.257 Weatherby Magnum

The .257 Weatherby Magnum was introduced as a wildcat cartridge during the mid 1940's when Roy Weatherby was building custom rifles around war surplus '03 Springfield and the '98 Mauser actions. It was always his favorite cartridge.

There once was a time when everything written about such cartridges as the .257 Weatherby Magnum included an apology for it's barrel life, but such opinions are now as outdated as high top shoe's and Model A Fords. The advent of tougher barrel steels and, possibly more important, a greater awareness among shooters of the importance of cleaning rifle barrels properly have proven that the big game hunting accuracy life of a barrel in .257 Weatherby Magnum (and other like cartridges) is in excess of 2000 rounds. This, of course, is assuming that the shooter does not wash out the chamber throat by subjecting the barrel to a high rate of sustained fire. Allow a barrel in .257 Weatherby Magnum to cool down every three shots an it will last the average shooter a lifetime.