.257 Wby Bullet Question

Ltsheets

Ltsheets

Very Active Member
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So I just bought a .257 Wby, a caliber I wanted a long time ago but wouldn't buy until I reloaded. Now that I reload and have one, I'm starting to think about what kind of bullet I want to pick for this rifle. I've been very happy with 130 and 168 gr Barnes TSX in my .270 and .300WSM and am leaning towards a 100 gr TSX for this gun. I am also considering an 110 gr Accubond, 115 gr Partition, or even maybe 110 gr Hornady Interbond. This rifle would primarily be a Deer and smaller gun but I want the bullet I chose to be usable on Elk out to 300 yds or so if needed too. I don't have any worries about a 100 gr TSX on an Elk but don't have much experience with the other types of bullets on an animal that tough. Any thoughts and opinions will be greatly appreciated.
 
I'm a 257 WBY fan, I own two. but it's not an elk round. sure, if you use the right bullet with perfect placement it will work. same can be said of the .22 rimfire. be very careful.

The TSX and partition work great.
















Stay thirsty my friends
 
I knew an old timer that killed a ton of elk with a .243. It was all about shot placement. If we can kill'm with our arrows you can kill'm with your rifle. Think more in terms of an archer for shot placement. Double lung them or quartering away angling straight from where you are to the opposite side front leg to get the correct angle through the vitals. Shoot the heaviest bullet you can find that works for you.
Good Luck.

))))------->
 
I'm curious why you're so against the 257 with say a 100gr barnes when it comes to elk? I compared a 130gr barnes in .270 (which most I think will agree is plenty for elk) to the 100gr barnes in 257 and the 257 actually carries more energy than the .270 all the way out to 500...which is much farther than is intend to shoot an elk with a 257. The 257 would not be my first choice for elk for with myself or my wife but if the 270 I got her has too much recoil, I'm thinking the heavier 257 will be the next best option for her.

>I'm a 257 WBY fan, I
>own two. but it's
>not an elk round.
>sure, if you use the
>right bullet with perfect placement
>it will work. same can
>be said of the .22
>rimfire. be very careful.
>
>
>The TSX and partition work great.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>Stay thirsty my friends
 
This has been beat to death a thousand times around here, but my opinion comes from seeing lots of people shoot lots of elk with lots of guns and lots of bullets. depredation tags on my property, often with poor shooters and poor choices in equipment.

I will not give permission to hunt my property with anything less than a 270 and 150 gr bullets I don't care if it's a 12 year old dwarf doing the shooting that's not my problem or the animals fault. I've seen too many lost animals, I want them havested I don't to just make leakers out of them.

I am not saying a 257 WBY, or even a 243 won't do the job, I'm saying there is no margin for error. and very few of us are incapable of error. that's all I'm saying.

In my opinion a 300 magnum with a 180 gr partition is the best elk medicine ever developed. obviously bigger is better, but I don't need it for my hunting.

My advice if you choose to hunt elk with light bullets is shoot like an ethical bowhunter and accept your limitations. it's all good if you're willing to do that. and for deer sized game, you've got a gun that's hard to beat.














Stay thirsty my friends
 
Thanks 440. I appreciate your opinion and wasn't trying to start an argument. I just wanted to hear your reasoning and what you've said makes sense to me. My personal elk rifle will be my 300wsm and I bought a semi-custom .270 for the wife. I loaded 168 and 130 grain barnes respectively so I feel like both of those will be more than adequate for most Elk opportunities. I just wanted to try and figure out the limitations of this new .257. It will mostly be for sheep/mulies and smaller type game. Thanks again.
 
Those are just my opinions based on my experiences sorry if I seemed argumentative.

If you use a premium bullet on 115-120 gr in your 257 you'll be happy. forget the 100 gr bullets those are for vamints. I've tried every 100 gr bullet in my German MkV because it's twist won't stabilize anything heavier. it's not impressive.







Stay thirsty my friends
 
I killed my first couple deer with a .257 Roberts with a 20" barrel with 100 grain reloads at probably very mild velocity compared to the .257 Wby and it killed em dead fast! But it destroyed meat while it was doing so. I can't imagine what those 100grainers would do to the eat at Wby velocities?

I think 440's advice is spot on here. You'd probably be wise to take it.

Bill

People who work for a living are quickly being
overwhelmed by people who vote for a living.
 
