Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters JB/others: 257 Rob. AI load questions...

1- Any recommended loads for the 110 gr Accubond. I have these on hand: Hunter, Big Game, H4831SC, WLR primers, and fire formed rem brass. The rifle is a early ULA M20, 257 AI, 23" barrel.

JB, I have tried the recipe that you mentioned in handloader #199, for the 115grn partition. I have tried this load with H4831SC and Hunter in place of RL19 for better cold weather performance. Working up carefully, I can't quite get the velocity that you did. After all the work to get there, I can't help but notice that my velocity is not much better(less than 100fps) than what is now listed for the Hornady Superformance load for the regular Roberts. Perhaps I have a slow barrel, as the Fed 120grn partition load runs about 100fps slower than listed in my rifle.

So my question is, in the 12 or so years since you wrote that article, are you still as excited about the 257 AI today? The more I play with this rifle, which has been a lot of fun, the practical side of me is wondering if the little extra performance is worth all the fuss.

Thanks in advance,

Tom

Partridge: I'm certainly not JB, but I agree with your conclusion. A 257AI has been my most-used deer rifle for the last 15 years or so. It shoots 120gr Hornady HP's or Speer Hot Cores at about 3050fps and has done a great job for me. But when all is said and done,as you say, I'm not sure it's worth the extra 100fps or so.

BUT you "never" have to trim the brass and the cartridge looks cool!

Tom,

No, I'm not excited about the .257 AI anymore. Even in my rifle the loads listed in my article were a little on the warm side.

After hunting with the .257 AI for a couple of seasons, eventually decided that while some difference could be seen on a chronograph between the standard and AI .257's, there wasn't any practical difference in the field. About the only real advantage is the non-stretching brass, which in a big game rifle means squat.

Instead I switched to the .257 Weatherby Magnum, for a very noticeable advantage when I choose to hunt with a .25 bigger than the .257 Roberts. I still do hunt with the Regular Bob as well, in fact have three of them at the moment.