the .340 Weatherby Magnum...

J

Jeff/1911

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Hi Gents (and I use that term loosely:)),

I have my eye on a used Weatherby rifle chambered in .340 Weatherby...what am I getting into in terms of brass availability?

Also, any comments and/or ravings about this calibre and Weatherby rifles in general are welcome. Please help to feed my "obsession of the month"...:p

Jeff.
 
as long as 375 H&H brass is available for necking down and fireforming you'll have 340 Wtby brass.....or you can neck up 300 Wtby....many ways to arrive at 340 Wtby brass if you can't find any factory stuff....
 
Speer says:

Jeff/1911 said:
Hi Gents (and I use that term loosely:)),

I have my eye on a used Weatherby rifle chambered in .340 Weatherby...what am I getting into in terms of brass availability?

Also, any comments and/or ravings about this calibre and Weatherby rifles in general are welcome. Please help to feed my "obsession of the month"...:p

Jeff.
Click to expand...

The Speer Reloading Manual 11 comes close to condemning the 340 as a Weatherby marketing ploy, crafted to exploit the success of the 338 Winchester Magnum.

At page 273 it reads, “The 338 provides about optimum case capacity for bullets of this diameter and standard weight. Only a few load combinations in the 340 show a worthwhile gain over what can be obtained with the 338. On the average and excluding reduced loads, the 340 burns about 10 grains more powder to gain a 150 fps increase in muzzle velocity. And the velocity differential shrinks to a much smaller figure when the bullet arrives at some distant target.”

It goes on to state that Weatherby’s advertised velocity of the 340 is exaggerated and that the true velocity measured by Speer is approximately 150 fps less than what is claimed. It concludes by saying the cartridge is overpowered for most North American hunting, the brass is expensive, and recoil is heavier than the 338.

I don’t know anything about the 340 myself, having never fired it, nor seen the cartridge. But a coworker of mine had one and loved it. He also said that many reloading manuals do not list the true loading potential of the 340, because it is a rare round that is not often pressure tested. He said it cost too much to pressure test, and the manuals listed extremely conservative figures because of liability concerns. He told me that he was getting great speed and thump with his rifle.

All that said, the cartridge always seemed interesting to me.

Big
 
340 Weatherby

I would say it's a bit larger than needed and you have to love recoil to shoot it on a regular basis. I recall watching a fellow shoot one off a bench in a 1000 meter shoot, it was fun to watch. Bill,
 
Weatherby brass is not cheap,but you can make cases from other brass.As far as the mark V rifle is concerned,I owned two and sold both when neither delivered satisfactory accuracy.
 
Fellows,

Thanks a lot for the feedback, and the benefit of your collective experience. I was wondering whether it was a worthwhile gain over the much more easily available .338 Win Mag ammunition and components.

Jeff.
 
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I just had a Browning BBR that was in 7mm Rem Mag converted to a 340 Weatherby Magnum, this thing is amazingly accurate, yes, it does kick some, but I also have it pushing a 250 Grain bullet out at just over 3000FPS (hence the kick) from a 26.5" Gaillard stainless barrel.

Yes, the brass is a bit pricey, you can order new Weatherby Brass (technically it is Norma brass) from Whole Sale Sports at about $32 for 20 pieces or a box of loaded ammo for $58 to $115 (depends on what you want).
Like other have mentioned already, you can also form your own brass as mentioned earlier.

Good thing for me that I reload, other wise this beauty would cost a small fortune to fire every time. I like this caliber, it's going to be fun.

Some of the older Weatherby chambers had a longer throat than the newer reamers and manufactured rifles of today, this longer throat didn't help accuracy at all, so be careful as to which model and year that the rifle was manufactured, you can seat a bullet out long enough maybe to compensate for the longer throat, but I can promise you that the longer seated bullet will not cycle through the Magazine since it will no longer fit the magazine at a longer length.

