Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Question For The 257 Roberts Gurus

Who has built a 257 on a short action and did you use a magazine extension? I'm wanting to shoot a 100 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip and wondered on a SAAMI spec reamer if you were able to get close to the lands and still get it in a short mag box. Most of my manuals are showing tested lengths for that bullet at 2.750 but I don't know approximately how far from the lands that would be. I think my max mag length is 2.900 Any advice is greatly appreciated.

I'm not an expert, but have been down that same road before. I built mine on a short action with the intention of shooting the 100 gr BT's too. I did request that it be throated accordingly and even provided a dummy round that took full advantage of the S/A mag box for that purpose. Somebody wasn't paying attention and used a SAAMI reamer anyway. Been a few years and I can't recall exactly how much longer the SAAMI throat was, but I could not reach it given the mag box confines. Did not use a wyatts box, but don't think it would have helpedI did send it back to get the throat issue corrected and have been happy with it since. Ironically, the BT's ended up liking a little jump in that barrel, so it might not have been worth the trouble to have it short throated to start with.

I had a SA M70 CRF so chambered. Max OAL is 2.800. Shoots fine with the 100gr. TSX.

I agree. All you have to do is send a few dummy rounds with your bullet choice loaded to about 2.8" to 2.82" and tell the smith to kiss the lands. Just about any smith can do that.

A short action is all you need for a Roberts round. As long as you have the throat cut the way you want it.

TSX or TTSX ain't too picky. It could be the easy solution to a long-throated short action rifle.

Thanks fellas, I appreciate the info.

Good info

I used a standard Clymer reamer and have 2.932" O.A.L. to the lands with 100 grain Nosler Ballistic Tips. My gun likes 2.915" O.A.L.