.257 Roberts

[colorado]

Love the caliber. Never bought one, but think it's a truly great cartridge. It just makes me think of hunting mule deer in the high desert.

 

[Scrumbag]

Love my 257 Roberts.

Seems to be remarkably unfussy with heavier pills. (117-120gr)

So far have tried

120 Nosler Partition factory Federal Premium
117gr Sierra SBT (Hand Load)
120gr Speer SPBT (Hand Load)
117 Hornady SST factory Superformance - Not as good as other 3 but still perfectly acceptable

It's on an FN Commercial 98. Swaro 3-12x50 Z4i. Lothar Walther Barrel @ 24". Think It's a Timney Trigger.

Scrummy

 

[WAB]

I e never heard anything but good things about the Roberts. Somehow one has never found its way to my gun room.

 

[Scrumbag]

I e never heard anything but good things about the Roberts. Somehow one has never found its way to my gun room.

Do it!

 

[WAB]

Do it!

I’m very tempted to build a No 1 in .257 Roberts. I’ve always liked the look of the No 1 RSI.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

I’m very tempted to build a No 1 in .257 Roberts. I’ve always liked the look of the No 1 RSI.

@WAB
Would also be nice on a Browning Hiwall and an octagonal barrel. Now that would be nice.

My CUSTOM LOWALL.
A custom Hiwall in Roberts would be better looking than the Ruger in my view and I do like rugers
Bob

 

[Scrumbag]

I’m very tempted to build a No 1 in .257 Roberts. I’ve always liked the look of the No 1 RSI.

Find yourself a nice 7x57 receiver that needs a new barrel

 

[leslie hetrick]

i collect remington 721-722,s and one of them is a 722 in .257 roberts and a 115 gr bullet at 2900 fps is a good deer rifle.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

i collect remington 721-722,s and one of them is a 722 in .257 roberts and a 115 gr bullet at 2900 fps is a good deer rifle.

@ leslie hetrick
It's good to see someone knows how to load the Roberts to it's potential instead of the wimpy factory loads.
Bob

 

[C.W. Richter]

In process of saving for Africa (you know how that goes). I ran into an older gentleman getting out of reloading. I bought plenty that I could use for pennies on the dollar. Dies, bullets, powder, primers, etc.

However, he had a box labeled 257 Roberts. In the box there was a Redding 3 die 257 Roberts set, 200 plus pieces of brass (some virgin some once fired) and about 600 premium hunting bullets (Nosler, Speer Grand Slams, etc,) . Turns out some misguided soul bought his 257 and didn't want the reloading stuff. He said I could have it all for $75. So its mine.

I always wanted a 257 and this seemed like a way to back into one. I was thinking about attempting to build one with a Howa 1500 short action. My gunsmith maintains that the Howa short action is really an intermediate action and would be perfect for the build.

Not sure I am going forth with the project but I am doing the research.

Any thoughts?

Have a 257 improved and absolutely love it. Just shy of a weatherby with 26-in barrel and long action to take advantage of maximum powder capacity by seating bullets way out. I assume it's a similar case with the standard 257. A phenomenal deer round in America but I leave it at home when I go to Africa.

 

[leslie hetrick]

my roberts likes N560 as does my CZ 550 in 6.5x55.

 

[RayAtkinson]

Great caliber, used one for years growing up, a mod 722 and substituted a 06 follower so to seat the bullets way out, and that makes them even better..Good deer round and does a good job on elk, it your careful to place the bullet right...Today I favor the 250-3000 for no particular reason other than I just love the caliber in my Savage 99..

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

Have a 257 improved and absolutely love it. Just shy of a weatherby with 26-in barrel and long action to take advantage of maximum powder capacity by seating bullets way out. I assume it's a similar case with the standard 257. A phenomenal deer round in America but I leave it at home when I go to Africa.

@C.W. Richter
Why?

 

[bruce moulds]

the roberts is one of the cases that responds well ti ackley improving.
its tapered case is prone to stretching and lengthening - a thing that goes away with the ackley mod.
also due to the taper gains a significant ammount of case capacity.
so much so that it is equal to the std 25/06 ballistically.
bruce.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

the roberts is one of the cases that responds well ti ackley improving.
its tapered case is prone to stretching and lengthening - a thing that goes away with the ackley mod.
also due to the taper gains a significant ammount of case capacity.
so much so that it is equal to the std 25/06 ballistically.
bruce.

