coolbrze0

What's the effective range of a .257 Weatherby mag (assuming the shooter does his part) for antelope & whitetail? 500-600 yds.? What's a good scope to be able to see & shoot accurately out this far?

Bluesberry

Your 257 will be very effective at that range.. No problem,, just need to practice at 7 or 800 yards,, and 5-600 yards shots will be a chip shot.?? A 2x10 scope is more than enough scope.. good luck.. Pick a good bullet,,

Nomercy448

I generally consider that my scope choice and my cartridge choice should be dependent upon my desired targets and desired ranges, but not necessarily interdependent upon eachother.

In other words - I pick my scope based on what I need to be able to see, or WANT to be able to see at the range I'm shooting, not based upon what rifle it might be riding.

You've probably been around here long enough to have noticed that I tend to prefer to be "over magnified" compared to most folks. If I'm shooting 600yrds, then my scope will have a top end in the upper teens or twenties. I CAN shoot and have often shot a 3-9x40mm scope that far, but I DO shoot better with a scope that lets me zoom in closer. The downside of a high mag set up is that it lessens your field of view, reduces light transmission and makes you more vulnerable to distortion. As such, I tend to favor 30mm tubes and 50mm objectives.

So, for my hunting at 0-500yrds or 0-600yrds, the Leupold VX-3 4.5-14x50mm glass is what keeps me happy. It's a little low on mag power for what I'd like at long range, but it's just enough to keep me happy, and has a low end FOV that's very functional. The Leup VX-3 6.5-20x50 is another scope that I have used for longer range hunting rigs, but the 6.5x is a lot to deal with inside 50yrds (very small FOV).

A Bushnell Elite 6500 4.5-30x50mm would be another good choice. The Leup is better glass, but the Bushnell is about $150-200 cheaper, and has twice the magnification range.

One thing to consider also is internal adjustment. That Wby Mag is pretty flat shooting, but 600yrds is a bit of drop to account for. For example, some of the Nikon Monarch models used to only have 20MOA of internal adjustment in high mag scopes, so they'd limit your range unless you set them up in an angled base/mount, or in Burris Zee's.

flags

The effective range of any modern firearm probably exceeds the skill of the person squeezing the trigger. Unless you spend a lot of time practicing, even a 500-600 yard shot is beyond the ability of most hunters. I've never understood why anyone would want to shoot at game at those distances. I grew up in the wide open spaces of the west and the number of times I couldn't get closer that 300 yards could be counted on the fingers of one hand.

jeepkid

Because shooting stuff close gets boring.

My buddy made a 907 yard one shot kill last year on a whitetail buck, it's pretty cool being able to do that. My farthest kill so far is 500 yards. Just different strokes for different folks.

Ridge Runner

agreed, to me, there is nothing more exciting than TOF, your mind is running warp speed asking yourself if the proper steps were taken, if the calculations are correct, did I check the level, all the while watching the target in the scope wondering when is the damn bullet gonna get there. its a totally different world.

As far as the op's question, with the right bullet 1000 yards isn't impossible if you and your rifle are capable of it.
RR

Topgun 3006

Same here flags! IMHO it's just shooting and not hunting when a guy isn't in the same county for the animal to even know he's around or have a chance to escape! I don't know why people that want to show their skill at 1000 yards can't keep it on paper or gongs, rather than a living, breathing animal when they have a much bigger chance of wounding game as the range exponentially increases. More and more organizations like RMEF and B&C are coming out against this LR stuff and I hope a lot of people that are thinking about it read their stances and change their mind.

Ridge Runner

show me proof that there is more chance of wounding at extended range, where are the stats? I've hunted both ways a lot of years, killed more deer on accident than most will kill in their lifetime and I know this, I've never lost one shooting beyond 500 yards, have lost 2 inside 100, this is out of over 250 deer, so now is your chance, prove your stance or just drop the ...Deleted by CalHunter...
RR

Topgun 3006

Simple math man, simple math!

Ridge Runner

thats your proof, the formula used to get the trajectory right is also "simple math" if you haven't done it, you just don't know.
RR