A friend has asked me to reload for his 270 Wby mag. The rifle is a Mark V stainless. He just acquired it and has little knowledge of it's history. He gave me about 50 rounds of brass.

Most of the brass is Federal (FC). Some is head stamped "WEATHERBY 7mm MAGNUM", which I assume is Wby cases made by Norma necked down to 270. They have the Wby radiused shoulder. There is a weight range of 28 grains among this mix of brass.

When I begin loading for a new (to me) rifle, I like to start with 100 new cases, not with a mish mash of unknown crap. However, I haven't much choice here. I'm thinking of doing two ladders with the heaviest brass.

Also, the COAL is huge to the rifling. I know Weatherby uses free-bore, but this is in the range of .205" in excess of the magazine length. Should I seat to fit the mag., which is 3.400"? Surely .200" is enough free-bore. The manuals all list 3.295" as max COAL.

What advice do you Wby fans have for me?

I have loaded for .257, .270 and .300 Wby.

I always loaded them to fit the magazine, and was still WAY short of the rifling.

I have found the data in the latest Nosler manual to be about spot-on.

With incorrectly headstamped cases, you have to assume they were reloaded by someone at some time. And that someone may not have known what he was doing. If I used those at all, it would only be after a VERY THOROUGH inspection, especially looking for incipient separation and neck thickness.

But I doubt I would use them at all.

Weatherby rifles made prior to around 1972 had ca. 3/4" of freebore, later rifles have ca. 3/8". Yours is the latter. I load all mine to the length shown in the manuals - even then my .257 Accumark aggs in the 0.6s with decent bullets.

I have used 7mm Weatherby cases reformed to .257 without problems but all were from the same lot. I would not use the brass you have for anything approaching max loads without sorting because the weight range is just too great. The best route is to buy 100 cases from the same lot...perhaps easier said than done.



.

Inspect all his brass for possible separation problems. When sizing Weatherby brass it's very important to not push the shoulder back too far. Always adjust the sizing die just like you would on non-belted brass to just push the shoulder back enough to freely chamber. If you don't you will only get 3-4 loads before cases will stretch just in front of the belt and you will get a case separation. Have the case headspace on the shoulder and the belt. Freebore won't allow you to get the bullet close to the lands. Load to manual specs for oal. Follow manual data and don't push the limits especially loading for someone else. Federal brass is heavier than factory Weatherby brass. Heavier than Weatherby brass requires a reduction in powder charges.

I would toss the Federal brass and have him buy new Norma or Weatherby brass. Yes they are the same, but the Weatherby is usually cheaper. if he gets 2 boxes you can get a load worked up first time through and neck size all the cases afterword. then he will have good brass for his gun and you don't have to worry about case failure and feeling bad and all that. What I have found having loaded for many 270Wbys is that TSX and TTSX are easy to group small as well as Ballistic Tips and Partitions. The VLDs are very difficult, at least in my experience to get to shoot. RL22 is a great powder for this case. Congrats to your buddy, he has found a killin machine!

quote:

Have the case headspace on the shoulder and the belt....

This is really silly, you can't have both. Headspace off the shoulder, ignore the belt. My belted cases last a LONG time.

IME Weatherby barrels usually give better accuracy using bullets with long bearing surfaces. This means non-boat tails and higher weights/longer shanks. Not that others won't shoot, just that they are easier to obtain good accuracy.



.

Brice,
If you have trouble finding 270 Wby brass, use a matched lot of once fired 7mm Rem mag. brass and a good quality case lube. Just run the case thru the sizing die and you will get a good double radiused shoulder. I did this for my 7mm Wby when Wby brass was almost impossible to find.

The necks will be a hair short but I do not like to trim brass anyway and not worried about premature throat erosion as I don't shoot the rifle much. The shorter neck does not seem to affect accuracy or performance to any significance. At least you will know what kind of brass you're working with and it will be more uniform.

Geoff

Have loaded for the 270 Weatherby, 300 Weatherby, 340 Weatherby and the 375 Weatherby, one piece of advice, forget how much freebore the rifle has and load to suit the magazine and go shoot some groups, you will be pleasantly surprised.
My 375 Weatherby has 1/2" of freebore, it consistently shoots clover leafs with all bullet weights and is superbly accurate with 300gr Woodleigh PPRN bullets.
My 270 Weatherby is just as accurate even with it's 3/8" freebore, just load it at book length and go shoot.

Cheers.

+1 on Geoff's advice, too.....

quote:

If you have trouble finding 270 Wby brass, use a matched lot of....7mm Rem mag. brass and a good quality case lube. Just run the case thru the sizing die and you will get a good double radiused shoulder......

The necks will be a hair short but I do not like to trim brass anyway.... The shorter neck does not seem to affect accuracy or performance to any significance. At least you will know what kind of brass you're working with and it will be more uniform.