300 weatherby MkV and accuracy

powdergun

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I have an older MKV weatherby ( early 70's )in 300 weatherby in the safe. I've never really worked with it and have not found a really good accurate load although it shoots reasonable with 180 gr speers over IMR 4831.

I was just wondering what grain and types of bullets other MKV owners have tried and what the consensus might be as to what may work best.

BTW: I know all about bedding, scopes, mounts, pressure points, .......etc...... Just wondering what kind of results folks have been having with bullets.
 
I have a love/hate with my 300 wby Mark V. Sometimes it seems to be a tack driver, and sometimes it decides to start flinging bullets like a shotgun. No rhyme or reason to it. I strongly suspect it is my reloading and shooting, but I prefer to blame the gun. When the gun is behaving, I have achieved averages in the 1.25"-1.5" range. Not great, not terrible. I am still searching for that mystical sub-1" load.

My current load is using Reloader 22, and a 200 gr. Nosler partition. Initially I had zero success shooting 180 bullets, so I moved to 200gr due to the longer bullet and the amount of freebore Weatherby's are known for. I think I am going to give accubonds a try.
 
Yeah, mine likes long bullets too. I seat them out quite a ways and back off the powder from book max by a grain or so. My Vanguard is more accurate than my Mark V was, but kicks like a beast so when I shoot in the MOA ballpark I call it done and put it back in the case.
 
I run H-1000 with 200gr Nosler partition. Max load in the Nosler manual gets me 3060fps from a 24" vanguard, shoots an inch at 100. Also run H-1000 with 178 A-max.
 
The common 26" pencil thin barrels on the MK V rifles don't normally perform well with long shot strings. Attempting to define your Weatherby's worth by its group size is a little unfair as it was never intended to be a match rifle. These things are pure hunting rifles designed to fire only a round or two from a cold barrel to complete their mission. Once more than 3 shots are fired, you can expect the group to open up, hence Weatherby's 3 shot accuracy guarantee. So think of accuracy in a different way. Instead of a 3 or a 5 shot groups, fire two rounds at the target, and measure how far they are from your intended point of impact. Keep the target size realistic, and your .300 will perform admirably well beyond a quarter mile.

As an aside I recall a fellow shooting on the next bench to me when I lived down south and shot at a small range just north of Winnipeg. He was shooting a MK V in .300 Weatherby while I had a M-700 .30/06 topped with a cheap Bushnell 3-9X scope in Weaver rings. He had very nice equipment, an expensive bench rest, and a high end micrometer, the ones that look like a C clamp, for measuring his case head expansion, but he was driving himself nuts trying to keep 5 shot groups under an inch and a half and was getting frustrated in that many of his groups were closer to 2" than 1". I was happily banging away 165 gr Hornadys pushed along by 4831 equivalent bulk powder from Ammo Mart, shooting off a wobbly stack of sandbags and for the most part my groups hung around an inch to an inch and a quarter at the 100 yard line. The Weatherby guy finally threw up his hands and stormed off saying he couldn't shoot with the disturbance of my muzzle blast. Funny, his muzzle blast didn't effect my shooting. Anyway, his problem wasn't with his loads, his bench technique, or his equipment. His problem was simply that he had an unrealistic expectation from his rifle, an expectation by the way, he would never be put to use in the field.
 
In its good days, my Jap Mk V, with a Brown stock and bedded with capsrews torqued and a Near rib solidly capscrewed on would shoot the 3 shot sub-moa all day. It loved 180 gr ballistic tips over 84.5 gr I7828 set out to the mag length. It was a great long distance rifle with it s 6-5 - 20 VX3 with the custom reticle (pre Boone and Crockett).
Awaiting a new bbl transplant to see if there is new life to her.

My left handed friend with the same rifle (original wood stock- but bedded) did not shoot well with everything but flat base bullets such as 180 gr partions. With those bullets it is sub-moa over 3 shots as well.
 
German made Weatherby's have excessively long throats and if you hand load use at least 180 grain bullets and seat them out as far as you can.

Japanese made Weatherby's have a shorter throat and in all likely hood shoot more accurately.

Under the best conditions you shouldn't really expect much better than 1.5 inches for a 3 shot group... plenty good for hunting.

Many custom 300's have been built that shoot 3/4" and better...
 
I have had a few 300's and they would shoot under 1" if i did my part. They were not as old as yours and if yours is German then you may have a lighter barrel and longer throat. I would try 180's and 200's seated out as far as you can.
 
My son has a German made Weatherby and it shoots 1/2 groups with 84.5 grains of IMR 7828, Norma brass, Federal 215M primers, 180 grain Nosler Accubonds. Volocity is at 3,236 fps and it kills whitetails pretty good!
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