Question for chad and other reloadeders- .257 wby mag

Talked to a guy who claimed using handloads he was able to get 3700 FPS using retumbo and a 110 grain bullet.

Said he didn’t see any excessive pressures.

Is he full of it or is this realistic?

If so, would turn an already impressive cartridge into a dragon


( asking this because regretfully after a handful of animals killed I can’t tell a difference in knockdown vs. my boring old .270)

I could see 3500, maybe 3550 fps with the right combination. Is 150-200 fps faster doable? Not sure. But that's fast. And the onl;y way to get crazy high speeds is pressure. So, didn't see any excessive pressure signs running 3700 fps would be false. There are certainly pressure signs on that. Added barrel length will help increase speed, of about 30 fps per inch in this cartridge combination. Is it doable, maybe.

I run a 100 grain SP bullet in the 270 Win at 3500 fps, which is really fast. It's over 100 fps faster than most data. It shoots good too, and kills great. But I would never load this to sell it since it's such a warm load.

I'd lean to the no side on that too.

Also have a 90 grain speer load for my 270. Think around 3400 fps. It is DEVASTATING on varmints.

Velocity may not be a "visible" pressure sign, but it's a pressure indicator nonetheless. Sometimes the signs you see on your fired cases won't show until your beyond 70,000 psi. If the man isn't using a really long barrel, he's probably flirting with catastrophe.

I suppose it's possible, here's my thoughts. What's unique to wby is the freebore and the real world pressures it can handle. In the family we had several 6.5x257 wbys built back in 2007. I opted to have as little freebore as possible. I opted for this because after research I concluded the freebore is what makes some wby's not shoot and others shoot lights out. Hence the 1.5" accuracy guarantee on most MK V rifles. On the other hand the two rifles built had whatever the normal freebore is (can't recall). Both those rifles were consistently faster by a good margin. I was basically at good ol 264 win mag velo using a fair amount of more powder. I would hypothesize that if the freebore dimensions were right it could get those speeds but he's flirting with danger imo either way.