Sometimes I wonder if I am writing into a rifle loony vacuum. I mean, I like to argue nits as much as anybody, but this one takes the cake.
Only one company doesn't load +P .257 ammo these days. That's Remington, with their 75-year old round-nose Core-Lokt load at 2650.
Other than that, the SLOWEST .257 load on the market is the Federal 120-grain Nosler Partition "Premium," advertised at 2780 fps. In every 24" barrel I've ever shot it through (and 24" is what most commercial rifle ammo is standardized with these days), this ammo has exceeded 2800 fp, sometimes by quite a bit. The other two companies that load .257 ammo, Winchester and Hornady, offer faster loads with 117-grain bullets, one the Hornady Light Magnum, which gets well over 2900 fps in 24" barrels.
So three of the four major ammo companies already make .257 Bob ammo that will duplicate anything the .25-08 would do. Plus, probably 1% of the rifle loonies who would buy a .25-08 wouldn't buy factory anyway. They'd load their own.
Yeah, the factories might offer a 100-grain load, but again so what? Then they would be competing with the 100-grain .243 Winchester and 100-grain .25-06. Believe me, the average guy (or even the average rifle loony) is not going to buy a .25-08 so that he can slightly exceed the .243 but not quite match the .25-06, no matter how much anybody beats the drum for short actions.
If for some reason he does, he can still find a .257 Roberts, either used or in a new Hawkeye. They just sold a .257 Hawkeye at the local store the other day. I also have been secretloy told that another major rifle company is going to bring out a .257 Bob soon.
If anybody wants a .25 that essentially matches the .257 Roberts (or .243 or .25-06), yet DOESN'T want a .257 Roberts, then they are a rifle loony beyond all redemption and will go ahead and get a .25-08 made. Or a .250 Ackley or .257 Ackley or .25/.284 or any of a zillion slight variations that all do basically the same things as a handloaded .257 Bob or .25-06.
And there really isn't enough difference between any of them for even the average rifle loony to tell any difference in the field. I know, because I have used about all of them, and if the bullet ends up in the same place, and the animal dies.
Now, maybe one of our friends from the 800-yard big game shooting club could tell us precisely how and why each differs, but they would probably be using a "tactical" .308 or a 6.5mm wildcat, instead of a boring old .25 caliber.
So let it die. Or go buy a .257.
