.257 wby mag reloads....any thoughts on this? PART 3 post 23

117 or 120 grainers may well shoot better, but whether it would be due to less potential jump or longer bearing surface or just one of those mysteries known only to barrels is hard to say.

100 grain NBTs seated to 3.333" are also seated flush with the bottom of the case neck. (Crap I forgot that one) Point being, any COL system other than seating to the lands might have some merit, while seating to the lands won't work at all.

Weatherby cartridges date back to when IMR 4350 was a slow powder, and the free-bore was a way of burning more of the powders of the day without blowing fingers off. My half formed theory and observation is that the 'Bees will often give great results with what my friend Rob calls "Flintstone powders". Things like IMR 4350 and 4831.

I've had quite good luck with TSX bullets in the Weatherby cartridges. Those bullets seem to love to jump.
 
I've been loading my .257 to great success lately. Heres points I've picked up and what I'm using.

Bullet-H414 68.0 I think, (I'm in the bush elk hunting now so can't check for sure), 85grn Combined Technology bullets, Weatherby or Hornady brass, it doesn't seem to matter which, CCI250's.

Gun is a Blaser R93 with a Bushnell Elite 4200 3-12.

Things I've noted.

-I love this cartridge, but when I started out I made what I consider mistakes now, very similar to what you are doing.
-Weatherbys are supposed to have lots of free bore. I was losing accuracy by seating deeper. No guff. Read the warning in several of the manuals. You may be contributing to inaccuracy by seating deeper.
-I used Hornady dies as well. I couldn't figure out why I couldn't get groups when factory ammo was so accurate. I switched dies from Hornady to RCBS with a Redding neck sizer. I have switched out all my Hornsdy dies since and am getting better results on my .223 and .308 as well.
-I use a Lee Factory Crimp, as my bullets are for hunting.
-The H414 has worked well in every load I've tried. Just sayin.
-Brass doesn't seem to matter what brand. I started with Weathetby but I'm using Hornady now. Not noticing any difference.
-Currently I'm getting 1/2 groups out of everything I load. In my case the cartridge seems to agree well with most everything I put in it, but I do tend to load sub-100 grain for speed, haven't loaded heavier stuff very much.

Thats my bit.
 
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Ok guys, so I took the advice.
Got a part box of Barnes TSX off a guy here on CGN, loaded up some IMR4831 (since that is the only load I could find on Barnes website for a powder that I had) seated the bullets out to 3.33o like Dogleg said he does and away we go to the range.....
Nice warm day, almost no wind, did groups of 3 with 2-3 min between shots and 10-15 min between sets. No cleaning.

Obviously this rifle likes these bullets at this powder level, seated farther out a lot better than the SGK with 7828, although I have now found a Barnes load for 7828 so I think I will try some of them (a: because I have some 7828 and b:because I don't have any more 4831)

These bullets are 0.11 inches longer than SGK so there is still plenty of bullet in the case neck seated to 3.330 but there is no way a SGK can be out that far and not fall out of the case. I tried.

So here are the results, THANKS to everyone for the advice. I will work on fine tuning this, so if you have tips on that please chime in.

 
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