One of the guys I know hunts elk every year with the 257 wby and speaks very highly of it. He has taken a bull a year for the past 20 years or so with the 257 wby, so it must be adaquate.
I'd sure be using a super-premium bullet in it if I were to tackle game that size with a .257 Weatherby. 115 grain Barnes-X, 120 grain Swift A-frame, or similar.
I've read from several authors that the .257 was Roy Weatherby's favorite, even though the bullets in his day weren't constructed to hang together at the velocities which the cartridge is capable of generating.
Now that we have "super bullets" (Ross Seyfried term) capable of maintaining their integrity at those speeds, we typically see any .257 cartridge as too small for elk. I just find the irony interesting.
The account I read of Roy W. and the buff indicated he stumbled across it at close range and put the bullet between the eyes. I penetrated enough to get the brain, and it was "lights out"!
Bill, I agree that the bullets the Wby cartridges became famous with were nothing fancy by today's standards. What we didn't hear was how many of them broke up on the massive muscle & bone of elk-size and larger creatures.
Today, we can make better use of Weatherby (and other hot-rod) cartridges because we have bullets tough enough to penetrate well on big critters.
John Haviland wrote an article for Handloader's digest awhile back regarding success on deer and elk with the 25-06 and Nosler Partition or Speer Grand Slam bullets. He had a standard quality 100 grainer break up on deer shoulders at 25-06 speeds, but had great success even on elk with those 2 bullets,
i read the same article about roy using a 257 on a cape buffalo. he did it out of self defense. he had followed something he had shot into some trees or bushes and came face to face with a pissed off cape buffalo. i think he head shot it. thats the only way i can imagine stopping a cape buffalo with a 257. before that incident his P.H. was calling his rifle a pea shooter. i think the article was in the 93 or 94 shooters bible. they did a big write up on 25 cal. i had a 257 weatherby when i lived in montana a few years ago. i never got the chance to use it on an elk but it turned mule deer off like a light. i used 100gr. barnes. cant remember the velocity.
I shoot a .257 Wby and love and respect it tremendously. I have a great load with a 120 gr. Nosler Partition, and I have no doubt I could kill an Elk with this rifle. Yes you can push the envelope and kill anything in the world with it, but doing it safely and smartly is the question. I also shoot a 7mm STW, 7mm Rem, .300 win and I use the later three as my backup rifle for Elk, after having killed several Elk with the .300 Win. My .340 Wby or .358 STa are my main Elk battery after witnessing hundreds of Elk taken. Thousands of Elk have been killed with .22's, .243's, the 25's and they have also been lost by the thousands to those rounds. The better round for the big bodied animals are 160 gr. and up to 250 gr. and be tough enough to penetrate deep or through the animal. I have Elk hunted a long time and have seen the good, bad and ugly for all chamberings of rifles. A little common sense goes a long way, and makes for a happy ending hunt. Good Shooting.
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[This message has been edited by phurley (edited 05-10-2001).]
A close of friend of mine has been to Africa 4 times and has also shot Elk. He has used 300 Wby, 7mm STW and 257 Wby. All were used with Barnes X bullets.
He tried both 90 and 115 grain X bullets in his 257 Wby.
The 257 Wby worked well.
How well. He has now made up a 2nd 257 Wby and his most successful load was with 90 grain Barnes X.
On lighter game the 115 Barnes X did not work so well.
His last elk was shot with the 90 grain Barnes X and that is what he used on his last trip to Africa. In Africa he used it on animals up to kudu, wildebeeste and zebra.
Mike
Posts: 7206 | Location: Sydney, Australia | Registered: 22 May 2002
A friend of mine shot a elk a few years ago with a 257 Weatherby Magnum using 100 Nosler partitions. The elk dropped at the shot! The first impression was impressive, however, when we field dressed and skinned the elk we saw that the bullet had made several turns and did some very strange things. The bullet appeared to bounce around inside the elk. Although the bullet made a mess of the insides of the elk I am much happier if the bullet plows a nice straight line!
Good morning, In the fall of '66, I took a six point bull in the Selway/Bitterroot area of ID with a 257 Weatherby and factory 117 grain ammo. This was a Hornady roundnose. The range was less than 30 yards, the bullet nicked the right front leg, low, and distroyed the heart, but was in so many pieces that none was recovered. The bull went 100 yards and dropped. I was 20 years old and have always considered myself lucky. I haven't hunted elk with that rifle since and consider 7MM Rem as a reasonable minimum cartridge and now use rounds such as 9.3x62, 300 H&H and 340 Weatherby. Good shoting.
257 Mag on elk, huh? Well, check the books and find out how many elk have fallen to the 25-06. They are many in numbers. My own uncle took his bull elk at well over 200 yds with his 25-06. Dropped dead right then and there. And he was shooting Sierra Pro-Hunters. He hit the elk right through the lungs and it was bye-bye elk. the guide estimated the elk weighed well over 700 lbs on the hoof with a more than adaquate 5x5 rack. Call that small? If one chooses his shots wisely and puts the bullet where it needs to go, a good sized elk can be dropped quite dead with a 257 mag.
