Guy Miner
Master Loader
- Apr 6, 2006
- 17,871
- 6,463
Another rifle being passed through the generations. In a month or so my youngest son will be given the old, and much appreciated, .257 Weatherby mag that was my grandfather's rifle. The Mauser action came home to California after WWII. Grandpa had it barreled as a .257 Roberts, for ground squirrel, coyote and deer hunting right after WWII. His two sons fought in the Pacific during that war BTW, one a Marine the other in the Navy.
Story goes that there was a pesky ground squirrel at home on a granite outcropping that Grandpa just couldn't seem to hit with the .257 Roberts. He'd heard of some upstart gun maker down in southern California name of Roy Weatherby, and sent the Mauser to him in about 1947 according to my father. That's likely a rough date, but who knows?
Bolt face was opened up and the rifle was re-chambered for the then very new .257 Wby. Grandpa also got some dies and laid in a supply of .300 H&H brass as there was no factory .257 Wby brass back then, just like there was no Weatherby Mk V action either. The brass was shortened, necked-down and blown out to fit the new chamber with those cool double-radius curves.
After a sight-in session, the pesky ground squirrel was abruptly terminated and the quote from Grandpa is reported to be "There's a three hundred dollar squirrel."
The rifle went on to be used by Grandpa, my Dad, my uncle, and eventually me. It produced a stunning series of one-shot kills on pretty much anything hit. There was some wild handloading done with that rifle back before there was much in the way of reliable data. Dad has another story about a 3 or 4' cheater pipe being used to open the action at one point in the mid 50's or so... Before my time..
Dad is here visiting, and confirmed that next month when we get down to his place, the old rifle will become John's. I haven't shot it in 20+ years. It has a newer 3-9x Leupold on it currently. I wonder if the old 2 or 2.5x German-made scope is still around somewhere? Last time I looked down the barrel a few years ago, there was still some rifling left - starting about 1/3 the way down the tube as I recall... Might need a quick re-barrel if it doesn't shoot well for us, but it was doing pretty good 20 years ago and hasn't been shot much in the intervening years.
Looks like the teenager may well be hunting with a 63 year old Mauser/Weatherby this fall. At least for bear, he still likes that 35 year old 6mm Remington for deer hunting. For now. I'll wait and see after he tries the .257 a few times.
Story goes that there was a pesky ground squirrel at home on a granite outcropping that Grandpa just couldn't seem to hit with the .257 Roberts. He'd heard of some upstart gun maker down in southern California name of Roy Weatherby, and sent the Mauser to him in about 1947 according to my father. That's likely a rough date, but who knows?
Bolt face was opened up and the rifle was re-chambered for the then very new .257 Wby. Grandpa also got some dies and laid in a supply of .300 H&H brass as there was no factory .257 Wby brass back then, just like there was no Weatherby Mk V action either. The brass was shortened, necked-down and blown out to fit the new chamber with those cool double-radius curves.
After a sight-in session, the pesky ground squirrel was abruptly terminated and the quote from Grandpa is reported to be "There's a three hundred dollar squirrel."
The rifle went on to be used by Grandpa, my Dad, my uncle, and eventually me. It produced a stunning series of one-shot kills on pretty much anything hit. There was some wild handloading done with that rifle back before there was much in the way of reliable data. Dad has another story about a 3 or 4' cheater pipe being used to open the action at one point in the mid 50's or so... Before my time..
Dad is here visiting, and confirmed that next month when we get down to his place, the old rifle will become John's. I haven't shot it in 20+ years. It has a newer 3-9x Leupold on it currently. I wonder if the old 2 or 2.5x German-made scope is still around somewhere? Last time I looked down the barrel a few years ago, there was still some rifling left - starting about 1/3 the way down the tube as I recall... Might need a quick re-barrel if it doesn't shoot well for us, but it was doing pretty good 20 years ago and hasn't been shot much in the intervening years.
Looks like the teenager may well be hunting with a 63 year old Mauser/Weatherby this fall. At least for bear, he still likes that 35 year old 6mm Remington for deer hunting. For now. I'll wait and see after he tries the .257 a few times.
