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Better killing power.

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[link]http://www.gunnersden.com/index.htm.rifle-cartridges-ballistics.html[/link]

...at 200 yds a 120 gr. bullet from a .257 Wby has 400 lbs. more energy than a 180 from a .30-06...

RR88...

That is one crappy ballistics table.

The 2091 ft# for the .257 Weatherby comes straight off their specs. If you compare that to a 180 grain Accutip from a 30-06 the 06 will be 100 ft# greater or 2226.....assuming you believe all those numbers.

In fact it's about the same difference out to 500 yards. If you are going to compare a premium round like Weatherby it ought to be compared to another guys premium.

If you really like .257 you ought to be touting a Scramjet. In a 120 grain it's going to be on average 370ft# greater than the Weatherby all the way out to 500.

Sun - There's wildcats and then there's WILDCATS. I'll stick with my Wby which is on the high end of the fringe of conventional.

That is the first table I found and didn't check too deeply into it. My broad-brush point was that while a .30-06 deserves all the respect in the world, a .257 Wby beats it on speed, trajectory, and energy. It gives me a hell of a lot more confidence when taking 300+ yd shots.

Roy Weatherby took the .257 Weatherby Magnum to Africa and took an African Cape buffalo with a single shot to prove to himself that it could be done.

http://www.shootingtimes.com/2011/01/04/ammunition_st257weatherbymagnum_031706/

Then we have the matter of trajectory. Simply put, no big-game cartridge offered by the major manufacturers shoots flatter than the .257 Weatherby Magnum. When a 100-grain bullet exits the muzzle at 3500 fps and is zeroed three inches high at 100 yards, it is about four inches above point of aim at 200 yards, a couple of inches high at 300 yards, and only about six inches low at 400 yards.





There have been times in my life when the .257 Weatherby Magnum has shot so flat as to defy explanation. One of those times was on a recent hunt with Wyoming rancher Marty Tillard. Behind Tillard’s ranch house is a nice benchrest and target butts out to 400 yards, and it was there that I checked the zero of my rifle before heading to the field. I was shooting a Weatherby Vanguard in .257 Magnum and Weatherby factory ammo loaded with the Nosler 115-grain Ballistic Tip.





With the rifle zeroed three inches high at 100 yards, bullets landed an inch high at 300 yards and dead-on my point of aim at 400. Accuracy was minute of angle (MOA) all the way out to that distance. When hunting with that particular rifle and ammunition, I could have held dead-on the vital area of an antelope at any range from just off the toes of my boots all the way out to about 430 yards.