I'm really leaning towards the 110 gr accubond if I can find them in stock anywhere. That's proving to be a little difficult.
 
Another great bullet is the 115gr Nosler Ballistic tip! Load them over Rl22 or IMR7828 and you wont be disappointed.
 
How well do those hold together if they hit a shoulder? That's my main concern with the BT's when pushed so fast out of a Wby.

>Another great bullet is the 115gr
>Nosler Ballistic tip! Load them
>over Rl22 or IMR7828 and
>you wont be disappointed.
 
I too would be very much interested in the 110 Accubond if in your shoes. That's even more so now that i shot a buck this year with a 100gr TTSX, be it from a 25-06 and that one buck being a very limited way to form a opinion. The Accubond has just proven itself to me over and over to be one heck of a Boolet!

Yes, i agree, this same topic has been up, down, beat to death. You might try a search here and in the archives. Lots of similar threads... good luck with it!

Joey


"It's all about knowing what your firearms practical limitations are and combining that with your own personal limitations!"
 
How'd the TTSX do? I've shot 2 deer with with the 130 gr from my 270 with impressive results. My main worry with the barnes at those speeds is excessive copper fouling, not bullet performance.
 
Those TTSX Killed em, that's what bullets do. But... here's my thread on my bullet search and some info on how those bullet did there toward the end. One thing though, that i'm not used to, the entry and exit holes were very near if not the same size.

http://www.monstermuleys.info/dcforum/DCForumID22/3646.html#.VFr8exZyk_w

Joey


"It's all about knowing what your firearms practical limitations are and combining that with your own personal limitations!"
 
Yeah the entry and exits on both my deer last year were about the same size as well. Both shots were through the lungs and neither deer went more than 30 yds.
 
The wound channel from a Accubond is WAY different. I killed a nice antelope and Muley buck in Wy, you could stick a heavy broom handle all the way thru yet the surrounding meat was not all blown up. I felt like, before they dropped in their tracks, i could see all the way thru those animals. lol. THAT's a wound channel! lol

I'm probably going to stick to those TTSX for awhile anyway because our State is going lead free after a time and the jury is still out but i'm not used to Bucks taking good solid hits and running off, even if it's only 30 yards!

Joey


"It's all about knowing what your firearms practical limitations are and combining that with your own personal limitations!"
 
About as week ago my wife shot this management buck at 80 yards with a 25-06 using 100Gr. Barnes TTSX going about 3400 fps out of a 28" barrel encore.
It is not Weatherby velocities but it is getting close.
She doubled lunged it, it ran about 15 yards and tipped over.
I have probably shot a dozen deer with both the 25-06 and the 257 Weatherby using Barnes bullets. I have never had a bullet failure or not expand. The original Barnes did copper foul but since the triple shocks the fouling has been not much worse than any other bullet and the accuracy has dramatically improved.

8741mom_deer.jpg
 
projp, Your posts, and other's, are part of the reason that i'll be staying with the 100 gr TTSX. One dead buck is just not near enough to base a general conclusion on though the facts i stated in my animals recovery, about the wound channel and small exits, were true and shouldn't be discounted.

Nice Buck!! Kinda like two different Bucks in one rack. The fronts as they are being one buck and then there's those big nice tall back forks being another. Congrats all around!

Joey


"It's all about knowing what your firearms practical limitations are and combining that with your own personal limitations!"
 
Thanks Joey,
I wouldn't worry to much about the exit hole size.
About half of the deer I have shot dropped within a few steps and the longest one has gone is about 40 yards.
All were lung shots.
In the old days when we lunged them we were happy if they stopped within 100 yards.
 
"In the old days when we lunged them we were happy if they stopped within 100 yards."

Really? That's not my findings at all. Here i'm sounding argumentative but i really don't mean to be that way i'm just taken back that your findings were so different from mine.

When we talk 25-06, i was one of the first to get a factory rifle in that cartridge and i took a lot of bucks both in Calif and out of state with that cartridge, about 20 of my most productive years worth. I used what the stores had on the shelf's for ammo most of the time but one thing was seemed to be a given, hit the buck "good" and he didn't go no where, maybe a few steps backwards at most!

My ol friend and hunting Pard from back then noticed what the cartridge did to deer as well, he hunted with me starting out, and to this day, he has about 4 shooters he hunts everything with, 3 of them, including his favorite Hill Country Custom rifle, are 25-06's.

