"The major point, however, is that if somebody did rebarrel a bunch of 93's for the factory .257, it would have had to happen AFTER the .257 Roberts became a SAAMI-approved factory round--which means the low pressure limit was NOT due to rebarreled 93 Mausers,"
I'll buy that. I've also alway thought those small ring Mausers just may have been stronger than credit was given regarding their strength. I never had one of those in a .25 caliber anything but I did have a neat 7x57 that to this day I'm still kicking myself for selling.
I do have two rifles in .257 Roberts, a Ruger #1B and a Winchester M70 Featherweight. The Ruger is very accurate with the only ammo I've run through it, a 100 gr. load by Norma. I don't think Norma even make that ammo anymore. Pity. I never got around to running any hand loads in that rifle.
The M70 on the other hand is driving me sane. My sun in law bought one in .257 and wanted me to work up a load for his with the 100 gr. TSX. He buys the components, leaves me with the rifle and I have fun. IIRC, I worked with IMR 4350 and worked up to the max load in the Barnes #4 manual without any problems and the load was MOA. Velocity was within a few FPS of the Manual. So, when the chance to buy an NIB M70 FWT at a good price showed up I started with the IMR4350/TSX combo and worked up to the max with nothing to show for my trouble but dismal accuracy Most groups were larger than 3". Tried some with the 100 gr. Sierras, Game Kings and Pro-hunters but again lousy accuracy. Guess I'll get back to the drawing board sometime in the next year. Too many other projects in the way.I will say that FWT is a pleasure to shoot regarding recoil. I must be getting old. Ya think?
Paul B.
