Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Which 257 Roberts bullet?

I want to start gathering some bullets for my Ruger 257 Roberts rifle. Bullet selection around town lately has been horrible at best. Would like to load 100 grain bullets. Saw some NBTs but also quite a few Speer hot core bullets. They were reasonable and half the cost of the NBTs. Anybody have experience with the hot cores?
Purpose is to punch holes in paper and hunt whitetails. My shots are generally about 50 yards and hardly ever longer than a hundred.
Powders I have on hand are Varget and H4350

Either will work on deer, and will probably work better if you don't push them much over 3000 fps. The BT will also be more accurate if shooting tiny groups is important.

I have started shooting the 87 g hot-cor's in my .250 savage and have been very impressed with them so far. that being said, BT's have been really nice projectiles in every cartridge I've tried them in. The BT's cost a little bit more, but not a whole lot more. They are very reasonable compared to other "premium" bullets.

I shoot the 100 gr HotCors in my Roberts and as MD mentioned, also keep them around 2900 fps. They've worked great with a good wound channel but not explosive on deer size game. My Montana has an affinity for them with a consistent POI and a little over 1 MOA; nothing to brag about by any means but for hunting it's plenty good.

100 grain TTSX and Hybrid 100v.

Explosive would be nice as I don't want any deer I shot to make it to the neighbors property.
What would you consider DRT bullets in the 257?

117 grain Sierra. considering ranges given and cartridge.

The best bullet i have used in the 257 is the Nosler 100 gr Partition

Now you've done it,bea. I have a pre 64 std. 257 Bob barreled action somewhere in my safe. Got some 100 NPs as well. Hopefully I can find a stock in my misc. department in the gun room.

WV deer are easy to kill.

Denny.

Agree.


There is no such thing as a "DRT" bullet for deer,although it happens often enough that some believe the fairy tale.

i have been using 2 different bullets over the 12 yrs or so that i have been shooting the 257, i have a Ruger No.1 and a m77 Hawkeye. they both seem to group better with a Sierra SPBT 117grain, but a year or so ago my local gun shop owner talked me into a 117 grain Hornady SST, it doesnt group as well, but it is deadly on deer. not that the Sierra was bad, because it was good as well. i load them both over 43 grains of imr 4350.

I used 115gr Nosler Partitions with Great results on
Antelope. IMR 4350 is a good starting point. H4831 and
RL22 goes faster.

Try Boyd Laminated or Walnut Stocks .

Maybe DRT is the wrong term to use but I was hoping people would understand.
Some properties up north by us are split up 40 here 40 there or if your lucky you own more than 80 acres. Out rifle season is 9 days long with these 40 acres often have 4 guys hunting them. As you could imagine a hunter does not want his buck claimed by his neighbor. I mainly hunted deer with a 30 cal but have used a 270 and a 280 plus a couple large bores. This is my first dive into a smaller bore rifle and I like the low recoil the Roberts has. So a faster upsetting bullet would be what I'm after. The partition might be it but they are a little pricey. The SST has been fantastic in larger bores but can't find them around here.

For me the 90 grain Sierra Gameking HP was a stopper. This bullet will shoot through a whitetail with ease with about any angle you shoot a deer. This was recommended to me directly from a Sierra tech several years ago. I loaned the rifle I had at the time to a friend and he said it stopped them as fast as the 25/06 117's he was used to shooting.

[quote=10gaugemag]For me the 90 grain Sierra Gameking HP was a stopper. This bullet will shoot through a whitetail with ease with about any angle you shoot a deer. This was recommended to me directly from a Sierra tech several years ago. I loaned the rifle I had at the time to a friend and he said it stopped them as fast as the 25/06 117's he was used to shooting. [/quote

Shoulder shots?

Sloppy weather on the way so it's going into an original Pacific Research Rimrock.

The original wood is just too nice to be out in the woods.

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Just so happens I have a box of these I won't be needing if you're interested

I would trust them to get through the onside shoulder. Not sure about both.

100g Hornady and 115g NBT have worked well for me. The 100g at just over 3000 and the 115g at 2900+.