300 weatherby brass find

[GOPHER SLAYER]

Buckshot and I enjoyed a great day at the range yesterday. Someone before me had left a lot of brass. There was a lot of 30-06 and 30-30 but most of it is 300 Weatherby, 81 in fact. Makes you wonder why they would throw it away.

[376Steyr]

Were they all the same headstamp? 81 shots equals 27 three-shot groups. Must have had a heck of a time getting that scope zeroed!

[jsheyn]

The fella sitting next to me shoots a 300 Wtby Mag...says he leaves his brass lie or tosses it....I asked him whens the next time he's going shooting!

[oneokie]

Simpler for them to buy factory ammo?

[fatelk]

That's a pretty good find. Hopefully they didn't shoot them all up too fast.

A gunsmith once told me how he put a new barrel on a customer's rifle twice in a few weeks. He put an expensive custom match grade barrel on in a wildcat caliber. The customer got it home, loaded up 50 rounds of ammo in the parent caliber with a fire-forming load.

He then handed the rifle and ammo to his teenage son and buddy so they could go out and shoot them so he would have fireformed wildcat brass to load. He neglected to tell him to be sure and let the barrel cool between shots. They burned them all up within a few minutes, along with the new barrel.

[felix]

That's why they need to purchase their own stuff. Always!!! But that implies you must provide work for them to participate and get paid. Suggest minimum wages so they can afford the clothes, cycles, guns, etc. ... felix

[Mk42gunner]

It is funny how a round that started out as a commercial wildcat is now mostly shot by non reloaders. .300 Weatherby ammo was pretty expensive the last time I looked, even if it only had Hornady bullets in it; I can't imagine buying five boxes just to shoot most of it at the range, while discarding the brass.

Even before I started reloading, I saved my brass.

Robert

[nagantguy]

Nice find. Do you have a use for it? That is my "little big" caliber and could always use more brass cash or swap?.

[fatelk]

I think a lot of people look at it different than we (or at least I) do. I know people that don't think anything of going out for a "range day" and stopping at the store to buy a couple hundred dollars worth of factory ammo on the way out. They burn it all up and leave their mess, including brass. I remember once I came along right after someone like that out in the hills, and spent an hour picking up something like $50 worth of nice fresh brass, literally piles of 9mm, .45 and .223, among others.

Of course I'm cheap. If I shoot $20 worth of reloads when I go out, it's been a long day. I suppose for folks who spend hundreds on a golf outing or some other sport it's no big deal.

[wlc]

.300 Weatherby ammo was pretty expensive the last time I looked, even if it only had Hornady bullets in it; I can't imagine buying five boxes just to shoot most of it at the range, while discarding the brass.


Robert

The WBY factory loads with Nosler Partitions are about $75 a box locally. Bad thing is Accuracy for me in my rifle with those are better than any handload I've come up with in nearly 15 years of trying.... I get less than one inch groups at 100 with them, all my handloads so far have been just at or over an inch. Doesn't bother me too much having to buy factory for it, Its not like its a plinking rifle anyway.

I definitely agree, I can't imagine spending the money and shooting up that many factory loads in one outing. Too expensive and the shoulder might be a bit sore afterwards.

[Down South]

Nice find. Those types of finds are getting harder to come by.
Even non reloaders are picking up a lot of brass these days. I've ran into a few since Sandy Hook that were picking up brass for someone they knew that reloaded. Actually, they were trying to pick up "My" brass. I kindly informed them that all the brass just to my right belonged to me as I had just shot it and I would pick it up myself when My shooting session was over.

