# 257Wby Called Me Out Of The Woods



## beartooth (Feb 18, 2007)

I was so cold this morning and the wind changed and started blowing from the wrong direction. So I got up and went to the Wardens station (he is a friend of mind) and ask him what was the best place since there has been so much logging going on. He showed me three places and two are awesome, covered with sign and I will be hunting them this weekend. Also showed me a cut over that is about 610yds across and said he has seen bucks just now start moving the does and that my 257Wby would be perfect for that cut over. I sure hope this year gets better. This year to date I have only seen three does. So I thanked him and turned to go back hunting when at that moment my cell phone starting vibrating.

Yes, the gun shop called me and said my 257Wby had arrived. The 257Wby called me out of the woods. I went straight back to town and picked it up. I will be at the range in the morning shooting the reloads I have already made up and will know what pill to put in it for this weekend.

Here is the 257Wby Accumark and the Leupold VX-III 4.5-14X50mm












































*
Will post results of tomorrow morning at the range tomorrow afternoon.*


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## MN goose killa (Sep 19, 2008)

thats a nice gun. how much did it run u?


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## beartooth (Feb 18, 2007)

Including scope, over 2,000.00 including tax.


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## MN goose killa (Sep 19, 2008)

ouch! i bet that would make a big hole.


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## beartooth (Feb 18, 2007)

As I said I would, I went to the range this morning to get a load ready for hunting this weekend. Now that is really something to accomplish when you have only 6 loads using 6 different powders with the 100gr TSX and all 6 loads are 1% under max recommended by Barnes and at the same time guessing at the OAL 3.133" from past experience with the 257Wby. Plus doing all of this knowing I only have a 2 hour window with weather this morning to try and come up with an accurate load that is at least 3600fps or above so I can go hunting.

I used MRP, RL-25, RL-22, IMR7828, IMR4350 and H4831. Now all 6 loads were under 1.169" and MRP being the fastest at 3620fps and also the largest group. IMR4350 was to slow 3355fps but .968" and H4831 a little faster 3424fps and was .924". RL-25 was 3604fps and .845" but it's extreme spread was to great.

Here were the two that preformed the best:

First, IMR7828 was 3608fps with an extreme spread of 11fps and three shot group size was .427"


















Second, RL-22 was also 3608fps with an extreme spread of 9fps and three shot group size was .414"


















Well, all I have to do is pick one and then load them up and go shoot three to make sure scope is sighted in at 100yds.


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## beartooth (Feb 18, 2007)

After Hunting season I will begin to work on a very accurate load and I will be trying H1000 but Retumbo I think would be to slow a burner with the 100gr bullet although I could be wrong. I will focus on RL-22, IMR7828, H1000. I believe my seating depth is fine. Will only neck size my brass and hope to tighten my groups with a little powder charge adjustment in 1/2 grain steps. But for now I will hunt with what I tried and because of a little luck ended up with acceptable hunting accuracy.


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## beartooth (Feb 18, 2007)

I have loaded a box of ammo for my hunting with the 257Wby and I have chosen IMR7828 for reasons of experience with both powders. I think over the box of ammo I will find consistency with the IMR7828 as apposed to the RL-22. I liked the way the group printed and that gives me confidence that it will do the same down range. Now, time to hunt. Will start this Sunday and hunt Monday, Tuesday, Wed morning. Then I will leave for a special white tail hunt in South Louisiana the following Sunday evening and hunt for four days. I will stomp around in the mud and fall in love with the swamp all over again since I was raised in Louisiana.

This has been the most disappointing year when it comes to finding a good buck. I think I am beginning to panic but I am still having more fun than a man should be allowed to have.


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## MN goose killa (Sep 19, 2008)

good luck, have fun!


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## beartooth (Feb 18, 2007)

Thank you for the thoughts.


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## snowslayer (Feb 4, 2008)

Nice rifle. its price is a little steep. But at least it shoots good.


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## StretchNM (Dec 22, 2008)

Beartooth, that's a beautiful rifle! The camo pattern and color look refined and classy - I don't think I've ever seen that color before.

