Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 243win or 257roberts

Hey Brad, long time no see!


Grand total of one each for me.

Both 84's, both seemed to really like BT's at 200 yards during initial load work-up(aka get on paper) but groups went to hell at 400 yards. Switch bullets and found accuracy.


What brass did you like for the 243?


I have 200 pieces of 1x fired R-P brass and it appears to have uneven necks on 60-70% of the cases. Gonna scrap the whole lot as soon as I can find something better. Haven't looked lately but 243 brass was limited.

Sam,

Not Brad -- but I've seen the same thing with RP and Winchester brass. I've been buying a little Lapua at a time and it seems like good stuff. I may just stock up on it over time -- a long time!

I still shoot tons of RP brass though and probably will for years to come.

Daughter #1 was shooting my Roberts at the range today, getting in the only practice she will get before we go antelope hunting.

She was busting clay pigeons at 300 yards from a sitting position with a tripod. Antelope beware...

Darrik, do you know of any online sources for the good stuff?

Nice, even brass is worth every penny. One less variable anyway.

Couple boxes of Scenars showed up today. Grafs, same lot # and everything...grin

Sam,

You poke any critters with the Scenars yet? Did Pat turn you on to those? I've pondered trying them. Thanks.

Ted, no just started loading them this Summer.

Very curious, imagine a lung/rib shot will resemble most other bullets at similar velocity. Shoulder would be interesting.



Pat's success with the Scenars might have had something to do with it.

I hadn't heard of a Scenar until I heard of Scenarshooter.....grin

i went back and forth on this until i made the obvious choice.

....250 savage...lol

will have pics and groups posted as soon as work is finished.

Hey Sammer, I've used WW, RP, and Fed in the Rbt's and WW and RP in the 243. The 243's have typically been pretty easy to get shooting (a variety of M70's and 700's). The Rob's required more work (Mostly Rugers, a custom Mauser and a couple Kimbers). Both my Kimber Rob's wouldn't shoot anything above 100 grainers to my satisfaction, but others might not find that to be true with their rifles.

Regardless, I still prefer the Rob in a LA... just gives a handloader a bit more lattitude seating up to the lands. SAAMI standardized the Rob throat for the 117 grain RN bullet which gives it a very deep throat. Obviously a custom barrel can be set up any way. And, were it me, I'd give the Rob a 1-9" twist.

Not at the moment. I can find 308, but no 243. They'll be some soon. I'm going to try some Norma too.

I used to buy as much cheap brass as I could for each cartridge I shoot. Now I'm looking at the good stuff, but in smaller quantities.

I still use RP and WW in the 223.

I'm not Sam, but I tried Scenars (6.5mm) this year because of the same guy! Though my load was pretty pedestrian at approx. 2500fps, the 139gr Scenars worked well on 4 pronghorns from 45yds to 350+yds. All but one exited. All had a small entry hole and lots of messed up plumbing with a silver dollarish exit. I think for deer/pronghorn sized stuff I'll keep using them out of my 260 Rem.

each year i see lots of bullet wounds on whitetail and elk,gemsbok, axis,black buck,pigs,coyotes, bobcat, and animals shot from every angle you can shoot and animal, entry and exit wound have always intrested me as well as damage to the critters bone structure and tissue. i see a lot of critters killed with .223,22-250, 243,.270, 308, and a few with .257,and 30-06, and 7mm.some of these critters will weigh close to 900# when i compare those killed with a good 95=105 gr. bullet to those killed with a 105-130 gr bullet i cannot see much difference. in the damage they cause, when you go up to 150-200 gr. there is a big differance in damage, to tissue and bone.in the argumennt .243x257, i cant tell the differance in the wounds, they are just dead critters.size weight condition,will make a differance in what a bullet will do or wont do, shot placement is the key to good 1 shot kills. i have been kinda studying this stuff for about 50 years, and do not consider myself an expert, counting predators we kill about 1200 critters a year here on the ranch some days can get real intresting. rio7

That sounds about right. The Roberts makes warm fuzzies; the 243 easily makes warm fuzzies die.

I stopped back to look at that Ruger 257 MKII today after duck hunting. I don't believe it has been fired. We struck a very fine deal and I ended up taking it home. Searched high and low for a couple boxes of shells and finally found a some for $40 a box. Ouch!! Bought 2 boxes of the Hornady 117 SST Superformance. I have got to get some dies. Shopping for a scope tomorrow before I go back out duck hunting.

This is it. Setup with a Leupold VX2 in 3-9x40 and an old Montana sling.
Was quite a chore to find a gloss scope these days.
What do you guys think?

That'll cover a lot of what hunting is done in WI. Nice! You won't regret it. I am at a point in my life where #'s of rifles don't mean schitt to mean (hence selling off might just start), there usefulness does. My Ruger Ultralight 257 Roberts w/ a 100g bullet is about as useful as it get for me.

Dale

I do understand the usefulness part but options in rifles aren't that bad.
Can't wait to get this to the range this coming weekend.
I have two boxes of Hornady 117 gr SST and a box of Win 117 grainers

Bet you'll love it! Nice rig.

Options are nice, I agree. My problem was and still is: I don't shoot the options :-) I am usually grabbing for my Roberts or my 35 Remington. I'll get rid of the fat and get a few handguns. My son wants a PPK, the whole James Bond thing, and I want a Walther P38 for starters.

Dale

Glad this did not turn into the mess the .243/25-06 thread did. I have both a .243 and a .275AI but have yet to kill a deer with either. Both are great Varmint rigs and were designed as such. The .243 is a Winchester M70 heavy barreled varminter with 1:10 twist. Shoots 55 and 70 grain Nosler BT's good but cant get it to shoot a 95 grainer or other deer sized bullet.

The .257 has a 26 inch medium weight varmint barrel 1:10 twist if memory serves and will shoot 75 grain V-Max and 115 grain Nosler Partitions both very well.

For me the .257 is the more versatile of the two. It does what I built it to do. It makes a good all around rifle for farmland here in PA. Now maybe I will leave the other rifles home this year and kill some deer with it.