Used to, I could pick up about a quarter or so of a 5-gallon bucket full every time I visited my range without looking that hard. It's a large range with a number of handgun and rifle ranges.
Since Sandy Hook, pickings have been slim. I picked up about 250 pieces of brass last range trip off of about 8 different ranges. Mostly the common stuff, 9mm, 45 acp, 40 S&W and a hand full of 380 and even a few pieces of LC 5.56.
Most of our ranges are bare these days, of shooters and brass. Used to, I had to scout around to find an open range or have to wait until someone was finished shooting. That was the good old days which wasn't but just a few months ago. Most of the extra brass that I picked up would come off the range that I was shooting on.
Those guys and gals hardly ever picked up their brass but like I've said, things have changed.

But through the years, I have collected enough brass to not worry about it. I've processed many a batch of brass. Run it through the tumbler after sorting and store it in vacuum seal bags and stash it in my shop.

[Superfly]

i wish i could find someone needing wanting a bunch of factory loaded and new 416 wthby mag brass and dies and bullets.


Some people just don,t undersand the value they leave on the ground.

[Ed Barrett]

One of the best days I remember was going to the range and finding 48 Norma 7.65 Argentine cases. I'm still using them in my 1909 Mauser. Another time I found 40 plus .444 Marlin cases, I almost bought a rifle to use them in, luckily a friend of mine who reloads had one and was glad to take them off my hands. I wish those days would come back, when 9mm was like gravel at the range. Now with the high price of brass things are picked pretty clean.

[freebullet]

Nice score. I have a colleague that won a rifle in a raffle. He asked me about scopes for it, he bought and mounted a decent scope. I offered to take him to the range to sight it in. After I seen the first piece of fired brass I had to stop him. He bought 300 win mag ammo fer his 300 wthby mag rifle. The case was messed up bad. He doesn't shoot it much now that he knows what proper ammo for it cost. $65 cheapest local box of 20. Him not reloading I made him an offer fer the rifle and scope but he declined. Guess he will shoot it once a year or two.

[TCLouis]

I have some 20 pieces of 300 Weatherby brass I found at the range, though the necks are much shorter than those on your brass.

I guess having left the store as 300 Winchester Mag brass might of had something to do with it . . . . .


A coworker has one he bought at wally world at the end of the season several years ago for cheap.

In fact I ordered some ammo for him and 6 boxes of ammo equaled what he had in the gun!

[Down South]

I have a 300 Win Mag but I also have a 257 Weatherby Mag, Custom built. The only way to come out is by reloading. I bought a stock of brass yrs ago and it was expensive back then for new brass. I bought a stock of different bullets for it some yrs back too, mostly Ballistic Tips. I bought the bullets before our fearless leader went into office the first time. The rifle and brass I had before the Clinton era.

[lksmith]

Sure wish I could find a pile like that!
Surprisingly my weatherby don't kick bad.
Matter of fact My 30-06 with 180gr @ 2800FPS kicks worse than my 300wby with 180gr@ 3300FPS

[blackthorn]

I bought my Weatherby (300) in 1969. I did not reload at the time and factory ammunition was $1 each even then. Raw brass was non-existent (where I was at least). The deal for the rifle included one box (20) and I decided right there I would learn to reload. In my research, before I started to reload, I found that 300 H&H would fire-form to fit my Wby and I knew where there were three boxes of really old ammunition sitting in an old hardware store. They had been there so long the dark yellow boxes were almost white. I got them for $8 a box. when i started to run them through my 300 I found they were as accurate as the factory Wby cartridges so I used them for deer hunting and saved the factory stuff for Moose/Elk. My Weatherby is used for hunting only and not much target work so, while I later bought 100 brand new pieces of Wby brass, I have never used any of it. I am now shooting up the last few pieces of H&H reloaded brass and retireing it as the rifle will eventually pass to my son and I want to avoid any chance of a hot load in the H&H brass which holds a few grains short of what you can put into a factory 300 Weatherby case.

[bbqncigars]

There is a doctor who leaves his .375 H&H magnum brass on the ground when he leaves the range. It must be nice to have that much disposable income. My range usually has some .40 S&W cluttering the landscape, but that's it. It pays to check the range trash cans, as I found 2 boxes of Winchester .45 acp brass in one last year.