I am sure he will continue to shoot the .257 Roberts. It is a wonderful round. I am just planning to pair it with a bigger cartridge so he is better prepared for elk or bear or whatever other opportunities come along.
Nothing wrong with a .257 Roberts for bear or elk. Its not ideal perhaps but it works. In my early teens I inherited some guns from an older relative. I latched on to 3 Win 70s, all pre 64s. One was a .257 Roberts .. my favorite. Another was an '06 .. it worked. The third was a .375 H&H .. which I didn't "need" but it was a hell of a lot of fun.
There are better bullets for the .257 today than I had. Couple years ago I had a Kimber Montana in .257. It didn't shoot good but if it had, it would have been my final / one and only rifle. Loaded with 120 grain partitions and placing them appropriate it will kill the [bleep] out of any elk that walks. Or any black bear.
So I'm not sure you truly need to buy him something else based on capability. The one thing I might consider is more flexibility of ammo availability in these times of ammo shortage. That counts against the '06, not for it. The common stuff sells out first, the weird [bleep] is the last to go. Last saturday I went for a mosey around town hitting my regular reloading component sources. There was no powder, no primers, no brass. For bullets, there were some 6mms, more .25s, some .277 and a very few 7mms. No .22, 6.5, or .30 at all. Zero.
One approach might be to focus on gathering components to load the things you've already got rather than spreading out buying new rifle calibers on the off chance what you'll find someday works with them but not with what you've got now. That's the approach I'm taking for now.
Tom
