.257 Weatherby Magnum

The .257 Weatherby Magnum appeared early in the Weatherby line and became a favorite of Roy Weatherby. Roy, born in 1910 to a Kansas sharecropper, got into the gun business almost by accident. Keen to pull himself from his family's poverty, he clerked in a music store and sold washing machines. He married Camilla Jackson in 1936. The couple landed in San Diego, California, where Roy made a good living ($200 a month) selling insurance.

Roy indulged an interest in rifles by designing high-velocity rounds on the .300 Holland case. Weatherby's signature "double radius" shoulder (and early success) owes much to California wildcatter R.W. Miller. In 1940 Miller was experimenting with the .300 Hoffman, dropped by Western Cartridge Co. seven years earlier. Miller replaced the angular junctures at neck and shoulder with rounded corners for smooth gas flow. American Rifleman sent authority E. Baden Powell for a look. Powell advised Miller to straighten the case body. Result: the Powell Miller Venturi Freebore. In 1944 the men went into business as Vard, Inc., then sold out in 1945 to Hollywood Tool & Die.

About then, Roy carried a .270 PMVF on a deer hunt and liked it. However, Miller wouldn't help Roy design that radius into his cases. Machinist George Fuller agreed to provide the tooling. A full-length version of Roy's modified .300 H&H became the .300 Weatherby, but his first magnums were shorter and necked to .257, .277 and .284. In 1985, Roy recalled that the .257 arrived "sometime in 1944."

In 1946 he pledged "everything [he] owned" to get a $5,000 business loan. His future brightened the day Gary Cooper walked into his retail shop. The two men (both car buffs) hit it off, and Cooper became a regular visitor, introducing Roy to other Hollywood stars. A cash infusion from Texas oilman Herb Klein lifted Weatherby's fortunes, as the .257 and its fast-stepping siblings impressed customers with flat flight and a deadly punch.

Ballistics

First factory loads for the .257 appeared in 1948; Norma components came three years later. Now all Weatherby ammo is loaded by Norma, whose reputation for quality supports Weatherby's 1 1/2-MOA accuracy guarantee.

The .257's Weatherby's top sprinter, with an 87-grain Hornady InterLock at 3,825 fps. That load clobbers deer-size game; better though, is the 100-grain InterLock, which flies as flat and hits harder. For bigger game, the 110-grain AccuBond at 3,460 and 120 Partition at 3,300 excel. Choose also a 100-grain Barnes Triple Shock, a 115-grain Ballistic Tip or even a 117-grain roundnose.