What are the ribs or grooves in the barrel?

Also (since I'm trying to learn about scopes and rings), what are your rings, medium or high?

Thanks. (I'm looking at the pines in the background and thinking that's got to be Georgia...)

Merry Christmas!


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## beartooth (Feb 18, 2007)

StretchNM said:


> Beartooth, that's a beautiful rifle! The camo pattern and color look refined and classy - I don't think I've ever seen that color before.
> 
> What are the ribs or grooves in the barrel?
> 
> ...


Stretch, the ribs serve three main purposes. They make the surface area greater, so , 1. Allowing quicker cooling of the barrel, 2. Allowing the barrel to be lighter, 3. Allowing the barrel to be ridged helping in controlling the barrel harmonics (what some people call barrel whip). If this is done right it increases accuracy potential.

I have high rings so I can use the Leupold VX-III 4.5-14X50mm and allow my objective to clear the barrel.

My back yard is in Mississippi


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## NDTerminator (Aug 20, 2003)

Covet, heavy on the covet (but in a LH action)...


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## beartooth (Feb 18, 2007)

NDTerminator said:


> Covet, heavy on the covet (but in a LH action)...


I here ya


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## Csquared (Sep 5, 2006)

> Covet, heavy on the covet (but in a LH action)...


Too bad you shoot from the wrong shoulder, Terminator, or this would have your name all over it !

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewIt ... =119253236

But for less money you can have a better barrel added to your 7 mag and switch back and forth in just a few minutes.

It's only money.......you'll make more :wink:

:beer:


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## beartooth (Feb 18, 2007)

Well I took my 257Wby hunting today after I went to the range this morning and sighted in my loads. All I saw on the at gas line from 12:30 to 5:30 was three crows and two rabbits.

I really got motivated because a person in our shooting club said, "freebore is not accurate". So last night I decided to use once fired brass and neck size them, making sure all my brass was the same length. I measured the wall thickness of the brass neck to make sure they were the same and I weighed every 100gr TSX and made sure I only used those that weighed exactly the same. My OAL was 3.1335" and I cleaned my barrel and when I got to the range this morning right after light I fired 5 fouling rounds and then fired three shot group of my hunting load which was 73gr IMR7828. The fouling loads were 100gr TSX load I had left over using IMR4350 and MRP. It took 1 1/2 hours to fire the 8 rounds because I let the barrel completely get cold again before the next round was fired. Here is the three shot group hunting load with a little brass advertisement to boot.










Of course freebore will affect accuracy if you are not careful. I don't think I will have to spend a lot of time this spring tweaking my load for my 257Wby Acuumark. When seasons over I want to take an hour and fifteen minutes to shoot a five shot group with this load.


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## Burly1 (Sep 20, 2003)

Another vote for a left handed Wby. A Vanguard would be my choice. I have no experience with the .257, but have been shooting a #1 in .270 Wby Mag for a few years now. with the right bullet, it's a fantastic rifle for all reasonable distances. 
Burl


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## StretchNM (Dec 22, 2008)

Beartooth, I have a little short story for you....

THis morning, my daughter and I went out ot the range to sight in my new 700ADL. We shot 20 rounds and got it pretty close. We also took her .22 and my mini-14 out just to keep them from getting arthritis. We had the 200 yard range all to ourselves.... that was nice.

It had snowed during the night and was extremely cold so we wrapped it up early. As we were getting packed up, a guy pulls up and starts setting up. He had all his stuff out and his rifle in the bench rest. My daughter (she's 10) says "Dad! Look at that cool rifle!) I look over and see this fluted or grooved barrel just like yours!.... with a stock _exactly _like yours! I couldn;t help going over and striking up some talk.

Guess what caliber? .257 Roberts! I believe it was a magnum cartridge but he said something about Roberts and modified for Ackley and I didn;t quite understand it all. It had a 2.5-14x50 Leupold or something (I think I remembered the powers right, maybe not). He says he ordered the barrel from a gunshop up north of us. Since the stock was for another gun, he had to rework it for the barrel to fit and float. It had a Mauser action and a bolt that he tig welded the lever onto. I couldn;t even tell, it was so well done. He tells me he hasn;t fired it yet and he's going to fire one round, clean, fire, clean, and on and on. I told him I didn;t do that with mine! He said it'd be allright.

