I'm new to the whole .257 Roberts thing, having won a Browning A-Bolt II Medallion in that caliber as a raffle prize early last October and just in time for huntin' season.
I did all of my larger game hunting with it from October to the end of last month. I used plain old cup and core 117 gr. Hornady Interlock BTSP's over 40 grains of IMR 4350 in Nosler brass. So far, that's the only load I've shot out of the rifle. It's sub-M.O.A. and seemed to work fine on the mule deer, cow elk, whitetails, and feral hogs I've shot with it thus far.
But I'm not surprised. I might be new to the .257 Roberts but I have a three-decade long relationship with the .250 Savage via the Ruger M77RL Ultralight I bought new in that caliber back in 1985. They seem like "peas in a pod" so far, too me.
I used to use the Sierra 120 grain GameKing HPBT but for the first several years that I had my .250 Savage Ultralight, I lived fairly close to Sierra's former Santa Fe Springs, CA plant and used to buy them (and other bullets for other firearms) by the pound in paper sacks. It took me decades to shoot through all of my 120 gr. GK's. I tried the Hornady 117 gr. BTSP Interlock in the .250 Savage when I ran out of 120 gr. GK's and couldn't find any locally to me. They worked just as well as the 120 gr. GK's had for me, so I wound up using them in my Roberts.
I really like these little quarter-bores because they seem to provide me "everything I need" in terms of effective range, accuracy, and game-taking thump and penetration, but "nothing I don't" like harsh recoil and ear-splitting report.
Being such a long time .250 Savage fanboy, it pains me to admit it but I think if I could only have one rifle, the Roberts has just that little bit extra "oomph" to psyche me in to thinking that I could kill everything I want to hunt from bull elk on down with one, if it was all I had.
Last edited by TeleCaster; 03/24/15.
