I'll need to wait until the new gun comes in. I'll get with ya.

is that considered a hot load?

My factory ammo gets about that velocity with 180 grain accubonds.

Not a hot load at all. There's no free bore in this barrel. My winning charge is 4 grains below published maximum. The brass was giving me an early pressure sign so I didn't push towards maximum. Probably 100% of the time my loads will be significantly faster than factory ammo. 180's are not something I load in .300 Win Mag hardly ever, but 3000+ is what I would expect to safely achieve.

Local Academy had 2 boxes of Hornady American Whitetail today for $29.99. Also picked up a case of Remington Heavy Dove load 20 gauge.

I have long wanted a 7/08 , but there has been a 270 in my life for 50 years.
MO

7-08

Is free bore a good thing or bad? Doesn’t Weatherby have what most consider to be a lot of free bore? Do some cartridges benefit from free bore? Just curious

It is good until it isn't.

0 free bore means you can situate the bullet in rifling (I don't do) even with rifling, or jump to rifling as much as you choose, .001", .002" and so on. And you're still fitting in the magazine. But you might have removed room in the brass for powder. Depending on cartridge and bullet length.

Having a chamber cut with a certain amount of free bore can allow someone to still get the bullet even, or very close to rifling, have more room for powder, and still fit in a magazine.

Factory rifles with a huge amount of free bore, often bullets are having to jump a large amount (+.100") before engaging rifling. You've got room in the brass for powder, but you are still bound by mag length. So you can load to mag length, and be jumping a great amount. Sometimes that's not a big deal, depending on what bullet you're using. Sometimes it is difficult to get the cartridge, powder, bullet combo to shoot to my liking with a great deal of free bore.

Too late.

Bullets mater more than headstamps.

Bullets matter more than headstamps.