1-10”or 1-9” twist? Is it possible to get decent hunting accuracy out of that many bullet weights?
I've owned 5, maybe 6, rifles in .257 Roberts. One was a turd, wouldn't shoot anything well, so we can discount it entirely. I've also owned 4 .25-'06s (2 of those were turds that wouldn't shoot anything well). I've owned 1 .257 Weatherby .. a turd. But among those .25 / .25-'06s that were accurate with anything, all shot the big commercial makers' 120s fine. All had 1-10" twists. I see no reason to go with a 1-9" twist unless you're going with boutique bullets that are longer / heavier than what is available from major bullet makers. On the other hand, I don't see anything wrong with it. Those rifles, other than one Roberts with a long throat, did well with the 60-75 grain bullets. Oddly enough, for the most part i had more trouble getting accuracy with 100s than I did with either very heavy or very light including in rifles that shot the extremes very well.
Different makers seem to have diameters they do better than others. IMHO, though some others might make a better barrel in some other diameter, I believe Lilja makes the best .25 caliber barrels of all. I have a take-off 1-10" 3 L&G Lilja in a Remington magnum sporter contour that was shooting 5 shot groups in the 0.2s regularly with 100 grain ballistic tips when I took it off the action to build a 6mm Rem AI. It was the most consistently accurate rifle I ever owned.
With that personal experience behind me, I would not even consider anything but another Lilja 1-10" 3 land and groove barrel if I were building a .257. I just .. wouldn't.
Tom