Did i mention that i'm very color blind and used to hunting very thick country. I want to see the buck drop! The brush patches were so thick where i grew up, you just about found nothing but misery if you ever tried going in there. I liked what the 25-06 does/did to hit bucks. It flopped em! :) Porked em up, but again, that's the way i saw it and what i think of when talking 25-06.

Joey


"It's all about knowing what your firearms practical limitations are and combining that with your own personal limitations!"
 
I should have not confused the conversation.
When I talk about the old days it was in the 60's and our group was not as "into", reloading and bullet selection as we, (I), are now.
A few of the family used 30 cal 180 for both deer and elk. The 180's worked great on elk but did not open up on the smaller deer and we had a quite a few run a ways after being hit due to non expansion. I once saw my brother hit a deer 4 times in a 6" group, (lungs), before it tipped over. True he was a quick shooter and the deer would have died from the first shot but we used to "keep killing them until they are dead".
Even after we started reloading we had some mistakes. My friend once lunged a deer and it went at least 100 yards before expiring. I asked what bullet he had loaded and he said the same one he always used. When I looked at the bullet box he had inadvertently bought the full metal jacket version of the bullet he normally used.
Most of our problems were self inflicted.
The reason I started using the Barnes was that I had a few bad experiences using light for caliber bullets in a 243. The Barnes were the first bullets that I could use that held together.
Sorry for rambling and back to the original topic.
I personally have experienced better bullet performance from the Barnes in 257 Weatherby than my next favorite which was the Nosler Partition.
 
Thanks everyone for the inputs. I think I'm leaning towards giving the accubonds a shot unless I the copper fouling is less than I'm expecting from the barnes. I bought a box of both to try and see how they group but I guess we'll see.
 
Ltsheets,

You will like the little 110 AB. I've loaded one up and me, my wife, and my son have enjoyed the rifle and bullet performance immensely.

I typiclaly shoot a larger caliber but between us we've killed mule deer, blacktails, elk, hogs, and pronghorn with the .257 AB and it performs like AB's are supposed to. It holds together at close range even at screaming velocities and it opens up at further distances. Our furthest shot with the .257 AB was 420 yards and it performed really well leaving a perfect mushroom in the buckskin of opposing shoulder on a buck.

If you are already an AB fan, you know what I'm talking about.
 
That is exactly what I want to hear about the AB.

>Ltsheets,
>
>You will like the little 110
>AB. I've loaded one up
>and me, my wife, and
>my son have enjoyed the
>rifle and bullet performance immensely.
>
>
>I typiclaly shoot a larger caliber
>but between us we've killed
>mule deer, blacktails, elk, hogs,
>and pronghorn with the .257
>AB and it performs like
>AB's are supposed to. It
>holds together at close range
>even at screaming velocities and
>it opens up at further
>distances. Our furthest shot with
>the .257 AB was 420
>yards and it performed really
>well leaving a perfect mushroom
>in the buckskin of opposing
>shoulder on a buck.
>
>If you are already an AB
>fan, you know what I'm
>talking about.
 
LAST EDITED ON Nov-16-14 AT 00:03AM (MST)[p]I have a .257 Weatherby and I reload. I killed a nice (344) Wyoming bull with 120 Barnes TSX using that rifle but I did feel under gunned. However, 3400 fps with a 120 Barnes did the job nicley. I now have a 300 wsm for larger animals and use the .257 for deer sized game.

My current load is a 110 accubod with a max charge of IMR 7828. This is a devistating load and is what I consider a DRT round. It's fun to shoot, accurate, light recoil and gets the job done.

I shoot the 175 Barnes LRX in my 300 WSM.

I like both the Barnes and Nosler bullets. Try both and see what your gun likes best.
 
Thanks Utah...I think I'm going to try the 115 TSX and 110 AB and see which the rifle likes best! You haven't had any issues with enough copper fouling to cause accuracy issues using the TSX have you?
 
Haha well I've got 110 AB's and 100gr TSXs already but haven't had the time to load them or shoot them. Hell, I haven't even had time to get to the range to break in the gun yet! I've got a newborn so that's taken a lot of my time over the past few weeks along with juggling a toddler haha. I will definately let you guys know how it goes once I try them out. I'm hoping to break the gun in this week.

>Lt Dan, Just buy some bullets
>already and try them out.
>
 

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