An idle mind

[Goatwhiskers]

comes up with strange ideas. My son came up with a .257Wby in a godfather deal. Likewise I found him some ammo, reasonable, during the great shortage. Lately found some dies and brass, again at a great price. As his wife is the main shooter I've started thinking about some kind of reduced loads for her, after all you aren't required to hit 3500fps to kill a deer. Now I've started pondering cast boolits for this. Finding no info, has anyone bothered to try reduced and/or cast in such a whiz-bang cartridge? GW

[Jack Stanley]

That's not a bad idea at all it just depends on how far you want to reduce it . I think my Speer manuals list one reduced load for the center fire rifle rounds . It's worth a look .

Jack

[minmax]

I just woke from a nap. My eyes must have been cross eyed, I thought the title said An Idle Mold...

[303Guy]

Don't Weatherby's have long throats or free bore?

[Goatwhiskers]

Yeah, they do. That's why I was wondering if someone might have had the inspiration before. Not a magnum person myself, I like slow and fat, like me. GW

[Jack Stanley]

Do a throat impression and measure the area . Make your bullets as close a fit as you can without impeding loading and unloading . About .0005" under is a good start .

Jack

[Hickok]

I own a .257 WM, and have killed deer out to 400 yards with it using a 110 gr Accubond @ 3400fps.

I don't think you will ever be able to get close the the rifling with any bullet or boolit and be able to put a round in the magazine. The over all length of the cartridge will be extremely long. I believe Weatherby's have about a 3/8" freebore in the throat.

[DLCTEX]

I have a 257 Wby. and I shoot 100 gr. bullets at 3600 fps, 7828SSC powder. I have a 25 cal. mould, but there seems to be a lot of case capacity going to waste, so haven't tried it yet. I shoot cast in my 22, 243, 30, and 45 cal rifles, so I don,t feel a real need to anyway. Recoil is not a worry in the 257, so that is out of the equation too.

[Shooter6br]

Yes it is 135289

[303Guy]

Why not try it and see what happens? Maybe a Loverin style would work. The large case may be an advantage in that the initial pressure would be kept low enough as not to strip the rifling on launch but still give a reasonable velocity. Subsonic is reasonable for target or plinking i.e. having fun.

Looking at the SAAMI chamber specs I see no reason for cast in the Weatherby being a problem. OK, magazine use may not be doable but sing shot use is quite fine.

http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo327/303Guy/257%20Weatherby%20Magnum_zpsdlmcppix.jpg (http://s388.photobucket.com/user/303Guy/media/257%20Weatherby%20Magnum_zpsdlmcppix.jpg.html)

If it has a 10 inch twist it will shoot quite long boolits just fine, depending on nose shape. Perhaps someone on the forum would be kind enough to send a few samples for testing.

With the cost of cases I would suggest not sizing the cases at all. That means sizing a boolit to fit the fired case which would likely contribute to accuracy.

[Wayne Smith]

I'd be looking at the very slow powders, too.

[quilbilly]

I have had very good results with cast in my 25 cal. I would think that a load of about 17 gr of 5744 might be just the ticket and you probably wouldn't need a filler. Hardest part is finding the right mold. You might start by looking at 5744 loads for a 25-06 to get to about 2000-2100 fps.