He said he liked shooting 1000yd matches. Since I'd never seen a .257 fired before, I wanted to stay and watch for awhile, but my little girl was freezing and we'd already told mama we'd be home at a certain time.

Anyway, I wish I'd had a camera. It wasn't a Weatherby, but otherwise it was a spitting image of yours!


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## Csquared (Sep 5, 2006)

Sounds like he had a .257 Roberts Improved. If so, it's not quite a fair comparison to Beartooth's Wby. It can shoot the same bullets, but somewhere around 400 fps slower.

Also sounds like he was there to break-in the barrel....and I don't know if you want to initiate that conversation or not? 

Congrats on bringing your daughter up right. I would love to find a woman that said "cool" when she saw a rifle. But the ones I find only react that way to jewellery! :lol:


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## StretchNM (Dec 22, 2008)

You're right on both accounts, Csquared. I'm pretty sure it was a Roberts Improved and he said his only goal today was to break-in the barrel.

My little girl started out with my .22 cal pellet gun and now she's up to a .22 LR  . She served as my spotter today - using 7x50 Fujinon binos! This was her first time around "big" guns and we went through the entire safety list and range etiquette. She stood behind me and tothe right, and never once complained about noise or concussion.

We're there alone, and she's itching to go downrange and take a closer look at just exactly that 30-06 is hitting (I told her earlier that's what we'd be doing, and what we'd do if there were other shooters at the range). So she says "Shouldn;t we call for a cold range, Dad?" I was pretty proud of her! (((  )))

That rifle _looks _alot like Beartooth's, though!


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## beartooth (Feb 18, 2007)

StretchNM said:


> Beartooth, I have a little short story for you....
> 
> THis morning, my daughter and I went out ot the range to sight in my new 700ADL. We shot 20 rounds and got it pretty close. We also took her .22 and my mini-14 out just to keep them from getting arthritis. We had the 200 yard range all to ourselves.... that was nice.
> 
> ...


Hey thanks for the story and I see that you and your daughter had some fun. She is lucky to have a dad that spends time with here. Thank you again for taking the time to tell the story. It sounds like he has a 257 Roberts Ackley IMp.


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## beartooth (Feb 18, 2007)

Csquared said:


> Sounds like he had a .257 Roberts Improved. If so, it's not quite a fair comparison to Beartooth's Wby. It can shoot the same bullets, but somewhere around 400 fps slower.
> 
> Also sounds like he was there to break-in the barrel....and I don't know if you want to initiate that conversation or not?
> 
> Congrats on bringing your daughter up right. I would love to find a woman that said "cool" when she saw a rifle. But the ones I find only react that way to jewellery! :lol:


Maybe his daughter will develop a different attitude about guns and her husband will be one of the lucky guys. :lol:

I think Csquared you are right when you said in reference to barrel break-in, "I don't know if you want to initiate that conversation or not?"   Not on this thread please


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## beartooth (Feb 18, 2007)

StretchNM said:


> You're right on both accounts, Csquared. I'm pretty sure it was a Roberts Improved and he said his only goal today was to break-in the barrel.
> 
> My little girl started out with my .22 cal pellet gun and now she's up to a .22 LR  . She served as my spotter today - using 7x50 Fujinon binos! This was her first time around "big" guns and we went through the entire safety list and range etiquette. She stood behind me and tothe right, and never once complained about noise or concussion.
> 
> ...


StretchNM, that is so cool about your daughter already understanding and acting on range safety. Hey, how did the 30-06 shoot? I am a fan of the 30-06 for sure.


