If you had to use the 257 Weatherby on something bigger than deer, what bullet would you use? Thank you for any replies.

I'd probably try the swift a-frames in 120 gr. I use the 100gr. for deer and they've worked well and give good groups. I've also used the barnes triples in 100 gr. for deer with great performance and groups. I believe there's also a barnes in 115 gr, but it's flat based not boat tail.

I think anything from swift, nosler or barnes that you can get to shoot well will be fine. How heavy of an animal are you going after?

Not realy going after anything, mabey an eastern Canadian moose if I were to draw a tag, which is less tenaichous of life than the elk. I know the margon of error is very small. Not sure if I would try it, just wondering what to use if I had to. I was thinking along the same lines as you for bullets. Wonder why Barnes chose 115 and not 120?

Because a barnes x 120 grain 257 is about a foot long I have loaded up the 115's for elk and in my addmittedly limited experience with them out of a 25/06 would have no qualms about penetration. If it was all I had I wouldn't feel to bad about using the 100 grn triple x out of the 257. If you are carefull. Sure there are much better choices if you were to do it on a regular basis I would get something else. However if it is a one time deal and it is all you had then go for it.

Double check me on the barnes weight, but I think it's 115 gr. That's probably all they could get of a solid copper bullet, without it getting too long. The barnes are all LONG bullets.

I'd probably feel fairly comfortable taking a moose with a 120 gr. .257 WBY. For me that would be pushing it a little for that caliber, but at least a moose can't scramble off as fast as something like a Kudu or eland. I'm not saying that they can't move fast once you've thrown the lead, but....

I might be tempted to shoot the 115 TBBC but some weatherby rifles don't shoot long bullets due to their slow twist rate.

Make sure you have one of the newer 1-10" twist instead of the older 1-12" twist.

Leo M, I almost always shoot my .257 wthby. I have killed deer, elk, antelope and my buddy shot an oryx with his. I shoot the 100gr Barnes triple shock and it's deadly. Dont think that because it's only 25 caliber that its a weenie!!........wapiti7

Twist rates for the Mark V changed to one-in-ten in 1973 about a year after production moved from Germany to Japan.

I'm still shooting up some 100 grain Barnes XLC's then I'll try the triple shock. Mine likes 120 grain Nosler partitions though too. With either of these bullets I'd feel comfortable taking big game (bigger than deer).

Keith

100gr TSX for every thing!!!
Dr B

Is there any particular reason other than speed or the boat tail that you like the 100 grain TSX over the 115 grain? I would have thought the extra weight would be better.

According to Barnes literature, they recommend that you use the next smallest bullet weight, then what you'd typically use for that species.

I don't think a 257 is legal in Ontario or Quebec for moose. Quebec always used to require .30 and Ontario had a 270 as the minimum. Check the regs as they change regularly before committing to a rifle. (all the experienced moose hunters I know except me use a 300 magnum of some sort)

I would pick up a box of barnes triple shocks in the 100 grain weight and the 115 grain weight and which ever shoots the best use them. Either will work very well in big game. They penetrate very, very well.

Leo M, the 257 wby relies on speed and shock for it's awsome preformace on large game. The major problem it had when first introduces was the lack of a good controled expansion bullet. so hunters used a heavy for caliber bullet to slow it down and help prevet bullet failure,this was only partialy effetive while loosing some of the shock. The Nosler partition soved some of this problem but thsy loose 35% - 40% of their weight thuse reducing penatration.
When barns developed the X bullets, both the problem of bullet failure and penatration while mataining velocity were solved. Randy brookes has continued to improve the X bullets with the new TSX.

I have been hunting with some form of the X bullet for the past 11 years I have always used light for caliber bullets and have never had to shoot a animal twice and only one has travled out of his tracks ( about 15').
So in MHO load them Light and Hot and you will love the results.
Dr B

I just wanted to share some of my info with you.
72gr RL-22
100gr triple shock
fed 215 primer
I would only use the weatherby or norma branded brass, it's high but worth it. I had a lot of trouble with the fed. nickle plated .257 brass. I had excessive pressure and the plating seemed to get shaved off inside the casing. Anyway, I've killed a lot of critters with this load and they drop dead real fast! Good luck....wapiti7

quote:

Originally posted by Mikelravy:
I don't think a 257 is legal in Ontario or Quebec for moose. Quebec always used to require .30 and Ontario had a 270 as the minimum. Check the regs as they change regularly before committing to a rifle. (all the experienced moose hunters I know except me use a 300 magnum of some sort)

To my knowledge, Quebec never had a .30 cal restriction on Moose. The .257 is perfectly legal for Moose in Quebec.

I used the 120 grandslam on the last two elk I took. This wasn't my first choice, but the gun loved them. Both were one shot kills and neither Elk took a step, so I can't complain about the results. The one bullet I did recover lost about 60 percent of its weight and obviously hit a rib on the way in.

I got some 115 barnes TSX to try in my 257 wby. I think they would do good for larger than deer game.

I'd go with the Barnes TSX bullet first.

I'm shooting a 284-25 wildcat, with incredible accuracy from the TSX (100 grains).
They were at least 50% tighter groups than the next best bullet (and I tried quite a few).

They perform well on larger game too.
With your larger case capacity, I'd go with the heavier bullet (which I think is either 115 or 117 grains).

Good hunting,
Garrett

wapiti7

That's the exact load I use in my .257, 72 gr RL22 and the 100 TSX. This load is over 3600 fps in mine and trajectory is about like a .220 Swift. This is my favorite load for antelope and beanfield whitetails at long range.