Weatherby 7mag

[madolive3]

Just had my $900 offer accepted for a mid 80s vintage Lazermark.
I thought I was lowballing a bit.
Rifle is in very nice shape.
I am considering having an 8 twist Hart barrel installed. Any thoughts on this?
Thanks..

[DrewN]

Just had my $900 offer accepted for a mid 80s vintage Lazermark.
I thought I was lowballing a bit.
Rifle is in very nice shape.
I am considering having an 8 twist Hart barrel installed. Any thoughts on this?
Thanks..

Have you shot it? I haven't bought a shot out medium/big game rifle yet and I'm not picky. 7 MM Weatherby is pretty expensive ammo as well, making it even less likely. No reason to re barrel a hunting rifle for accuracy IMO.

[Twins_Dad]

I passed on a BEAUTIFUL Mark V in 7mm Weatherby Mag for I think $900 about 8 months ago at a pawn shop in central KY. Even at that price I could not stomach $5 per round, if I could even find it.

[GunDog]

Think you'd be better off with one chambered in 7mm Remington Mag vs 7mm Weatherby. Ammo for the former is much easier to find and less expensive. The 7mm Wby is only about 100 fps faster; really not much of a gain.

[DrewN]

Think you'd be better off with one chambered in 7mm Remington Mag vs 7mm Weatherby. Ammo for the former is much easier to find and less expensive. The 7mm Wby is only about 100 fps faster; really not much of a gain.

Everyone says this, but how many rounds are you really firing a year? 3 sighters and 2 in the field maybe? Even if you went to Africa 2 boxes would cover you. I've had my deer rifle since 1977 and maybe I have 100 rounds thru her. Maybe.

[newbutold]

I would shoot it before installing a new barrel. As for shooting, I've put 300 rounds or so through my Rem 7-mags because I like to shoot them accurately and with compensators, there is no pain.

[MongooseV8]

Grafs has Peterson 7mm WBY brass in stock right now. You could roll your own for less than $2 without even trying.

[ACfixer]

Every Weatherby I have ever shot, including my own, has been easily accurate enough in the hunting realm, that's what they are... hunting machines. Re-barrel it why? Shoot that puppy. Yeah, it's expensive, but how many rounds do you shoot when hunting?

That's a really cool rifle, let's see pics.

[Cowboy T]

For people saying that 7mm Weatherby Mag ammo is too expensive...well, I feel the same way about 7mm Remington Mag ammo! That's one reason why I handload it. :-) Same would be true for 7mm Weatherby. The bullets are the same. There's a lot of overlap with the powders as well. Really, there's no need to rebarrel one unless you just want to do so for fun, as far as the cartridges themselves go.

Now, if the reason you're looking to rebarrel is specifically to shoot 180+ grain bullets in 7mm, and especially the 195-grainers, then I can see rebarreling to a 1:8 twist. At that point, it would make sense to choose whichever chambering you wish. The factory 7mm Weatherby Magnum rifles, at least the ones produced today, appear to have a 1:10 twist rate. That's just good enough to stabilize the 162gr Hornady A-Maxes, but beyond that seems a little dicey. So, what are you going to be shooting?

Weatherby Mark V rifles rock. I love 'em. They're super-strong and very precise, about as close to a custom gun as you can get without it actually being custom.

[Vigilante]

Now, if the reason you're looking to rebarrel is specifically to shoot 180+ grain bullets in 7mm, and especially the 195-grainers, then I can see rebarreling to a 1:8 twist.

The factory 7mm Weatherby Magnum rifles, at least the ones produced today, appear to have a 1:10 twist rate.?

I assume that's why the OP wants to rebarrel to a 1:8 twist, to shoot modern, longer, high-BC bullets. I can't think of another good reason.

Adding to your comment, the factory 7mm Wby Mark Vs of the 80s were also 1:10 twist.

[sigstroker]

I assume that's why the OP wants to rebarrel to a 1:8 twist, to shoot modern, longer, high-BC bullets. I can't think of another good reason.

Adding to your comment, the factory 7mm Wby Mark Vs of the 80s were also 1:10 twist.

That's what I thought when I read the OP.

As long as he's going to re-barrel, maybe there's a 7mm Magnum Improved, or something like that, that gets him near the Wby velocity with a 7mm case.

edit: As long as we're spending OP's money, here's something else I found surfing around.

https://westtexordnance.com/7mm-300-norma-improved/

The fireformed case has a capacity of approximately 107 grains, and in a 30″ barrel the cartridge is capable of producing velocities of 3300FPS with 175-183 grain bullets. The 195 Berger EOL can be driven to over 3200 FPS as well.

Yowza!

It should fit in a Mark V action because the .300 Norma and .460 Wby are about the same length. Added bonus, the .300 Norma is not belted. It's one of the military's new cartridges, so hopefully supply will be better in the future.

[M1NM]

Don't change the barrel. Learn to reload. Weatherby has once fired brass on their website. I used to buy it when they were in SoCal for $3 a box.
Remember the Weatherby is a hunting rifle. It'll put 3 rounds in 1" but then barrel heat will cause it to open up.
PS - your barrel swap $ will buy a lot of ammo and not gain you anything except cheaper ammo.

[LynnJr]

That's what I thought when I read the OP.

As long as he's going to re-barrel, maybe there's a 7mm Magnum Improved, or something like that, that gets him near the Wby velocity with a 7mm case.

edit: As long as we're spending OP's money, here's something else I found surfing around.

https://westtexordnance.com/7mm-300-norma-improved/

Yowza!

It should fit in a Mark V action because the .300 Norma and .460 Wby are about the same length. Added bonus, the .300 Norma is not belted. It's one of the military's new cartridges, so hopefully supply will be better in the future.

Wouldn't the 300 Norma require a 0.590 bolt? Doesn't the 7mm Weatherby use a 0.532 bolt?

[sigstroker]

Could be, but the .460 has a big bolt head, so it must be possible to open up the bolt face.

[LynnJr]

Could be, but the .460 has a big bolt head, so it must be possible to open up the bolt face.

Or require a new bolt?