Yeah, Jim was right, I couldn't pass on a thread on the .257wby.
Yeah, the Ballistic Tips are too soft for the .257wby for shooting deer. I had one (115gr.)blow up on a doe in '07, and never found her. (I've even had the 100gr do the same from the Roberts. But, to be honest, that bullet/loads were from the first batch released by Nosler back in 1987). Knocked her down, and watched her get up and run off. Didn't shoot again as I figured she'd go down shortly. She made it over the hill and out of sight never to be seen again. I'm sure the coyote's found he later that night...... there were shreds of "meat" the size of commercial "beef jerky" lying on the ground and hanging from shrubs nearby and even from an over-hanging dogwood tree. The bullet totally failed to penetrate deeply enough on a ~110yd shoulder shot. The particular load was 77.0gr of WC-860 and a Federal 215 primer and a reformed Remington 7mmRemMag case. Chrono'd at 3,300fps. The same bullet (from same box of bullets...) from my .257Roberts @ 2,850fps and a similar shot placement on a ~140lb buck @ 175yds completely penetrated and left a 3" exit wound. Acceptable performance.
The Nosler Partitions are excellent in the .257wby. However, for smaller deer, antelope and the like, I'd just use a Sierra ProHunter or Hornady "Interlok". I've shot ~100lb does with the 100gr Hornady and the few bullets I've recovered performed just like I would expect a Nosler Partition. They mushroom perfectly and hold together with approximately 65% weight retention. The Sierra's might occasionally shed the jacket, but this isn't a big deal. The result is usually an instantly dead deer.
However, even with the 7mm08, I had a Nosler 150gr Ballistic tip "disintegrate" on a 80lb doe earlier this year. The spine shot was instantly fatal, but I was suprised to find the seperated jacket and the lead was fragmented into nothing larger than a #9 birdshot....
Hence, I don't care for the expense of the Nosler's. Ballistic Tips or Partitions.
Heck, I've been shooting some .257"100gr PrviPartisan soft-points that are near MOA and loading them over some WC-860 for some really inexpensive shooting. Even using reformed 7mmRemMag brass.... Talk about cheap!...... Just the thing for whacking Coyotes.
For powder, I've not found anything better in the .257wby than Reloader25. I'm using a near max load of 74.0gr with the 100gr bullets and 69.0 with 115-120gr bullets.(Norma/Wby brass) From my 24" bbl Vanguard, I'm getting 3,600fps and flatter trajectory than my .22-250. I sight in 2.5" high at 100yds and zero at 300yds. About 6" low at 400yds. (100gr bullets). Haven't had a chance to shoot a deer further than this. However, I'm sure if I place the bullet properly, they'll do the job.
Nearly as good as Reloader25 is IMR7828. Be cautious with this though. My Lyman #48manual data is way too hot for my rifle with the lot# of IMR7828 I have.
I've taken several deer with the above load at 300-400yds and were "bang-flops". Ditto a coyote I shot at ~200yds in '07 with the superb 120gr Speer "HotCor" over 74.0gr of WC-860..
When working up loads for this cartridge, look closely at the components used in the data. Speer uses Federal brass which has 2-3gr of powder lower case capacity than the Norma/Weatherby brass. Likewise, their data is worked up in a 24" bbl Remington. They don't have as much free-bore as the Weatherby/Howa rifles and hence the data is different.....
Both IMR and H4350 produced some fabulous accuracy with 100gr bullets, but top velocities are 3,450fps from a 24" bbl., which btw duplicates factory loads. Max is listed at 65.0gr but I found that 63.5gr was most accurate and max from my rifle....
FWIW; If I didn't have the quantity of WC-860 powder on hand (It's excellent with the 115-120gr bullets. Too slow for the 100gr bullets in the .257wby), I'd get some of the WC-872 that Wideners and JeffBartlet (
www.gi-brass.com) have. You can buy this for ~$8.00lb and load a lot of ammo for just a few $.
