Don,

"Never the less the 257R is dead and best at nothing."

Really?

For the general shooting public, those shooters who only shoot a few rounds per year, don't reload, and aren't rifle snobs/loonies, the 257 Roberts has probably been "dead" for over 50 years. Other than in the Ruger 77, the 257 Roberts hasn't been cataloged as a standard offering from any of the other major U.S. firearms manufacturer for any extended periods of time, since Remington dropped the 722 in favor of the 700 in 1963 and since Winchester revamped the 70 in 1964. Even in the Remington 722, the number of 722s chambered in 257 Roberts dropped precipitously after 1956. According to John Lacy's book, pages 72 & 73, there were 19,446 722s produced in 257 Roberts between 1951 and 1956, but only 1,409 between 1957 and 1962. Over 93% of the 722s in 257 Roberts were made during the 1st half of the 12 year production run, leaving less than 7% to be made during the 2nd half of the production run, the portion that coincided with the introduction of the 243 and, to a much lesser extent, the 244.

In recent years, Remington has cataloged the 700 MR in 257 Roberts for awhile, made 1-year runs of both the 700 Classic and 700 CDL-SFs, and has made some non-cataloged limtied runs 700s and 760s for a couple of different wholesalers, with Grice coming immediately to mind. Winchester & Winchester/USRA have cataloged the 70 Fwt in 257 Roberts for awhile and, for a limited time, offered a matte/synthetic 70 carbine in 257 Roberts. AFAIK, Savage has never cataloged the 257 Roberts in their 110 series, but did make a non-cataloged limited run just prior to the introduction of the "improved" 110 series with the Accu-Trigger.

The 257 Roberts may be dead to the general shooting public, but it is alive and well respected by shooters in the know. I don't think that anyone can come up with an empirical formula to bestow the title of "best" or "worse" on any rifle cartridge. I get the impression that you've never owned a 257 Roberts, so your distain for it is mostly conjecture, rather than actual experience. IOW, you're expertise on the subject of "257 Roberts" is more of the "armchair" variety.

Jeff