Bullet seating depth for Weatherby's "freebore"?

[PeterCartwright]

O.K. guys, I'm wondering, is there a rule of thumb about seating depth for Roy's rifles?  I have a .270 Roy for which I'm wanting to try the Barnes Triple X.  The special seating depth instructions from Barnes don't comport with Weatherby's famous freebore.  Do you just try seating the bullet out as far as the magazine allows as a starting point?

Please advise.

[Luckyducker]

I have only reloaded for two Roys, a 7MMWM and 257WM, and never loaded Barnes bullets.  So with that said, my advise is to load to the recommended COAL and see what accuracy that gives you and go from there, which is probably out further.  You will never get anywhere near the lands in a Mark VI with standard length chamber, so finding the sweet spot for one hasn't really been dependent on cartridge length too much.

[PeterCartwright]

Thanks, Luckyducker.  Your advise makes sense. 

One more thing.  I've read some places that the freebore built into Roy's rifles often doesn't handle boat tail bullet designs.  Any truth in that?  Have you loaded boat tails in your 2 Weatherby's?

[The Sodbuster]

I've never really noticed whether my .257 Weatherby ammo just fits in the magazine or not.  I do know I load my ammo to a longer length than factory ammo (the longer cartridges shoot better than factory spec ammo).   My gun doesn't seem to care much for 100 grain bullets but shoots 117 grain Gamekings very well.  They are a boat tail design.

[PeterCartwright]

Thanks Sodbuster.  Guess I'm off to experiment.  While my normal hunting situation doesn't really merit a need for the .270 Roy, (the rifle was a wonderful gift) I've had fun playing with the rifle just the same.  To date, I've only fired about 20 rounds of Weatherby factory ammo-both 130 and 150 gr. Hornadys.  I have been astonished by the inherent accuracy of this particular rifle.

I've been thinking that if the rifle will handle the 140 gr. Triple X, I wouldn't be afraid to use it on everything from mice to moose.  (In the real world, that means I could use it on whitetails without fear of excessive destruction and black bears with confidence to break the front shoulders).

[Castaway]

You probably will run out of magazine first

[Luckyducker]

Peter, I don't think the Weatherbys are any more finicky than a lot of other calibers to load for.  I think the reason Roy designed his chambers with so much free-bore is so that his proprietary cartridges can be loaded to higher velocities without creating dangerous pressure spikes.  I have loaded flat base and boattail bullets in one of the two weatherby cartridges I have loaded, and I didn't see any difference in it that I haven't found in other non-weatherby calibers.  I haven't loaded any Barnes bullets but I would think with the extra free-bore of your weatherby that they should really shine in it except for the Barnes bullet length in a .277 dia. 150 grain.  The twist rate would have to be faster than most standard rifle barrels in order to stabilize them as this is a really long bullet.  This is speculation on my part, and apologize for the rambling/thinking out loud.  All you will be out is the price of some bullets and if your rifle will shoot them it will make a great combo.  Good Luck