CDubWSR Posted November 7, 2005 Report Share Posted November 7, 2005 ..... or anybody else that has experience with the weatherby .257 mag. i am currently saving my pennies to buy a couple new rifles and one of which is a weatherby mark 5 ultralight. i have decided it will either be a .257 or a 25-06. i have some experience with a 25-06 and know alot of guys that shoot them that love them, but i am also intrigued by the .257. AJ i was just wondering if you could maybe compare the two and show me some pro's and cons of each one other than ammo cost. Thanks a ton in advance! colin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reloader Posted November 7, 2005 Report Share Posted November 7, 2005 Re: Question for AJ The 257 weatherby Mag is a powerful and versitile choice...however the ammo is sold by fewer companies. The Weatherby has a greater selection of bullet weights and styles in factory ammo. Though, if you load your own they both use the same bullets so that becomes a mute point. The 25-06 is a popular and quite adequate round. Ammo is more available but less diverse in bullet selection and weight. In factory amunition: The Weatherby using a 100gr PSP has a Muzzle Velocity of 3620 FPS Same bullet in the 25-06 has a MV of 3230 FPS With the Weatherby the long range zero can be set at 300 yards with a Max Point Blank Range (using a 6 inch vital diameter) of around 350 yards and a 500 yard drop of only 21 inches. The 25-06 zeroed at 250 yards has a MPBR (using an 8 inch vital diameter) of just under 300 yards and a 500 yard drop of 41.7 inches. I had to use 2 seperate balistics programs to find the two cartriges. Thus the seperate vital sizes in the MPBR calculations. In order to equate the two MPBR to the same vital size you would have to back off the zero and max PBR of the 25-06 by about 20 yards or so. Thus the Weatherby give you about 70yards further reach and continues to drop less than the 25-06 past that. If you are in open country and are looking for a "bean field" rifle it would be the clear winner. If you don't need that kind of flat trajectory and will never shoot past 250 yards or so, then there is no real advantage to the Weatherby and the 25-06 is more than adequate. Overall get what you are going to be comfortable and happy with. Personaly I might choose the Weatherby cartrige just because you already chose a weatherby rifle and it is just astheticaly pleasing to me to have the rifle and cartrige match that way...JMHO Good luck, either way you go you will have a fine rifle! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDubWSR Posted November 8, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 8, 2005 Re: Question for AJ Thank you very much reloader! that is pretty much exactly what i was wanting to know. i dont really hunt many places right now where i can have more than a 200 yard shot, but plan on it next year so i think the .257 is deffinently in order. ive got some pretty big plans for next year. i plan on getting out to western oklahoma to hunt the canyons out that way, and my roomate's family has a farm that they share-crop and the farmer they have been leasing to for a long time retired this year. they said they dont plan on leasing it out again b/c they never really made that much money on it, so my room mate and i have some plans for pretty extensive food plots next year! i also think the .257 in the 85 grain factory load would be a wonderful round for puttin the whammy on the song dogs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJ Posted November 8, 2005 Report Share Posted November 8, 2005 Re: Question for AJ One thing to keep in mind is Weatherby velocity numbers are a little on the high side. Not every gun will produce the high numbers. In fact, I have nver seen a production gun shooting production ammo, shoot stated velocities. Reloaders can not match or even sometimes come real close to the claimed velocities Weatherby publishes. This is not true for all cartridges/bullets. With the .257 Weatherby handloaders can get: 75 gr = 3900-4000 fps 87-90 gr = 3700 fps 100 gr = 3500 fps 117-120 gr = 3300 fps With a .25-06 Remington you can get: 75 gr = 3675 87-90 gr = 3500 100 gr = 3350 117-120 gr = 3000 Comparing these numbers in deer hunting applications (100 gr bullet) shows when both are sighted in 2" high at 100 yards the Weatherby drops 1" less at 300 yards (-1.5" vs -2.5") and 2" less at 400 yards (-10" vs -12"). Energy is still more than adequate out to 500 yards for either cartridge. Most shooters can not hit the target much past 300 yards let alone 500 anyway. Combining this info with the added cost of the gun, ammo cost, ammo availability, extra recoil (25% more), and its hard to justify the Weatherby's purchase. It is still a nice gun and fast cartridge, but I see little realistic value gained in performance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDubWSR Posted November 9, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 9, 2005 Re: Question for AJ aj - i dont hand load b/c i dont feel comfortable with it, so i will be shooting factory loads only. do you think one is deff better than the other with factory loads??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJ Posted November 10, 2005 Report Share Posted November 10, 2005 Re: Question for AJ I definately would not pick the Weatherby in that case. The added cost of factory ammo is definately not worth the marginal performance boost. You can get Hornady Light Mag ammo for the .25-06 Rem and it adds 100 fps. The gun does not make the marksman. Learning to shoot at long range takes a lot of time and practice. YHou can go broke feeding a Weatherby enough to get proficient at long range to make the Weatherby useful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reloader Posted November 10, 2005 Report Share Posted November 10, 2005 Re: Question for AJ AJ has a great point! I left that out since you said not to consider cost of ammo...but it bears looking at realy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.