Tell me about your .300 Weatherby magnum

[kwyeewyk]

If you feel it’s drilled off and it very well may be, I’d call Weatherby bright and early Monday morning.
I’ll be shocked if they don’t have you send it in.

I did talk to them, but the said they were 90 days out on service and I didn't want to get it back with only a few weeks to get used to it, so I'm thinking if I can't get it to group up I'll send it to them and figure on using it in the future and fall back to the trusty 06 for this season.

I was thinking if I end up taking the scope back off I'll try some shots with the iron sights and see what kind of groups I can get out of that. I noticed that the front sling swivel is also offset, so maybe some kind of machining issues the day they tapped it.

 

[specneeds]

I picked up an old style Vanguard as a back up elk rifle for $260. It shot ok but had a terrible trigger. Once I put A new Tunney are at 2.5 lbs the groups shrank to under an inch and it moved up to first string. It is a hammer on elk. Killed a big cow at 550 yards 2 shots with one exit hole and she did a backflip over a small cliff. Not the prettiest or lightest rifle It has a Zeiss 3-15 x50 with a Z800 reticle and the hash marks match the trajectory all the way out to 800. Very accurate very fast to adjust rifle.

 

[MedicineMan15]

Congrats on your new shooting iron. I just recently won a Weatherby Vanguard in 300 WBY so I'm excited to start tinkering myself. I emailed Weatherby and they said their top 3 most accurate ammunitions were:

1) Weatherby 180gr Barnes TTSX;
2) Weatherby 165gr Barnes TTSX;
3) Weatherby 165gr Hornady Spire Point.

As you can guess, none of these are under $50/box. And just because they've found them to be most accurate in general doesn't mean they'll shoot well out of your gun.

It's all very fun though.

What kind of glass are you looking to put on your 300?

 

[kwyeewyk]

Congrats on your new shooting iron. I just recently won a Weatherby Vanguard in 300 WBY so I'm excited to start tinkering myself. I emailed Weatherby and they said their top 3 most accurate ammunitions were:

1) Weatherby 180gr Barnes TTSX;
2) Weatherby 165gr Barnes TTSX;
3) Weatherby 165gr Hornady Spire Point.

As you can guess, none of these are under $50/box. And just because they've found them to be most accurate in general doesn't mean they'll shoot well out of your gun.

It's all very fun though.

What kind of glass are you looking to put on your 300?

I picked up a Vortex DB 6-24X50 FFP for a smoking deal at around $250, had originally mounted it on my 06, but it's pretty bulky and a bit more scope than that gun needs, so I decided to put it on the 300 and get a lighter less bulky 40mm Leupold for the 06. Figure the heavier scope can help soak a bit of the recoil, and it's a lighter gun than my 06 to start with.

 

[Don Fischer]

Congrats on your new shooting iron. I just recently won a Weatherby Vanguard in 300 WBY so I'm excited to start tinkering myself. I emailed Weatherby and they said their top 3 most accurate ammunitions were:

1) Weatherby 180gr Barnes TTSX;
2) Weatherby 165gr Barnes TTSX;
3) Weatherby 165gr Hornady Spire Point.

As you can guess, none of these are under $50/box. And just because they've found them to be most accurate in general doesn't mean they'll shoot well out of your gun.

It's all very fun though.

What kind of glass are you looking to put on your 300?

Weatherby ammo has never been inexpensive. But as expensive as the Mark 5 is I'd think if someone could afford the Nark 5, they could afford the ammo! I wonder about those 180gr TTSX loads? I wonder if in a free bored Weatherby if the factory ammo might have those monolithic bullet's loaded out farther?

 

[kwyeewyk]

Got a few more rounds through it, seems to be that about every 3rd shot is a flyer, I'll have 2 almost through the same hole and then one off to the side and usually low but sometimes high. Damn breeze won't quit around here so maybe that's part of it, but seems like it would take quite a bit to move it much at 100yds based on what I'll looked at online. Tried 180 Partitions, 200 Partitions and 180 TTSX, similar issue with all. They sent me 2 boxes of 180 PTs instead of 180 ABs so haven't had a chance to try accubonds yet. I keep waiting for a completely calm day but not getting one. Thinking I'll try one more round of shooting through it on the calmest day I can find, and if I still can't get it tight I'll try lapping the rings and see if that helps.

