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.

[/url]

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+.

I've been very happy with 120gr Speer Deep Curls. They have proven very accurate in 3 different 257s. Only 3 deer so far but they have punched both shoulders and exited all 3 times. All 3 DRT. MV about 2950.

Very nice rifle. Looks like you ran out of room on those mounts/rings. Love the leupold tons of eye relief I take it...

Found some 100 gr NBT and a box of 100 gr partitions at a gunshow today. Brass and dies now

My .257 roberts shoots both 100 gr. bullets you mention, but with imr 4831 @ 3000 fps very well. The ballistic tip maybe having a small edge in smaller group category, Ether bullet works VERY well on deer.

The nice thing is its a mild mannered fella and is really easy for anyone to shoot well, regardless of bullets. It is seldom that a deer makes tracks and when one does, never very far they go. My .257 always is in the hands of younger members of the family in the course of deer season, and mine at times.

Got a very limited supply of 117 gr. semi-spitz old school 'lathe' partitions loaded for it right now powered by some 7828. They shoot very well and leave a noticeably larger exit hole in the deer they cleave.

Anyone ever use 120gr Hornady HPs?

I bought a couple boxes a few yrs ago, but never did get past using the Hornday 100gr SPs.


.

SC: great bullet, IME. Have used it a lot in a 257AI that just won't shoot partitions. Good expansion and penetration. The only one I ever recovered (hard quartering shot) looked like a Hornady ad. Oh yeah, it's been very accurate in several 257s and 25/06s.

My Roberts likes 100gr too well to switch, but have a 250AI in the works that I'll probably try the 120s in.

Cub,
Pics of what's left of a 120 Hornady HP, shot from a 25.06 hit the deer just behind the shoulder @ 175 yards. Blew up on impact, never hit bone, never made it to the chest cavity. I don't shoot them anymore.

Was quite impressed with 120PT in my 257Rob.

Oh crap! What's up with that! I have never seen a bullet fail that bad.

100 gr NBT & Hunter are flying rather nicely for me in my standard Bob:



But the 100 gr Hornady (my favorite 25 cal bullet evah!!!) and IMR-4350 is the choice combination through my Better Bob (3 @ 200):

100 grain sierra flat base the most accurate out of my 06

then i'd also shoot 100 grain ballistic tips
100 grain hornady flat base

117 gr SST. shot through the neck at 75 yards. the bullet punched through and left a dime sized exit wound

Lochsa, beauty of a buck for your part of the country.

You're right!

YUP

A lot of people think Partitions are inaccurate, but the first big game handload I ever found that would put 5 shots (not 3) into 3/4" at 100 yards was the 100-grain Nosler Partition in the Remington 722 I inherited from my grandmother. That was in 1988, before I knew nearly as much about accurate handloading as I do now, and the load got around 3250 fps.

I used that load and rifle not only to take what's still one of my biggest pronghorns at 430 yards, but put down a buck one of my guiding clients had wounded at around 550 yards. There were a few others in there as well, including one buck at 300 yards that took a 100 Partition in the right hip and collapsed immediately, dead because the bullet ended up in its left shoulder.

I picked up two boxes of Nosler BT 100 in 100 grains yesterday.
Powder will be H4350 cause I bought an 8lb jug a few weeks back.
Total of 200 rounds of BT's and 50 rounds of Partitions.
I will ask for a set of Redding dies for Christmas.

John, I agree on the partitions. A model 70 FWT I had would shoot the 115s into very small groups, and my Whelen cloverleafs the 250s at 100 yards.