Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles .257 Roberts Build

Brass is available from Jamison, Winchester, Nosler and Remington. The Winchester and Nosler are +P stamped. I use the Winchester.
The difference between how my Roberts shoots and how if ***might*** shoot if I used a "precision die set" is marginal at best. So marginal I don't mind using my RCBS dies.

Below is an old target. I don't do a lot of shooting for groups, but last time I had clay pigeons on the 400 yard berm they didn't last long.

Have you shopped that 257 brass lately?

No, but I know it is out of stock most places.

Ammo, on the other hand, is in stock many places. Buy 4-5 boxes and you're set for reloading for a good while.

Had my Roberts at the range today. Banging steel at 600 with 110g AB was a piece of cake. It was pretty breezy so never did hit a clay pigeon at 600, just danced around the edges.

What is this ready made ammo of which you wrote?

I basically traded mine for a 6.5 CM. Twisted right. Match bullets in factory offerings (for a little more than a buck a round). I hate that I've abandoned my first love.....but I never shot it. And I kept the Win 70 Bob.

A quick Internet search came up with Hornady Superformance ammo with 115-grain SST's for sale at $26.99/box on a couple of websites. In my experience Hornady brass has been excellent in the past few years, and at that price the ammo is about as cheap as a lot of .257 brass--when you can find it.

One thing that puzzles me is why Hornady doesn't offer .257 Roberts component brass. It's not on their website's list of available brass, and I've never seen it in the several local stores that carry plenty of Hornady cases.

Midwayusa currently has 6 types in stock. Cabelas has two additional types. Cheaperthandirt.com has one type. Take your pick.

Yea, I need to take it to my shooting pit soon.Hoping the ammo I have shoots as well as your targets showed, with me driving it.

Allen

People actually shoot ready made ammo?

I always find myself sort of shaking my head at firearms related manufacturing. One will read an article that discusses that now that the election is over that the hoarding is slacking off and ammo companies are experiencing slow downs and even doing some layoffs, yet some of the various brass while not one of the top 10 sellers, the Roberts , 250 savage et.al. which are are fairly common can't be found. Johns hornady brass example is a good one.

Some pics for consideration. I used a 700 long action for mine as I wanted to load my ammo at a 3" OAL. If I was going to go on a short action, I'd build a 250AI or 25-08

The short action works fine as well, so it comes down to a personal preference.

If you decide to go with the .257, I have a brand new set of Lee dies and case trimmer pilot for sale. I bought it to help a buddy build a load and then he enlightened me that his was an AI.

Build? I'd go with a 700 short action and a Wyatt's long mag box. I had Wyatt build one in his shop for me on a shot out .22-250 700 LVSF. Quarter inch gun with 100 grain ballistic tips and H4831. Being the idiot I can sometimes be, when my ex B-I-L was building rifles I let him talk me into building something and that was the most available action. He built a 700 VSSF type package in 6mm Rem AI ... shot well but something was up with the barrel blank I gave him to work with 'cause I got crazy pressure excursions. I still have the stock, trigger, and barrel, just need to buy another action.

My current .257 is a Kimber Montana. In my Kimber, the Nosler +P brass is interchangable with WW +P .. no modifications to loads or sight adjustments necessary. The last batch of Remington .257 which they sold via Cabela's was very good brass as well.

Tom

Mine are on Mauser actions. The chuck rifle is a commercial 98, the first deer rifle is on a 95 Chilean Mauser, and the newest is a Montana action with Douglas barrel in a M70 glass stock. That'll have to be changed at some point. All rifles take rounds loaded to about 2.9"OAL.

Factory stuff.

IMG_1189 (2) by Ed Rivera, on Flickr

Never thought about a build. Factory Ruger No.1 and Factory Ruger UL. Had four 257s, but settled on these two.

Ruger257s004_zpse1b5f475 by Ed Rivera, on Flickr

I don't reload much, but for the 257 Roberts this is all I reload. 2.912" OAL @ 3030fps out of the 20" UL.

IMG_1190 (2) by Ed Rivera, on Flickr

I have that same Ruger UL. What kind of accuracy does your load give you?

From the bench 1.25" - 1.5" @ 100yds, BUT, I'm old and my eyes are not what they once were. An accomplished shooter could do better I'm sure.

Gorgeous stock on that #1.