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## StretchNM (Dec 22, 2008)

Allright you guys, I respect knowledge and experience, but that only goes so far! Don;t go marrying my daughter away! She's only ten and I won;t allow marriage or even dating until she's 25!!! (((  )))

Beartooth, the -06 did just fine, I think. I have several rifles (Marlin 1894 .44mag, mini-14 LEO, mini-30, SKS, and a Marlin Glenfield .22), but no long-range high-powered rifles like this 30-06. Years ago I bought and sold a 700BDL 7mm mag, but that's been 23 years now since it was gone, and I never shot it much or killed anything with it. So.........how did the rifle shoot? I liked it but I'm not the best judge!

There were some older fellows hanging out kicking snow around when we arrived. They recommended I start at 25 yds, then move out to 100. So, that's what we did. To dial in the scope at 100 yards, I think I had to come down about 32 clicks! and about 16 clicks to the left. Then, from there, I was able to zero it in with finer adjustments. I borrowed a bench rest from the range - that helped alot. Plus, my little girl's eagle-eyes were a help. I had these targets from Walmart that help you see where you're hitting, so that was probably the biggest help. You guys probably know all about them.

Next weekend we'll go out and work some more on it. I believe I'll work on perfecting its "zero" at 100 yards, then start practicing at 50, 150, 200, etc so I know how much variance I'll have....at least with these rounds I'm shooting - Winchester CXP2 165 grain pointed soft points. We saved the brass because I hope to start reloading.

I don;t want to change the thread with barrel break-in, but I'm starting to get concerned that I shot mine for 20 rounds and didn;t clean it in-between. I did clean it well as soon as we got home.


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## StretchNM (Dec 22, 2008)

You guys will probably have a good laugh at this, but at this point in my life, maybe that's what God put me here for..... 

Here are my targets. You can see the large target in the background that's covered by the two black targets. At the top, there are 4 rounds - those were the first 4 (out of 5!) fired from the 100. So I dialed it way down (32 clicks and 16 left) and shot the 4 in the lower-left quarter. From there, the next group is the one nearest the center. I had one round leftover, so I fired it at the unused target. I don;t know if I just wasn;t dead on, or if I did something wrong at the last second, but the shot was pretty far off.










I have another box of the same ammo, but I wanted to save that for next weekend.

Anyway, that's how my sight-in went...  I'm sorry for hijacking your thread, beartooth, but I really just wanted to tell you about that cool rifle I saw, and it kindly went awry from there....


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## Csquared (Sep 5, 2006)

> You guys will probably have a good laugh at this, but at this point in my life, maybe that's what God put me here for.....


The only thing worth laughing about is your sense of humor ! :beer:

Looks to me like you're doing fine! I gotta wonder what you're setting the scope for, however, since most often you would want your shots to print somewhere between the 2 and 3 above the bullseye at 100 yards.



> I won;t allow marriage or even dating until she's 25!!!


Good luck with that !!!!!!!

At the risk of starting something here, don't worry about your barrel. I've mentioned this before, but trying to "break-in" a factory barrel is as futile as trying to keep the valve stems pointed in the same direction on all 4 tires of your truck!


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## StretchNM (Dec 22, 2008)

Csquared said:


> ..................................
> 
> Looks to me like you're doing fine! I gotta wonder what you're setting the scope for, however, since most often you would want your shots to print somewhere between the 2 and 3 above the bullseye at 100 yards.
> ........................................
> At the risk of starting something here, don't worry about your barrel ................................


That's what I need the experience of guys like you and beartooth, et al, for: Are you thinking i shoauld zero it at, say, 200 yds, then compensate for the difference if I take a shot at 100? I was figuring the reverse, but I don;t really know which is right.

Also, that's a relief about my barrel. Thanks


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## Csquared (Sep 5, 2006)

You'll get differing opinions here (imagine that  ) on how to zero a hunting rifle, but assuming it's a deer rilfe, if I can get my bullet of choice to 3000 fps I typically set my scope to be about 2"-2 1/2" high at 100 yards, then just center the crosshairs on the deer's chest at any reasonable range, whether that's 30 yards or 300 yards....and the deer dies. :wink:

You'd have to determine the "point blank range" of the load you're actually shooting, and you may find that 2 1/2" isn't quite high enough, but for me it usually works to over 300 yards. I like to hit critters *IN *the shoulder, and high, so I tend to let the crosshairs climb a little if it's approaching 3 football fields away anyway.

