257 Weatherby Mag

It's a great long range round for deer. Dropped a couple with mine. Both dropped dead in their tracks. I think that on a broadside shot inside 100yds, the bullet may have too much energy to fully expand before leaving the deer. I use it mainly in fields, turnrows, timber lanes, etc.

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But under 200 it will just pass though with no exit wound unless you hit bone.

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How does a bullet pass THROUGH but not leave an exit wound?

In my experience bullets tend to expand more, or violently break apart at higher velocities.

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When I first moved there, i kinda figured they all hunted with much bigger calibers

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Was invited to hunt private land for whitetail and Muleies in north east Texas.

I borrowed a friends 7 mag because I though I needed a bigger round.

Get out there and everyone has 270s

I wanted one too. I got talked out of it by one simple reason and it has nothing to do with the characteristics of the gun. Any small town store that sells ammo will have 270 and 30.06. With a Weatherby mag, if you need ammo in a pinch, you are likely SOL.

Availability & price of ammo

Huge fan of the 30-06 for that reason. Have two of them and hunt with them more than anything

Prefer the .257 Roberts as long as you're talking about harder to find ammo in that caliber.

Unless you're loading your own, I recommend Superior Ammunition. He's extremely knowledgeable and will load the perfect round for you. He'll sell you test boxes with various loads so you can find what is the most accurate for your rifle. Can't recommend highly enough.

Extremely flat shooting without the kick of a 300 mag or 7 mag. I’ve made some close kills and have yet to have any problems from too much velocity and bullet blow up.
Examples - 150 pound boar at 40 yards. Shot shoulder and dropped in a couple of steps.
200 lb whitetail buck chasing a doe. Shot at 30 yards in last rib quartering away. Dropped.

On the biggest shot of my hunting career, I rested my 257 on my pack and shot across canyon in Idaho on a Bighorn Ram at @320 yards. I was shooting right down on his back. Hit an inch or so right on spine. He dropped.

The 257 WBY has a very high percentage of dead right there’s. The shock is tremendous.

If you will shoot past 300 yards, buy it. Mine is in a Weatherby Mark V Ultralight. Great rifle.

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However, any person that knows anything about ballistics, bullet placement is number one.

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1+. The more appropriate information when discussing guns is the specific bullet, not so much what the gun is chambered in.