I'm looking to buy my daughter a stainless 257 Roberts. She wants to stick with the 257R, because she currently hunts with her Ruger RL in 257R.
What options in stainless are out there? New and used

Montana 84m ,used
Hunter 84m used

Limited run of Ruger RSI stainless by Lipsey's.

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/1018315176

Remington made a small non-cataloged run of 700 Classics in stainless. I've never seen one, but have seen them advertised, but not very often, on GB. They also cataloged a one year run of 700 CDL-SFs in 257 ROB.

Other than the 700 CDL-SFs that were a limited one year item, only Kimber has cataloged them in stainless as a regular production item for any length of time and, as previously noted, Ruger made that small non-cataloged run of Hawkeye RSIs for Lipsey's. Remington may have made other non-cataloged 700s in 257 ROB, they used to do that for Grice Guns in Clearfield, PA, on a regular basis. Last year I sold a 700 ADL Synthetic in 257 ROB that was a non-cataloged Grice special order, so there may be stainless Remingtons out there somewhere that I'm unaware of.

Not too long ago, somebody just about gave away a Kimber Hunter in 257 ROB on this site. Once it was posted in the free classified ads it didn't last long.

Kimber 84 Hunter


Remington 700's






Ruger M77 RSI


Ruger No. 1A & No. 1 RSI

Buy a used stainless rifle in 30-06 or 270 and swap the barrel.

Kimber hunters are great in my opinion, I’ve owned several. I think they dropped the 257 recently but they can be found pretty often and aren’t all that high.

ER Shaw will build you their Mark VII (Savage actions) with an endless array of options for a very reasonable price.

You could make one cheaply out of a Tikka T3x in .25-06.

If you’re hand loading, it probably isn’t a hard thing to load the 25-06 to near the 257 Robert velocity.

Buy a 6.5 creedmoor and save a lot of money.

That's what I did in a LA TI take off stock. Faux TI as a result. Perfect deer rifle.

easier said than done... doable but does he have access to a gunsmith?

that's not a 257R. Daughter wants a 257, not a creedmore

Wes, their are options out there. You may have to look under a hundred rocks before you find the one you want but you can get it if you keep looking. Just have patience and do your homework. And, in time..the right one will show up.

A while back I was in search of looking for a good action to do a custom 243 build for my daughter. People told me buy a factory 243 and save the money, but the point was... I wanted her to experience the same thing as me: have a full blown, custom built, high quality rifle. I researched and did my homework and was able to get my hands on a Sako L57 action ( no longer made) and the rest is history. I have never regretted it since!

The .257Roberts is not a bad place to be with regards to case capacity, recoil, and bore diameter. I understand if a .257 shooter wants another for nostalgia's sake, but inside every 6.5CM lies all the friendly .257Roberts traits and capabilities, plus the advantage of oodles of factory ammo and the ability to shoot 130-160gr bullets if need be. If you want to launch 100-120gr deer bullets with 45-ish grains of powder, they are practically two peas on the same pod and no animal will know the difference. I'd grab a new SS Tikka or 700 and tell myself it's the "modernized Roberts".

This is where I am coming from and it makes a lot of sense unless you just want to throw money at it. I bought my son a Ruger UL in 257 Roberts back when Ruger was still chambering them. I have seen that rifle go for over 2K on Gunbroker which is crazy.

Yeah, I've had a semi-custom .257Roberts before, and while it was (and still is) a good chambering, the factory ammo options are rather limited. I moved on to the various small-cased 6.5mm chamberings after spending some time with the Roberts. The 100gr 6.5mm TTSXBT allows them to muscle in a bit on the .257 territory these days. $2k for a factory Ruger 77 is too rich for my blood for sure.....

Thanks guys. I do handload, so I realize I can mimic the .257R with more common calibers. I was in a big gun store last week and they did not stock any variations of 257R or 7x57. Looks like a semi custom may be the best route unless I luck up on a Montana. I do have a Remington Classic in 257R I could sell to fund the project.

Wes, if you’re a reloader, there is no Creed advantage. For a non-reloader, the Creed is the logical choice.

Get her the Roberts.

DF

Where will she get her ammo when her father has passed or is no longer able to reload ammo for her?

This comes close to home 'cause I load my daughter's 260 REM ammo and think about what she should do before I pass or am no longer able to reload ammo for her.

Not that I don't like the 257 ROB or the 260 REM, but as you say, the 6.5 Creedmoor is the logical short action bridge cartridge between the 243 and 308 in 2024.

Obvious answer, teach that young’un to reload!

DF

That might work for the OP's daughter, but I doubt that mine would consider that a serious option. I'll probably just give her a Kimber Hunter in 6.5 CM at some point in time and repurpose the Remington 700 in 260 REM for myself.

No reload, the manbun is the answer.

I have both, like both. But I do reload.

Concerning the Creed, ya gotta work at reloading to beat, or even equal factory ammo. Can’t say that about many rounds. Maybe none, short of match ammo for .308 and such. But just random ammo off the shelf, the Creed is pretty unique.

DF

(I commenting on the "process", not a particular cartridge or rifle choice)

My wife won a deer hunt in a raffle. She insisted that she have her own rifle. I couldn't argue with that, so I went rifle shopping.

After looking at all the options, the 6.5CM was the obvious best choice for her. Good power for hunting without overwhelming her with recoil. Lots of options in factory ammo and rifles on the market. All she cared about was that the rifle have pretty wood. As long as it did the job, she had no cares about the cartridge.

And, while I spend hours in the reloading room trying to squeeze a 3/4" rifle down to a 1/2" rifle, she doesn't care one bit about such details. She is happy as long as the rifle is good to about 300 yards, which is far longer than she'll ever take a deer.

I had to hold my nose while buying it, but she is super happy with her new Browning X-Bolt Medallion in 6.5 CM.

In other words, the whole point was to make her happy, not me.

You don't have to live near a gunsmith.
Ship the barreled action off to PacNor ( or whoever you want) and then they ship it back directly to you.

Load up a lifetime supply for her before you kick the bucket.
My daughter shoots about 3 rounds a year.
She's 18 now. 200 rounds would get her to 80 with a few left over.

If my daughter has ammo, she tends to shoot it, all of it.

During the pandemic she shot up all of the 380 ACP that she had for her CC handgun and was shocked when there wasn't any available anywhere. She has a S&W 422 to practice with, but rather than shot plentiful .22 LR ammo, she shot up all of the hollow point self-defense 380 ACP ammo that she had and she was just plinking pop cans with it.

Ouch!

Good thing she loves to shoot. That’s how you get good.

That girl needs a high output Dillon set up. Poor old Pops needs to relinquish some of his reloading time to the main family ammo burner.

DF