Rich
08-16-2009, 05:25 PM
My .257 Weatherby
Cliff told me about hunting elk in three states with a couple of his buddies. They used to use heavy for caliber bullets. He used 175 Noslers in his 7RUM while his friends fired 120 Noslers. All were partitions. One fellow shoots a .25-06 and the other a .25-06 A.I. He said they always had to follow up the trail at least fifty yards, but not over a couple hundred yards.
I convinced them to try the solid copper bullets that were much lighter. Cliff went with 127 grain Groove bullets and 120 grain G.S.Customs. The other two tried 100 grain Barnes. To say they were delighted is an understatement. Since switching they have killed fourteen bulls. The longest tracking job they had since switching is twenty feet. Not yards! They have killed two spikes side by side at a ranged 410 yards. Cliff fired a 127 grainer and the other fellow fired a 100 grain Barnes. Both of bulls dropped at the shot.
One bull was shot at about 50 yards. The 100 grainer from the 25-06 A.I. entered the left ham. They found the bullet under the skin in front of the right shoulder. Its weight was more than 80 grains. The shooter claims 3,600 feet per second with his A.I.
This convinced me to trade off my 7RUM and order a .25-06 A.I. Then I read where a fellow with a .257 Weatherby achieved 3,800 feet per second with a 28 inch barrel. I changed the order and gave the ‘smith the freedom to order any barrel and trigger he wants. Since he is making the action from scratch, he is going to make it fit a Remington trigger because there are a ton of aftermarket triggers available. It will be set at about twenty ounces. The barrel will be a 28” medium weight with seven flutes. I don’t remember the brand.
He showed me the action. It has three lugs that are attached like a Savage bolt. When the action is in the open position the bottom lug acts as a control round feed. Kinda cute. It will hold one or two in teh magaziune. It does not have an ejector spring; although it has an ejector. The rear of the ejector hits something in there like the Mauser action. If you pull it back fast, the shell is sent flying. If you pull it back slowly the shell can be lifted out. Nice.
The stock will be made of Zebrawood. He told me it is light and stable. It will have a very high cheek piece like a Weatherby to accommodate the very high Burris Signature rings which hold the 4 ½-30X50 Bushnell 6500 mildot. He is going to make a cantilever scope base. The advantage of high rings is equivalent to 100 feet per second increased velocity. (I verified this with dozens of shot fired with everything the same except changing from low rings to high rings. Then I ran a ballistic program and it predicted what I discovered in the real world.)
Cliff told me about hunting elk in three states with a couple of his buddies. They used to use heavy for caliber bullets. He used 175 Noslers in his 7RUM while his friends fired 120 Noslers. All were partitions. One fellow shoots a .25-06 and the other a .25-06 A.I. He said they always had to follow up the trail at least fifty yards, but not over a couple hundred yards.
I convinced them to try the solid copper bullets that were much lighter. Cliff went with 127 grain Groove bullets and 120 grain G.S.Customs. The other two tried 100 grain Barnes. To say they were delighted is an understatement. Since switching they have killed fourteen bulls. The longest tracking job they had since switching is twenty feet. Not yards! They have killed two spikes side by side at a ranged 410 yards. Cliff fired a 127 grainer and the other fellow fired a 100 grain Barnes. Both of bulls dropped at the shot.
One bull was shot at about 50 yards. The 100 grainer from the 25-06 A.I. entered the left ham. They found the bullet under the skin in front of the right shoulder. Its weight was more than 80 grains. The shooter claims 3,600 feet per second with his A.I.
This convinced me to trade off my 7RUM and order a .25-06 A.I. Then I read where a fellow with a .257 Weatherby achieved 3,800 feet per second with a 28 inch barrel. I changed the order and gave the ‘smith the freedom to order any barrel and trigger he wants. Since he is making the action from scratch, he is going to make it fit a Remington trigger because there are a ton of aftermarket triggers available. It will be set at about twenty ounces. The barrel will be a 28” medium weight with seven flutes. I don’t remember the brand.
He showed me the action. It has three lugs that are attached like a Savage bolt. When the action is in the open position the bottom lug acts as a control round feed. Kinda cute. It will hold one or two in teh magaziune. It does not have an ejector spring; although it has an ejector. The rear of the ejector hits something in there like the Mauser action. If you pull it back fast, the shell is sent flying. If you pull it back slowly the shell can be lifted out. Nice.
The stock will be made of Zebrawood. He told me it is light and stable. It will have a very high cheek piece like a Weatherby to accommodate the very high Burris Signature rings which hold the 4 ½-30X50 Bushnell 6500 mildot. He is going to make a cantilever scope base. The advantage of high rings is equivalent to 100 feet per second increased velocity. (I verified this with dozens of shot fired with everything the same except changing from low rings to high rings. Then I ran a ballistic program and it predicted what I discovered in the real world.)