Got one, guy gave me a bag of new Remington brass and some once fired stuff and bullets. Im looking at the rifle and components and im thinking to myself what in the world would i use this for or use it on. I kinda dont get it. Ive used a 308win a lot and cant really find a role where the 257 might be advantageous or hold some reason to use it. My location is out west but is not open country but rather timbered logging country and brush. Hardly the place where the deer and antelope play. Last year i had a large Bighorn ram living 40 yards from my door but im not a sheep hunter and he wasnt susposed to be living there. Same with mtn goats.
Anyway i was wondering what folks use them for since the 308 win is usually far more common, hucks heavier missles as does the 270. Not saying its bad or junk. I just dont get it.
If you don't get it, you don't get it.
The .257 Roberts was introduced commercially by Remington in the 1930s, when there weren't many widely available commercial bolt-action cartridges between the .220 Swift and .270 Winchester. It became pretty popular, but started losing steam after Winchester introduced the .243 in 1955, and lost even more when Remington made the wildcat .25-06 a commercial round in 1969.
Today there are dozens of commercial cartridges in the same basic class, including not just the .243 and .25-06 but 6mm Remington, .240 Weatherby, .260 Remington, 6.5 Creedmoor, blah blah blah. I have a soft spot for the .257 due to owning my grandmother's .257, a Remington 722 made in 1953, which also happens to still be VERY accurate, but there's no "need" for any of them, especially if you think the .308 works better for deer.
However, I have LOTS of experience on deer with all the cartridges listed above, including the .308 and several other rounds like it, including the .270, 7x57, 7mm-08 and .300 Savage. (My wife has also taken elk with both the .257 and .308, and they worked just about the same there too.) My conclusion is just about any halfway popular cartridge kills deer well, as long as the hunter puts the right bullet in the right place.
But if you're convinced the .308 is better, then that's what you should use, especially since one of your criteria is easily-found ammo. And you should give or sell the .257 Roberts brass to somebody who gets it.