But do your homework if you want to shoot critters farther than 300 yards. That's where the men are separated from the boys....so to speak. Anyone who's spent much time shooting prairie dogs knows what I mean. :wink:


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## beartooth (Feb 18, 2007)

You have not high jacked this thread, I am enjoying the conversation and fellowship about what we all like and that is guns, shooting, reloading and hunting. Yes, your humor is cool and that is the only thing I am laughing at. It is good to have good humor. I agree with Csquared that you should sight in your 30-06 at 2 1/2" high with the 165gr bullet and you should be able to hold your cross hairs on the center of the body mass that the deer offers you in the kill area and pull the trigger and hit him out to 300yds without the worry of hold over. Actually your shooting is not bad at all and it would have killed a deer at 100yds. Just sight your rifle in as we mentioned and your good to 300yds on a 10-14" kill area.


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## KurtR (May 3, 2008)

Dont worry about cleaning the bbl until accuracy falls off. More bbls are ruined by over cleaning than by being shot out. Every shot you use for breakin is just one less on the bbls life. Breakin is BS.


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## Csquared (Sep 5, 2006)

> Breakin is BS.


Hey Kurt, I think it's safe to ask now since not much is happening on this thread lately, but I'm curious where you got your info and if you meant that the way you said it or if you were also only talking about $20 factory barrels like I was.

We've had that discussion here before, and although there's no shortage of opinions, as far as I've seen no one has explained why the opinions vary so much within the industry.


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## KurtR (May 3, 2008)

Alot of it is from the information i have got is on snipershide.com and then just from the guys that build the precision rifles. from what i gather break in is more of a preferance than actually needed and more damage is done to over cleaing a bbl than anything else. There is alot of good info on there from guys with real world experience. I have 2 friends that bought the same remm700 at the same time one guy real anal and thought it had to be broke in cleaned after every shot and such. the other guy just set the gun up and shot cleans it when it starts spreading groups out. Both guns shoot the same.

If we are talking stuff people need to do to make their rifle better, glass is the next subject we could go to.


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## Csquared (Sep 5, 2006)

Kurt, your example using 2 factory 700's shows what we agree on....factory barrels cannot be "broken-in" simply by shooting a few rounds. It would be like trying to turn an oak tree into a dining room table with only a chain saw and 150 grit sandpaper! :lol:

But hand-lapped aftermarket barrels are a different subject. You mentioned Lilja, and in that we also agree. I have several, and love 'em all!

Here's what Dan Lilja said about barrel break-in in the March 2000 Precision Shooting magazine (it's posted on his website)....



> It is important to break-in a barrel though. The jacket material must be removed after every shot during the initial few rounds. If this isn't done the areas of the barrel that fouled will tend to pick up more fouling and it will build on itself. It is important to get a layer of powder fouling on top of the lands & grooves. This hard deposit will prevent the copper from stripping off the bullets. However, if the internal finish of the barrel is too rough the barrel will never be completely broken-in and fouling will always be a problem. Some barrels can't be broken-in.


The argument has been made here in the past that barrel makers spread that "BS" solely to increase sales...so the barrel will be shot out sooner. I don't buy into that logic because the method Lilja recommends takes only a dozen or so shots. In fact, my gunsmith, who's a personal friend of Dan Lilja, firmly believes most of his barrels are broken-in closer to the 9th shot.

This is an argument I would love to get into with those guys on snipershide, but the problem is I couldn't win! I have no way to prove my case, but I do know that if you were to try the method described above you would_ *SEE*_ the break-in occur. The first shot will leave enough copper to turn a Sweets patch very, very light blue. After 3 shots you shoot a 3-shot group prior to cleaning and there is usually a slight blue tint to the patch. However, by the 3rd 3 -shot group the patch will come out white as snow (after the powder fouling is removed, of course).

So although I cannot explain how a soft copper bullet can do what it does...the results don't lie!


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