Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Why so little talk about 257 Robert's loads ?

I picked this rifle up in the ‘fire ‘fieds back in the summer of 2008 from TJ3006 for a song. It was a 7x57 with a Timney safety & nicely turned military tube in a pale walnut Weatherby-style Fajen.

I sent it to my gunsmith to have a Dakota 3-position safety installed, and it was suggested that perhaps I ought to consider recutting the chamber & re-heat treating the receiver too. I agreed, and the thing morphed into an 8”-twisted Shilen #3 CM cut to 23” in 7x57 in a custom stock with Talley flip-up peep.

Over the past 12 years it morphed even more (after getting to the point of being ready to rust blue!) and the time lapsed is due to my fickle tastes and sporadic funds not my gunsmith’s speed.

Today it has the 3-position Dakota safety, re-heat-treated receiver, G33/40 left side rail cuts, altered tang eliminating the need for a Mauser notch and allowing for a more open grip, Glimm’s engraved knob, Timney FW trigger, Rock Creek #1 contoured SS cut-rifled 1-in-9” twisted barrel in .257 Roberts, McM Hunter’s Edge stock, and Birdsong’s Black T coating.

What is missing is S&K contoured bases/rings & jeweled bolt the former of which is in process the latter going to happen after coyote season. It’s currently wearing a Burris Fullfield E1 German 3P#4 3-9x 40mm w/ illuminated dot which I like a lot for deer & coyote but after first range trip I see it won’t allow the precision I want when testing out potential of a new rifle so after coyote season I’ll change it for a Ballistic Plex model.

I had to send the barreled action to McM for custom inletting and even tho I mentioned the fact that I’d had the tang recontoured to avoid the unsightly notch there is one there anyway. Also notice the unfortunate job on the front of the bottom metal? For the amount of money I spent on custom inletting I expected better.

At any rate I’m just back from it’s first range trip and loving the overall feel of the rifle. The temporary mounting system (Burris Sig Zee Medium height & weaver standard aluminum bases) is a lot heavier than I’d like but that’ll be corrected with the S&K.

Really looking forward to getting after the dogs over the next couple of weeks and I’ll be posting more as I hope to see what 90 GR Sierra HP GKs do you the dogs at 3300-ish FPS!







Damned notch:







Mike’s metal craft on the knob root is exceptional:








Mike cut me a super tight chamber and I can’t even size my existing stock down to fit so I’ll be putting it all up for sale in the classifieds.