 

[kwyeewyk]

But as expensive as the Mark 5 is I'd think if someone could afford the Nark 5, they could afford the ammo!

That's my problem, I can't afford a Mark 5, but I figure since I didn't have to shell out for the rifle I can spend some on the ammo. I'll save all the brass and hopefully I can get someone to do some handloads for me next year.

 

[buffybr]

Congrats on your new shooting iron. I just recently won a Weatherby Vanguard in 300 WBY so I'm excited to start tinkering myself. I emailed Weatherby and they said their top 3 most accurate ammunitions were:

1) Weatherby 180gr Barnes TTSX;
2) Weatherby 165gr Barnes TTSX;
3) Weatherby 165gr Hornady Spire Point.

As you can guess, none of these are under $50/box. And just because they've found them to be most accurate in general doesn't mean they'll shoot well out of your gun.

It's all very fun though.

What kind of glass are you looking to put on your 300?

Like I posted earlier, most of my rifles have never shot a factory cartridge.

The 180 gr Barnes TTSX bullets are my current favorite bullets for my .300 Weatherby. I mostly use R-P brass that I get at least 5 loadings.
R-P cases @ $0.90 ea/5 loadings = $0.18 ea
Primers @ $3/100 = $0.03 ea
RL-22 powder @ $29/pound = $0.34/cartridge
180 TTSX bullets @ $32/50 = $0.64 ea
So my reloads cost less than $1.20 per cartridge or $24/box.

 

[Durango Mike]

Had a 300 weatherby for several years, shot a few elk and it did a terrific job with 180 gr Nosler partitions. The venturi style shoulder makes it a little harder to headspace handloads on the shoulder which I prefer for accuracy versus head space on the belt. Sold the rifle several years back, probably have a bunch of brass and some factory ammo hanging around in the reloading room. The recoil can be a little viscous in a light rifle so be aware the first time you sit down at a bench, one of those led sleds might be helpful if you plan on testing loads. For handloading lots of slow magnum type powders work best, had good results with the old Hodgdon 870, and a few slow burning powders from accurate arms.

 

[elkhnter]

Had a 300 weatherby for several years, shot a few elk and it did a terrific job with 180 gr Nosler partitions. The venturi style shoulder makes it a little harder to headspace handloads on the shoulder which I prefer for accuracy versus head space on the belt. Sold the rifle several years back, probably have a bunch of brass and some factory ammo hanging around in the reloading room. The recoil can be a little viscous in a light rifle so be aware the first time you sit down at a bench, one of those led sleds might be helpful if you plan on testing loads. For handloading lots of slow magnum type powders work best, had good results with the old Hodgdon 870, and a few slow burning powders from accurate arms.

If you have Weatherby or Nosler brass laying around, gather it up and let me know what you want for it.

 

[kwyeewyk]

If you have Weatherby or Nosler brass laying around, gather it up and let me know what you want for it.

Just starting to accumulate, but if it starts piling up and I can't find someone to reload it for me I'll let you know.

 

[Durango Mike]

Just went through ammo room, found 1 box of 180 nosler 300 weatherby and several boxes of 270 W, 1 box of 338/378 and 4 boxes of 30/378 W but no brass. Wish I could send you the 300 but no easy way unless you come through Durango, CO or Douglas WY. Do not have any rifles for this ammo, the only W i have left is a .257 set up for 85gr boat-tails at 3600. I think the other ammo was left by hunters over the past 26 years, the 338/378 is a wicked kicking mother but gives the same velocity as a 22-250 but with 180 gr bullets, sure are proud of it as the price on the box was $158 for 20. I will look for brass in a few other places.

 

[kwyeewyk]

Finally got a calm evening here so I did another round of shooting. Feeling a little better about things, got it to the point now where I think it's a combination of shooting and factory ammo consistency (probably mostly shooting). I do wish a had a lead sled just to strap it in and see what kind of groups I could get with it to know for sure, but I paid a lot of attention to my shooting and most of the shots seemed reasonably where I expected based on what I thought about the shot being good or maybe pulled.

180 gr TTSX was first, not too impressive, but I figured I'd keep going without trying to adjust anything:



180 gr Partition next, felt better about this one:



And last 200 gr Partitions:



Maybe someone who has done more bench shooting than me can pick something out from these groups, but they seem pretty random to me, as in I can't detect any obvious tendency in the groups that would indicate pulling a certain direction or something like that. 2+ MOA groups at 100 yards seem big, feel like I need to get them smaller before I try extending the range much.

