Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles .257 Roberts and 35 Whelen

I have never had any experience with either .257 Roberts or .35 Whelen and plan to start reloading both as soon as I get dies and components. Any suggestions about bullets and powder would be appreciated.

I plan on using the .257 Roberts primarily for whitetail deer and using the .35 Whelen for elk.

I recently came into possession of two very nice Mausers that I plan on using as my primary hunting rifles.

Don't know much about the Whelen, but for deer with the Bob get some H4350 and 100gr Hornady Interlocks. Just about as good as it gets. If you want heavier bullets, try a 9 twist barrel. Lots of 10 twist don't do well with the heavies including all 3 that I've worked with.

I dunno, 10" is the standard twist for the Bob. I've had 5 or 6 of them, all of which shot very well with 117-120gr bullets. IMR4831 and H4831 seemed to work well in all of them. One of them (a Liberty Model77) refused to shoot 100gr bullets worth a flip, but loved 117gr Sierras. Just never know til you try.

I would agree that one of the 4350's would be a good choice for 100gr bullets.

I got out the cleaning rod just now and determined the barrel has about a 9.5" twist.

H4350 and 110 Accubonds right at 2920fps(for the Roberts).

Well that's about par for the course. I've shot up way too many dollars of powder and bullets trying to get the heavies to shoot in 2 factory barrels and one Douglas. Couldn't get under 1.25" with any of them. Tried H4350, Hunter, H4831SC and RL-15. Tried 115 Partitions, 110 AB, and 117 Sierras. Maybe it's time to try again since that Douglas has sat in the dark safe most of the winter. Might feel more like cooperating.

Try somewhere around 46-47 grains IMR 4350 with 100 grainers for the Roberts.
GreggH

I use IMR4831 and 100gr Hornady SPs and 110gr Nosler ABs in my 257.

The Whelen gets RE15 and Varget with 250gr Speers and 200gr Rem SPs.

I have no experience with the 257 Bob but lots with the Whelen. RL 15 works well through most guns but I like Varget better now, either would be good to try in your gun. I like the premium 225's like the Accubond, Partition and TSX they all work well on game animals. Any of the 250 gr bullets are great game bullets too with the Speer and Hornady bullets much cheaper to shoot.

RL15 is THE powder for the Whelen. The 225gr TSX is my choice for moose. A 225gr TSX at 2700 fps will do good things.

I don't know if this has anything to do with the twist issue on the Roberts, but let's not forget that when the cartridge was developed, the most accurate bullets tended to be round-nose, particularly the heavier weights,which will likely work better in a 10" twist,because they are shorter.

Everything sorta got "established" with the 10 twist and it seems to work uniformly fine with 75-100 gr bullets;but I, like many,have had "on again-off again" results with 117-120 gr bullets;noting similar comments from other shooters over the years leads me to conclude that some barrels are on the ragged edge,and if I were ordering a custom barrel for a Roberts today, I'd likely go with a 9" twist.

and there in a nutshell lies the problem I am having with most factory rifles that I had been considering. Take Kimber for instance the .223 is 1-9, Bob is at 1-10, .260 is 1-9 and the 308 is at 1-12, all too slow for heavier or longer monolithic bullets. Same goes with everyone else, Ruger, Remington (except the 308 is 1-10). In the Kimber the .243 and 7-08 might be ok. It must be cheaper to make slower twist barrels.

The go-to deer weight bullet for the 25 cal family is the 100 gr. The 100 gr Interlock w/ one of the 4350s will do you right... some love the relative temp insensitivity of the H, but in my rifles I run the IMR-4350.

The books show good numbers from RL-15 & 19 as well but I haven't tried either out at all because of the great results w/ IMR-4350.

Sorry; can't give any opinion on the Whelen, although it is an American Classic to be sure.

Good luck, and congrats on the wonderful acquisitions!

jimmy: Sorry to hijack, but you raise some good points.....that said, Krieger,Bartlein,etc will cut whatever twist you want..

Another vote for R-15 and 250 grn. Speer or Hornady's in your 35W.

Sorry, no help for the 257.

BP...

I've had good results with 100 gr. Sierras and Barnes 100 gr. TSX with IMR-4350 from my .257 Robt. It doesn't like the 120 gr. Speer spitzers though.
I've gotten very good results in the .35 Whelen with the 225 gr. Barnes TSX using RL-15. I've not done much work with the 250 gr. Speer and Hornady bullets, but I did get some good results with a stiff load of H-335 both in accuracy and velocity.
I like both cartridges and I'm sure once you get your loads worked up, you will too.
Paul B.

Notropis,
I have had good experiences with IMR 4320 and 225 gr. Nosler Partition on caribou and black bear. I can't see why it wouldn't work on elk?
whelennut

The .257 Roberts just works well at 2,700 fps or even less with 117-gr bullets, or faster with 100-grainers.

If you feel compelled to hit 2,900 fps with 115, 117, or 120 grain bullets, just get a .25-06.

100 gr Nosler BT & 46 gr H-4350. Sweeeet

Once again many Thanx to our Muledeer for this load.

Mark

MarkT +1 on that. That's my go to load in my Kimber.