257 Roberts notes
Clint, I like the round. And I believe it is still largely unpopular due to the following.
1. Factory ammo is loaded very light, to protect against liability when a user is shooting a 50 year old action, or Mexican mauser. Prospective buyers look at the ballistic charts, and write-off the Roberts as being a "round with rainbow-ballistics".
2. Very limited new offerings from gun manufacturers.
BUT, for a handloader, who finds a modern actioned Remington 700, or Ruger, or Winchester....what a nice surprise you have in store! Accurate, versatile, fast, and flat-shooting are words you dont usually hear attached to the grand old 257 Roberts, but get used to them. The round comes into a new dimension that few know about with the advent of new powders, bullets, strong actions, and "Plus P" (plus pressure rated) brass.
Ive talked on the phone with Speer engineering technician Dan Imthurn at length about reloading the Bob. He, and another engineer, forgot his name both told me that the 50,000 CUP that they loaded to for their manual is conservative. They said that the new Plus+P brass is every bit as strong as the 6MM Remington (basically same case, w/smaller bore size and shoulder angle). They load the 6MM Remington to 52,000 CUP. But because they fear some of the older actions are still in use, they err on the side of caution.
I am not advocating you go way over the top of what the manuals recommend, but only that their data is easily acheivable.
In fact, after buying mine, a few people recommended I ream the chamber to Ackley dimensions. I almost did it, but spent a month working with new loads, trying many powders and bullets. In the end, the loads I settled on (which are not smokin' hot, btw) were only 100 or 150 fps slower than the Ackley versions in the 115 to 120 class bullets. And with light bullets, which represent 95% of my shooting with that gun, there was virtually NO difference in speed. Not worth the trouble for my intended use, which is for a windy-day coyote rifle good on the open ground to 500 yds.
With 70 and 75 grain bullets, I ran up to 3870 fps, and backed down to a good moderate load using W748 at 3600 fps.
With 85 gr. Nosler Ballistic tips, using either H4350 or R-19, 3400 is a good accuracy node.
With 90's W-760 is handy at 3300 fps. 100 grainers at 3200 fps work will atop 46 grains of H 4350..and are VERY accurate. 3 shot groups in the .3" range are common from my factory sporter barreled Rem 700.
The 115's and W760 go about 2850, and should handle any deer, antelope, or pig within 250 or so yards.
In summary, the Roberts went from the
MOST popular deer round in the 50's, to the least in the 70's, and rightfully so, as the Weatherby, the 243 and 6mm all shot faster in the "light deer rifle" class, and all became more popular. But few (if any) of the "old-school" rounds are more improved by modern hand loading techniques.... than the 257 Roberts.
