Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles .257 Roberts? .260 Remington?

I'm curious. Does anyone here use either of these cartridges for varminting? If so how do you like them? I'm thinking of getting a Remington 700 Mountain Rifle in one of these cartridges.

Chuck

Well, useful bullet range for the .257 is 60 to 125 grains.
The useful bullet range for the .260 is 85 to 160 grains.

Depends on the twist rate and how small and fast you wanna go...

Almost any cartridge from .30 on down can be used for varmints. But once you get over .224" the chance of a richocett increases. Once the .257 Roberts was considered a candidate for a long range chuck gun but when it came out the bullets just were not made right and accuracy was spotty.

The bullet situation was straightened out around 1949 and not long after that the 6mm's came out and became popular for both varmints and small deer. The only .25 to have any real popularity is the old .250 Savage.

Back in the 50's one of the kids in our circle had a 722 in .257 Roberts. Those were heavy rifles with a 26" barrel. His rifle was as accurate as any of ours.

Today the .257 Roberts is were it's always been, too small for most game and too big for most varmint hunting. Not that they don't go bang it's just that they are best for nothing.

I love the 75gr V-Max in most all 25's. Only in the most capacious offerings(25-06AI and 257Wby) do I favor more bullet weight for play.

No secret I dote on the 25-284 and 75gr V-Max combo,it is fun like few others....................

I'd go with the 257 Roberts. I like the 25 cal bullets. You can use the light ones for varminting, shoot all day and not be beat to hell with it.

You can then use a good 25 cal bullet and take pretty much any game animal you wish, except the really big stuff, Griz, etc...

I think it makes an excellent deer cartridge.

This kid with the .257 Roberts was hunting on a hillside in VT. As I recall the only load he had was the 75 gr hp due to a shortage of funds. As he was leaning on a tree in the woods a older hunter came up the hill towards him and spoiled his spot for a moment and to make it worse he came up to my old buddy and started a conversation. He asked what caliber he was shooting and was told it was the .257 Roberts. The older hunter shook his head and said that the Roberts was no good for deer here in the woods and the 30/06 was the gun to get.

Finally he left and in just a moment a buck came into view and the Roberts spoke just once and the buck fell dead.

As the Roberts guy prepared to dress out the buck the expert came down the hill to see what happened. He watched as my buddy cut open the stomach wall and the guts spilled out and the expert thru up at the sight.

The big difference are the throat dimensions of the chamberings. The .260 has a nice short throat to fit a short action. But the .257 has a long throat to fit the 100-117 gr. round nose bullets that were loaded in it when it first came out. Seat a 100 gr. spitzer bullet out to the lands and you need a 3.0-3.3 magazine box and action lenth to accomindate the round.
Last I heard, Ruger makes their .257 Bob's in their long action just to allow this practice. E

Chuck,

I have shot a number of critters with both cartridges and think that the 257 Roberts might be a better choice if you are going to shoot a lot of small varmints, like P-dogs. The 75 and 90 grain Sierra BTHPs are great varmint bullets in the 257. If I was going to casually shoot a few dozen woodchucks each season, I'd pick the 260 in a Remington 700 LSS Mountain Rifle and load it with the 95 grain Hornady V-Max. Another advantage that the 260 has over the 257 in your neck of the woods is that the 140 grain Partitions might be a better choice for black bear and/or moose then any of the lighter 257 bullets. I wouldn't have any concern about being able to cleanly kill a moose or black bear that got to within a couple of hundred yards of me with the right load from any of my 260 rifles.

Speaking of 257 Roberts', the Postwoman just delivered 1, so I've got to get the Pentex 3-9x compact mounted, bore sighted, and out to the range. See ya!

Jeff

I've got a 260 in a Rem. Mtn. rifle. It's favorite bullet is a 95 gr. V-max, and will shoot them under 1"
I've also got a 257 Roberts that I picked up recently. It seems to like the 75 gr. V-max.
So which is my favorite? I like 'em both!
Virgil B. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

I'm in the midst of building up a short action walkin' rifle for med-large varmint up to med-sized deer. Both cartridges were on the short list when I started the project. One thing that swayed my choice was a recent article by John Barnsness (AKA Mule Deer) in handloader.

The article is about the Roberts, but in it he mentioned the 260 and pointed out that many of the good .264 game bullets (125-140 Nosler Pt) are a little stiff for deer. Assumption being they were built more around the .264 Winnie. Also, the number of lighter bullets available in .264 is rather limited. All in all, he was not favorable toward the overall mix of bullets in .264 cal. for a small case cartridge.

There are enough 75-90 gr. bullets available in .25 cal that I was swayed in that direction. I will have a custom barrel and throat so I will have the option of having it throated for a 100 gr. bullet @ 2.790" This will still give me plenty of neck to hold all the way down to a 75 gr. V-max. Is the Mt. Rifle in .257 built on the short action? If so, and if the throat is long, that may be an issue. From John's article, it sounds as if the throats are shorter these days.

JimF

I use the 75gr V-Max in my 257 IA. I love it. We mostly shoot groundhogs but my wife shot a truck load of prairie dogs with it a couple years ago.

Mark H

Since factory loadings are so poor and so limited, the Roberts is a handloading proposition. I've had one since 1977, and it's my favorite rifle. I've killed around 30 whitetails with it, using 100 grain bullets, and it has taken no few coyotes and even prairie dogs with Sierra 75 gr HP's.
As a handloader, and this is a handloading forum, I'd pick the 6.5mm Swede over the 260. It's an old low-pressure version of the more modern, higher-pressure 260.

I like the 260 for coyotes. The 85 gr. Sierra, 90 gr. Speer TnT, 95 gr. V-Max, and 100 gr. NBT, Sierra HP, and Hornady SP would all be fine choices if fur damage isn't a concern. The 257R would do equally well, with 75-100 gr. bullets of similar construction. Both make very good deer rifles as well. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

This is really off the topic, but what the heck. I really think that Remington missed the boat with the .260. It's too close to the 7-08 in use and performance to carve its own niche in the shooting world. I would have been much happier if they had necked the .308 case down to .257 instead (I know, it's called the .25 Souper). That would create some distance between it and the 7mm-08: the 7-08 seems suited more to a dedicated deer gun, whereas the .25-08 is more of a double duty deer and varmint rifle.

I understand that the .260 is not selling that well. I wonder how the .25-08 would have done?