Reloading Weatherby Calibres, question

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Milt Dale

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Looking at starting to reload, own a few different calibres including 257 WBY, 6.5x300, 300 WBY as well as 45/70, 270 win, 338 win. I have not bought any reloading equipment yet. Wondering if there is one brand that would work best in particular on the Weatherby calibres. I would not be doing a high volume of reloads more like 20 or so at a time. Thanks in advance
 
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i have been loading for the past 40yrs numerous calibers , including a lot of weatherby i dont think weatherby calibers have any special requirements over any other calibers . a good basic reloading set up should serve you well . the one issue that i have come across
is that the weatherby's i have loaded for seem to prefer flat based bullets over boat tails maybe because of the freebore just my guess
 
Brand loyalty and snobbery aside, any brand of reloading equipment makes excellent reloads. For years I had a dislike of Lee products. Now I like their dies, mostly for the excellent crimp die. You will find very few reloading sets including everything you need, and after a few years most brands will be represented.
 
I've loaded for all the calibers you have mentioned with the exception of the 6.5-300. No major difference between any Wby Mag and most other belted mags. You will go through quite a bit of powder in one sitting but that's expected. I prefer RCBS for dies although almost any brand will work well when used appropriately. However, RCBS has an amazing warranty and stands by their products 100%. Get a good trimmer as well and expect to trim brass quite frequently with large capacity magnums.
 
I load 257 wby. And several other non Bee cartridges. You cannot go wrong with an RCBS rock Chucker Supreme press (other than the lousy primer collection device, but there are good after market ones available.) for dies, I like Hornady, RCBS and Redding.
 
Not sure about the other cartridges that you mention, but the 300 Weatherby is going to be relatively long when loaded, so pay attention to the usable opening or throat size of the presses that you look at. I have a Rock Chucker press by RCBS - it is 3 1/2" from top of shell holder to underside where the die might protrude - will work, but might take a bit of fiddling to remove a loaded 300 Weatherby cartridge, which will typically have a finished overall length of 3.5 to 3.6 inches. Just not enough height there to set a bullet on top of the case mouth for trip up into the seating die, like I do when seating 308 Win, so will likely have to place most of the bullet up into the die before installing the case on the shell holder, then bring them together - bullet will be up partially inside the die.

I hope the picture worked. A 300 Weatherby RCBS seating die set to NOT crimp, a 300 WBY Norma brand case, a 180 grain Speer Grand Slam bullet in the Rock Chucker press. And yes, that bullet is not sitting there "straight" with the case neck. Part of the "fun". Probably would not want a much shorter working space?

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I reload 7mm Weatherby Magnum on my Lee single stage C-press. Yes, even full length resizing. My dies are RCBS, which came with the rifle.

No issues for me.

I also resize 7mm Remington Magnum brass to 7mm WM in this press. No issues yet.
 
My presses are hornady (projector progressive and locknload classic) i load 375 h&h and 460 weatherby in the classic.
I didnt plan this but all my belted cases have rcbs dies and my most of my others are lee.
 
Desjard said:
I was thinking of resizing some 264win mag brass to 257wby, anyone else do this?
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I have not done that particular re-forming, but might want to have a way to check the neck wall thickness when done - of the cases that I have done, when making the neck smaller, it also tends to get thicker - so something to check, especially if the newly formed case is using some of the parent case's shoulder for a new longer neck. If too thick, then the re-formed case will not fit into the chamber with a bullet seated - needs to have the necks thinned - sometimes. Also, when going down in size, the shoulder is often not as "sharp" from re-sizing, as you get after the first firing - you will have to tell us how that works going from sharp shoulder 264 Win to round shoulder 257 WBY.
 
Milt Dale said:
Looking at starting to reload, own a few different calibres including 257 WBY, 6.5x300, 300 WBY as well as 45/70, 270 win, 338 win. I have not bought any reloading equipment yet. Wondering if there is one brand that would work best in particular on the Weatherby calibres. I would not be doing a high volume of reloads more like 20 or so at a time. Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

I use a Lee 1000, or a lyman Orange Crusher for my Wby reloading. My RCBS is too short to comfortably use, and I don't load anywhere near enough of these to set the Dillon up for. - dan
 
Desjard said:
I was thinking of resizing some 264win mag brass to 257wby, anyone else do this?
Click to expand...

I have done it with 7 mm Rem mag cases and it works well. The end case will have a slightly shorter neck than a real bee case, but that is inconsequential. You may have to anneal the necks, if using once fired cases. Be careful not to anneal the shoulders too much, as it may collapse. Any wrinkles will disappear upon firing.
 
pacobillie said:
I have done it with 7 mm Rem mag cases and it works well. The end case will have a slightly shorter neck than a real bee case, but that is inconsequential. You may have to anneal the necks, if using once fired cases. Be careful not to anneal the shoulders too much, as it may collapse. Any wrinkles will disappear upon firing.
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john-brennan said:
I made all of my 257 WM loads with WW 7mm RM brass and never had a problem,they are a little shorter after re-sizing but it made excellent accurate reloads
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Good to know, thanks. Might end up using this Nosler 264wm brass for just that!
 
Nothing too special about loading for Weatherby's, for my 257 I use Hornady/Redding dies, tried Hornady and Nosler brass, the Nosler brass was not great, very soft in comparison to Hornady, extractor marks on start loads and very low velocity compared to the Hornady brass. I only used Nosler in one other cartridge...7mm Rem, and it was fine. Could be a lousy batch of 257 brass made by Federal I got, dunno, but not getting any more that's for sure.
 
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