257 wby where would you start?

[nitis]

As many of you know I have a new 257bee on its way where would you start on working up a load for.

Ideally I want to get 2 loads one light one heavier but lets not get ahead of ourselves.

I have 110 ab 115 gr bts and 120 gr partitions to start with.

I would like to try RL 25 or Retumbo as I already use those powders but I am not so closed minded I cant try something else I also have some 7828 and 4831 and 3100

My theory has always been if you find a weight that the gun likes you can get most any bullet of said weight to shoot with a little tweaking.

Barrel is a 1-10 twist 26"

I am not opposed to 100 grs other than I would really like alittle more weight for longer range Muledeer I have a few BTS I can try.

I also hunt locally here and want to use this rifle so I Kinda want to stay aaway from the explosive BTs as the little blacktails dont have much meat to pare where I hunt.

So Are the ABs less explosive? Are the partitions tough enough? What else aside from a barnes would you reccomend? I just dont trust barnes.

 

[Divernhunter]

For mine I am going with PAR bullets. The BT bullets are not stout enough for me at that speeds except for pest control. The AB would also work better than the BT bullets for game. I am using the 115gr PAR bullets now but may try the 120gr PAR bullets also. Powders are 7828 and IMR4831 as well as RL22. I do not have any RL25 or retumbo to try yet. I will run these over my chrono then tweek for accuracy as needed. I will probably also try some 100gr PAR bullets as I have them for my 25-06 and 257Roberts. My rifle will be here this week and will have a leupold mounted on it.

 

[GB300wm]

My best luck with 100-110 grain bullets, IMR7828. With the 115's, H1000. H1000 really performed stellar with the 115's and velocity's stayed very consistent in hot or cold weather. RL25 worked really well with the 115's too, but was really temperature sensitive. Good luck with your load development. :grin:

 

[FOTIS]

The 110 AB or 115 Partition will fit the bill nicely.

 

[Desert Fox]

I found that IMR 4831 is an ideal powder for this round. 63 grain on Weatherby Brass and Federal 215M primer pushed the 115 Barnes at around 3200 fps.

 

[nitis]

I keep going back to the 115 Partition and AccuBond

Anyone load any light bullets with any success? say 75-90 gr range? I kinda want to use it for lazerbeam dogslayer

 

[Guest]

I've not loaded for the 257Wby, but I have a friend who has, and he provided this guidance a while back on a load question I forwarded to him:

On the 257 with 100 grain Tsxs, coincidently that is my favorite load at the moment. Ive taken a mule deer and 4 pronghorn with it and am completely satisfied with the TSX.

I tested a bunch of loads and found 72 Grains of Reloader 22 over a CCI 250 primer, bullet seated so you can see the top groove of the first band on the TSX bullet to be my most accurate load. Velocity is 3607 fps and groups ran around .600 Man does this load shoot great in my rifle. Much better than the 4831 and other powders I tried.

I will say that 7828 might be a little slow for that bullet. If he decides to shoot 115s Reloader 25 is the only powder he should consider.

Hopefully this is helpful. Obviously, all loads should be considered unsafe in any rifle until you work up from 10% below, carefully. I know you know this, nitis, but you also know why I have to say it!

Take care, and enjoy the rifle. It won't be long before you're extolling its virtues far and wide, I suspect.

 

[nitis]

anyone got any input on using retumbo in this round?

I am going to concentrate on the 110s and 115 ballistic tip for development. I am confident I can find a 100 gr load down the line

I am almost wondering if I shouldnt just go straight forward and try the barnes? Its just a matter of time before all of this state has to go no lead

 

[hardpan]

hi there,
69gr of IMR 7828 shoots in both my 257s with 110 go AB,

66.5 of IMR 4831 shoots touching groups, it is above max load

imr 4831 with 120 gr partitions is a touching group for my brothers 257.

My gun does not group retumbo as well as I would like.

One more thing, I have the Coal out to 3.392 not 3.335 as the book mentions
Hardpan

 

[nitis]

Well I have 7 loads and a total of 50 rounds loaded!

Everything from 90 gr sierra hps to 120 gr partitions

I did for grins size a 7 mag brass and was surprised how well it turned out only thing off was it had a short neck!

Pick her up on friday hopefully she will be shooting good by sunday!