Pardon the pun here, but the 340Wby Mag kicks the snot out the 338 Win Mag, but at the cost of about ten grains of powder more than the 338 Win Mag for an additional 150-250 FPS increase in velocity and recoil. Is it worth it? some would say yes (like me, far better ballistics) and others would say no, to each their own.
If your not used to recoil, I suggest that you work your way up from something smaller first, other wise the guns going to engrave it's name into your face.
I've already got the 3 and the 4 engraved in my forehead the 0 is next.:p
 
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Some of the respondents said it well, the 340W'By is in a different league than the 338WM. I used to load my old 340 to close to 3000fps with a 250gr. Nosler and no pressure signs, this is about advertised vlocity from a 338 Lapua Mag. You can make cases from 375H&H or the quite common 300W'by, if you don't want to by factory brass.
Yes it does kick but performance costs....
I think ir was Ross Seyfried that said it quite well whit: If God would have made a cartridge, it would have been the 340 W'by Mag".
When it comes to the Wheatherby Mk V rifle itself, well, that is another story....
 
Overkill in my books. I have tried it in a synthetic stock custom rifle with a sako action and custom barrel years back. Beware, it kicks like a freight train and few can shoot this caliber well.
 
i got bit by thw weatherby bug some years ago and had to have a 340 wea, mk5,deluxe nice rifle i founf nothing really wrong with it except the brass was expesive and sometimes hard to get, dont use remington brass as it not as big inside as the weatherby brass, after 25 yrs i sold it, the .3328 mag is just as good not as expensiove for parts,,wade
 
I had a .340 in a Sako TRGS and the accuaracy was the ####s, maybe 2.5 MOA at 100 yards. But after I put a Shilen barrel on it in the same caliber, man what a rifle. I was able to get 3040 fps with 250 Barnes X, and Swift A - Frames and what a moose/elk thumper. I had a break installed on it and was able to shoot it with a T shirt!!! The best groups I had with it was around .400" and the gun averaged 5/8"-3/4" all day!!

The .340 is a very potent round, the brass wasn't an issue I used Rem .300 Weatherby, and I also bought .340 Norma and Weatherby brass. The cost is up there but if you play it smart you can reload them more than enough times to make it worth while.

I used to load the older brass to max and left them where they fell, when hunting moose and elk I never have the time or I don't remember to grab the brass.

It is one of those cartridges, if you are able to shoot the rifle well, that will amaze you everytime you shoot it!!!

I sold the rifle to a good buddy and I still load for it, the only reason I sold it was to build myself a .338 Swamp Donkey in a Full tactical rifle with a hunting stock and scope to switch when I needed it for rugged terrain!!!

I give it 2 thumbs up (My opinion only)

Later
 
dan belisle said:
"wondering whether it was a worthwhile gain over the much more easily available .338 Win Mag"

Yes it is. - dan
Click to expand...

Hmmmm....you don't say...? :rolleyes:

I went this morning and looked at the rifle in question, and it's a Weatherby Mark V Accumark in a synthetic stock, with stainless barrelled action, 60 degree bolt throw, fluted barrel, hinged floorplate and a removable muzzle brake...for $1195. :eek: ;) :) :D :p It's pretty cool alright!

I'M VERY TEMPTED!
 
dan belisle said:
If you want to try a 340 Jeff, you can try mine (and compare it to a 338 WM too if you want, I also shoot that). My 340 is a pretty lightweight rifle for the caliber though. - dan
Click to expand...

Thank you Dan! That's very nice of you. :) I may wish to take you up on that.

I'm trying to decide this afternoon whether to buy this Accumark I saw today though...:rolleyes:
 
Well, look at it this way. Anything the 338 Win Mag can do, the Wby can do as well, plus more. Only want 2700 fps with a 250 gr bullet (which is about all you can do in a 338 WM)? No problem, load it down. Need the extra reach and horsepower? Full power loads and away you go. I haven't chrony'ed any factory ammo in ages, but I get 2940 fps with pretty much any 250 gr bullet you care to name. That's the difference between a regular cal rifle (ie: a 30-06 for example) and a magnum rifle, so it is a step up. You can use 375 H&H brass, so that's not really an issue, bullets cost the same, so do dies. Except for the initial rifle investment, there really isn't a downside (well, that and recoil). - dan
 
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