 

[kwyeewyk]

Alright finally getting some chances to shoot and getting this thing dialed in. I did a test group at 15 yards to confirm the zero, ballistic calc said should be right about an inch low at 15 yards, 3 rounds nearly though the same whole about an inch low confirmed that any error at longer yardage is mostly me. So with that info I got some new sand bags and set out to tighten up my shot process and now I'm getting pretty good groups (sub 2 moa at least!). The 180 gr partitions and accubonds seem to be working the best in that order. Now I think I just need to keep working with it and get some good shooting in in some calm weather. Been shooting my 30.06 since I was a kid and I guess I just took for granted how comfortable I am with it.

 

[S13tsilvia]

My grandfather had a 300 Weatherby and it took hundreds of animals across Africa, NZ, Australia and a few other places and when he died one of my cousin's got his gun, ingot his 222. One day I was browsing the local used guns website and saw it up for sale.. to say I was furious was an understatement. I rang the dealer and asked a few questions just to confirm it was and said it's sold. I didn't care the price was 1200 bucks. I just wanted it as I had shot many deer with it and with my grandfather and had lots of memories.
I run 180gr woodleighs with 2213sc and it's a tack driver.

 

[kwyeewyk]

My grandfather had a 300 Weatherby and it took hundreds of animals across Africa, NZ, Australia and a few other places and when he died one of my cousin's got his gun, ingot his 222. One day I was browsing the local used guns website and saw it up for sale.. to say I was furious was an understatement. I rang the dealer and asked a few questions just to confirm it was and said it's sold. I didn't care the price was 1200 bucks. I just wanted it as I had shot many deer with it and with my grandfather and had lots of memories.
I run 180gr woodleighs with 2213sc and it's a tack driver.

Glad you got that back! That's the main criteria for who gets guns, if I'm at all worried they're going to sell it I'll give it to one of the other kids that won't!

 

[buffybr]

Weatherby ammo has never been inexpensive. But as expensive as the Mark 5 is I'd think if someone could afford the Nark 5, they could afford the ammo! I wonder about those 180gr TTSX loads? I wonder if in a free bored Weatherby if the factory ammo might have those monolithic bullet's loaded out farther?

Here's a 100 yard target that I shot the other day with my .300 Wby Vanguard off the bench. The hole in the center of the orange dot was my first shot from a cold barrel with one of my practice loads which is a Hornady 168 grain BTHP Match bullet. My next to shots, with the same sight setting, were the two holes touching above the orange sticker, which were Barnes 180 gr TTSX bullets. I had Leupold make a custom turret for my 180 gr TTSX load, and I painted white dots on the top of the turret for where the 168 gr Hornady bullets hit at 200, 300, and 430 yards.

 

[kwyeewyk]

I need to get some more ammo, I ended up getting a scope lapping/alignment kit when I put a new scope on my .06, so now I'm torn on if I should pull the scope off the Weatherby and see what the ring alignment looks like and lap it in. After getting my .06 up and running and seeing what kind of groups I get out of it, I feel like the Weatherby just doesn't seem quite right still. I figured when I shot my .06 again it would feel like a light kick compared to the Weatherby, but it really isn't that much less recoil feel on the .06 than the Weatherby after shooting them both together. Maybe I'm just pulling my shots on the Weatherby, I know I do at least on some, but really been checking myself and no matter how hard I try I can't get that great of groups, then grab the .06 and it's so easy.

Any thoughts on how much ring mis-alignment and lapping affects accuracy?

Also was wondering on cleaning, put 6 boxes or so through it now, think I should brush it out? It looked clean to start with so I didn't before I started shooting it.

 

[Don Fischer]

Well I have to say, in most case's lapping ring's is a waste of time. What do you really expect to gain by doing it? I've had scoped rifles about 60 yrs now, have never had a set of rings lapped and if I ever needed it, not a clue. Really sound's great doing all these things to make a rifle and ammo perfect but perfect has never been attained other than in the mind of the user! What's a set of ring lapping jigs cost? How many scopes you going to do it to. Ya want lapped rings? Go to a gunsmith, he's supposed to know what he's doing. Over the years there's been a lot of new must have tools for reloading and shooting. Kind of make's me wonder what we did before they came out!

 

[Mallardsx2]

Because someone said it on youtube. Duh.