.257 Weatherby barrel life

[Rum River]

Always agonizing over that next firearm project.

One of mine is a varmint rig in .257 Wby. I did a search and found a ton of information, but any comment on barrel life didn't include details.

Bottom line:

I know I couldn't shoot this as fast my .223's, I know that to observe my own prairie dog results I need to consider a muzzle brake, and I know that I don't require one of these to terminate prairie rats. What I DON'T know is what kind of barrel life to expect. 1000 rounds?, 5000?, 10,000?

What have you .257 Wby shooters experienced? How light a bullet have you experimented with?

Thanks!

[Lawdog]

Rum River,

I have just over 1,800 rounds thru my .257 Weatherby.  A small sign of throat wear just starting to show thru the camera.  I don't push the limits of velocity with my .257, usually staying at 10% under max gives me my best accuracy or at least a good starting point.  The lightest weight bullet I've tried is the 75 gr. but didn't care for results accuracy wise.  I use 100 gr. as the lightest I load now as I don't use my .257 for varmints(you don't save many coyote hides with a .257 Weatherby).  My best accuracy comes with 100 gr. or larger.  Hope this helped you?  Lawdog