I have been working on a load for a friends .257 Wby. Jap. thyat he had bought used. I recrowned the barrel, steel and pillar bedded the action, set the trigger at 3lb. and hand lapped the bore.

The brass is WBY/Norma, bench rest prepped. Federal Gold Medal Match Magnum primers. Break-in was shoot one, clean one for 11 rounds, then every three until 20 are done. "Wipe Out" really speed this process.

First bullets were Nosler Partitions 120 gr. First powder was RL 22. 67 /67.5 /68gr respectively. Velocities were 3286 up to 3330 in the end. 2" groups on the average.

Second loads were H1000. 70 /70.5 / 71gr. respectively. Same Nos. Par. bullets. First load had 1" group and they opened up as we went up. 3300 to 3350 fps were the averages.

Third powder was IMR 7828. 66.5 / 67gr. respectively. Same Nos. Part. VIOLA!! Under 1/2". If you throw out the first round from the clean barrel 3/8" center to center group. The next load printed the same. The velocities were 3300 to 3328 average.

I did this load again and added the Swift A-Frame bullet since I wanted to give him a bullet that had a better chance of holding up.

The Nosler bullets grouped as previous. The A-Frames were a wonderful surprise.

At 67 gr. the 120 gr. Swift was moving at 3310 avg. At 67.5gr, it was trucking at 3350. 5 shot groups were measured at a little over 1/4'" at 100 yards. This gun liked a barrel that is slightly fouled by 5 shots. All rounde were loaded at O.A.L. of 3.250. I just neck sized and bumped the shoulder back 2 thousanths. Very light crimp.

This gun and load combination was a real challange and I wanted to thank those that had submitted ideas a while back.

Stay safe and shoot straight.

Cheers,

Sam

Fantastic
good luck

fyi--I had a 270 wby that was not impressed by most bullets. Did OK--but nothing much under 1.5". Then Midway had a deal on some swift 140 a-frames. A full house load of 7828 would push them at 3300 and it will shoot 3" groups at 300yds with a 10 power hunting scope. A very very potent combo for shooting almost any angle into any north american game. AND I found I could load them down to about 3000 fps and still have great accuracy for Wis. whitetail. Glad to see your good luck with the same bullet. For such a high quality "tough" bullet they can really really shoot.