same components is 59.0grs at 3115fps using a 26" bbl.

10grs of powder and 2 more inches of barrel to get 20 fps more velocity. Worth it? No, at least not with that combo.

All that said, I still find myself wanting to get a "bee". Why? Who knows? This loonie stuff can drive you loonie!

That's an anemic load, and not a good example of the lazer flat trajectory that can be attained with a .257 WM. With 110 gr NAB's I can easily get 3450 fps. 100 gr TSX's? Try 3600 fps. 80 gr TSX's? Faster yet.

20fps advantage? Maybe with that load that you mentioned, but generally 200+ fps faster.

More powder? Hell yeah. Brass cost more? Yep, but it's not for shooting praire dogs either. Once you get your load and sighted in, how many rounds are you going to shoot yearly?

If I'm gonna run a shortened, necked down Holland case, I want a wider bullet.

From my experience since I found RL17 with which I can get 3500 fps in my 25-06 with a 24" pipe using 100 gr ballistic tips how much faster do you need to go? There comes a point where there is nothing gained no matter how fast it is out the gate

No I someone came out with a heavier long range type bullet that would stabilize in the 10 twist there could be an advantage to using the bee but I can't get 120 gr partitions to group in mine.

I dumped a ton of cash and bought a Christensen arms in 257 wby I wish I had just done the 25-06 in all honesty as I still reach for that ole 700 classic a lot

Is the Roy worth it? For me definitely. I have and use both. But............if I had neither, a 25/06 would probably be all I'd need

Both of those cartridges are going to work. That was easy!

How about looking at your Rifle selection. To me the rifle that is going to be a part of you is more imporant than a caliber choice.

Do the Rem and chamber it in 25-06AI... You'll be a happy dude all around..

Nope. Rifle model is far more important.
If you have to spend money, buy some better glass.

stumpy

If I had to do it over and still wanted a 25 cal, I'd likely go 25.06AI. When I had my 257W built, I wanted the 100gr TSX to haul @ss - and the 25.06 simply didn't haul nearly as fast.

im getting almost 3800 fps with a 100 gr tsx out of my vanguard.
its a bit hot, but no loose primer pockets yet, and on 3 or 4 loadings on a few.
brass can be made from 7mm mag.

Antelope tags in Oregon are hard to get, pretty much have to hunt out of state if we want to do it often. (I'm on 17 years and still waiting for the tag I want.)

However, the thought of a 100 grain ballistic tip scaring 3800 excites me "somewhat." I'd imagine that'd pretty near chop a coyote in half.

Tom

.257 Wby!!!

Short answer: yes.