@bruce moulds
My own 25 started out as a standard 25/303 with a usable powder capacity of 48 grains of H4350/2209. After blowing the case out,moving the shoulder forward to give a one caliber neck instead of a .311 neck and giving it a 35 degree shoulder I can now fit 62 grains of H4831sc/ 2213sc into the case. Naturally I can't safely use all this and load accordingly.
With AI cases the old 4 :1 rule applies.
For every 4% increase in powder capacity you get a 1%increase in velocity. You also need more powder in the AI case to equal the standard case velocity at the same pressure. The AI case can only gain more velocity at an increase in pressure.
My own 25 case has been reloaded up to 8 times with only neck sizing and have not needed trimming.

A few of the cases that have had the AI/EPPS and Newton treatment. All are based on the 303 case and from left to right are 25 cal, 270, 303 and 35.
I only use the 25. The others were made up to see what the look like. They could make interest cartridges for a P14/M17 or a lovely single shot.
Bob

 

[C.W. Richter]

@C.W. Richter
Why?

With those thicker skinned/musculature/heavier/predator-oriented (built to get bit and still live) animals over there, I much prefer greater SD and terminal E (offered by 6.5-7-30-338s,) especially when hunting in a DG area. I also prefer the "walk-up" to measure no farther than the precise distance of the shot (esp. in low-light, in a lion area.) lol LOVE the .257 for deer/varmints at long range on the homefront, though! I only take the 6.5 if the distances are farther. I have not, as of yet, taken the 757 Improved to Africa, but I look forward to it (using much better suited 160ish gr bullets.) I know they now have 130ish gr bullets in .257, but I'm with Ruark, Robertson (and even Alphin-mentions the 257 in his book but not for Africa)-Use More Gun. Heavy-for Caliber-High SD. (SD of heavy 257s is .25, SD of heavy 6.5/7/30/338 is >.32). Why Bell et. al. used 6.5/7/30s for everything. Most people don't realize a wildebeest weighs 4x that of a deer and an impala or even springbok is simply 2x tougher! Have had all forms of 257s and currently working on a wildcat, but it's for deer at home and targets to 1,000 yds.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

With those thicker skinned/musculature/heavier/predator-oriented (built to get bit and still live) animals over there, I much prefer greater SD and terminal E (offered by 6.5-7-30-338s,) especially when hunting in a DG area. I also prefer the "walk-up" to measure no farther than the precise distance of the shot (esp. in low-light, in a lion area.) lol LOVE the .257 for deer/varmints at long range on the homefront, though! I only take the 6.5 if the distances are farther. I have not, as of yet, taken the 757 Improved to Africa, but I look forward to it (using much better suited 160ish gr bullets.) I know they now have 130ish gr bullets in .257, but I'm with Ruark, Robertson (and even Alphin-mentions the 257 in his book but not for Africa)-Use More Gun. Heavy-for Caliber-High SD. (SD of heavy 257s is .25, SD of heavy 6.5/7/30/338 is >.32). Why Bell et. al. used 6.5/7/30s for everything. Most people don't realize a wildebeest weighs 4x that of a deer and an impala or even springbok is simply 2x tougher! Have had all forms of 257s and currently working on a wildcat, but it's for deer at home and targets to 1,000 yds.

@C.W. Richter
The Roberts would be fine on the smaller game like blesbuck, impala, Springbok, warthog and others. It has also been used successfully on zebra and kudu with appropriate bullets. The 110grain accubonds, swift Aframe or Barnes TSX or TTSX would be fine.
I would have liked to taken my own 25 wildcat to Namibia but don't have appropriately head stamped brass a 120 grain Aframe ate 3,300fps or a 100grain Barnes ttsx at 3,670 fps would have gone well over there but I took my beloved 35 Whelen instead.
None of the game in Namibia that we shot is any tougher it's just that the vitals are located fitter forward and people sometimes forget. Put a bullet thru the lungs and heat you have one dead animal.
What wildcat are you building. My 25 with 115grain nosler combined technology silver tip bullets groups .80 inch groups at 200 yards all day and is travelling at a MV of 3,360fps chronoed.
Bob

 

[C.W. Richter]

Agreed. I just didn't want to lug around 3 guns for 1 person (and if my son goes, our case limits us to 2 PG, 2 DG and he'll def want his 7 or 300 and 375 so it's 6.5 or 338 and 416 for me!) It would be more than fine for the small stuff. I've witnessed the bigger stuff eat up .338s like candy (if too low an SD bullet is used, even in that caliber!)

 

[C.W. Richter]

I'd rather not say until it's done and out there! Should slightly exceed the Wby but in a smaller package.

 

[008]

Bell used a .256 extensively for meat production per "Wanderings".