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Accidentally shooting 7mm Weatherby Magnum in 7mm Remington Magnum

26K views 17 replies 13 participants last post by  Tang 
#1 ·
I have not seen anything on this so I thought I'd post this. My brother inadvertently fired 7mm Weatherby Magnum ammunition in his Weatherby Vanguard 7mm Remington Magnum caliber rifle. About eleven rounds were fired with apparently no problems. I made the discovery when I questioned my brother after finding the different fired casings. The fired Weatherby casings now appear as fired Remington casings except slightly longer. I had to see this for myself so I took a Weatherby round and it fed just fine in the Remington caliber rifle. You can see how the confusion can occur. 7mm Remington caliber in a Weatherby brand rifle. Does anybody have any knowledge about this situation? We are taking the Vanguard rifle need to be examined by a gunsmith to see if any damage has been done.
 
#3 ·
I ran this through Quickload with what might be a typical load, a 140gr. soft point and H4831. Basically, Quickload predicts that a 7mm WBY load will have a pressure increase of about 10% or so when fired in a 7mm Rem Mag chamber. Presumably the 7mm Rem chamber will not have the Weatherby freebore, which does reduce pressures.

There are a lot of possible combinations of different powders, bullets, primers, chamber dimensions, brass capacities, etc., so don't take that statement as the end-all and be-all of the matter. However, it may give you a general idea of what to expect.

If the brass ejected fine, and there were no indications of problems (hard bolt lift, etc.) then I would chalk it up to lady luck smiling that day. A rifle in good condition should be able to take that sort of bump in pressure, my opinion.

This probably belongs in the Rifles / Rifle cartridges topic and I'll move it for you.
 
#6 ·
Frank982,
I doubt any damage would have been done to your brothers rifle. Loads for either run almost identical! A few grains here or there will not affect pressure too much.

You can give that Weatherby brass to someone who has one and it will fireform back to Weatherby dimensions with no trouble.
Still, it always pays to check the ammo is headstamped for your gun!
Interesting lesson!
 
#7 ·
Reminds me of the time my father was trying to force feed my .338 win mag ammo into his 300 win mag in the dark one morning before deer hunting. I took the deformed ammunition and glued it to a plaque and at the bottom it stated "Dad's Freudian slip" It always bothered him that I had a larger caliber than he did!
 
#8 ·
I doubt any damage would have been done to your brothers rifle. Loads for either run almost identical! A few grains here or there will not affect pressure too much.
This is simply not true. Simply eliminating the freebore will increase pressures considerably - my .257 Weatherby without freebore uses 5-7 grains less powder than my freebored MkV for about the same velocity.

What no one has mentioned is the long Weatherby neck. Nominally 0.49" longer than the Remington, it may be crimped tightly against the bullet by the shorter Remington chamber. This too will raise pressures substantially. Just because no one was hurt or killed doesn't mean all is well.....




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#10 ·
Carpe Diem, I do not get the part where someone says the Weatherby is a little longer, the difference is .100 thousands + or - stuffing .100 thousands of the neck beyond the end of the chamber on most rifles would constitute a heavy crimp then there is the difference between the two chamber lengths from the face of the bolt the beginning of the shoulder, the Remington being the shortest by .027 thousands, seems the Weatherby would require sizing when chambered, this would require effort. the plus for less pressure is in the fire forming effect, the Weatherby neck is longer, it is possible the neck of the Weatherby case was pushed back, this could have prevented the neck from closing on the bullet, the difference in length between the two necks is .127, the Weatherby being the longest, this would allow the case to fire form and blow the shoulder forward, If I tried to chambered a 7 Weatherby cartridge in a 7 Remington chamber and found it to fit without effort, I would think there was something wrong with the 7 Remington, the logic goes along with the conflict when someone tells me they experience no difficult in chambering a 308 W in a 30/06 chamber even though the 308 W is larger in diameter at the shoulder by .011 thousands than the 30/06 at the same position when measured from the head of the case.

I would suggest someone purchase a few 7 Weatherby cases, lube and size them to 7 Remington, then determine the amount of effort required, moving the shoulder back .027 should require extra effort, the shoulder angle is greater on the Weatherby, therefore not all of the shoulder would require sizing when chambering or sizing

F. Guffey
 
#16 ·
Do you mean you shoot 3" shells in a 2 3/4" chamber? After being a range officer at a number of ranges for more years than I care to admit, I have seen some pretty strange things happen. I have found quite a number of 300 Win Mags that was shot in a 300 Weatherby and a few 303 Savages shot in a 303 British.
 
#15 ·
Cool more pics, I like your pics!
 
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