Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Best of the 7x57 based cartridges for deer

My daughter has a 257 Roberts I made for her when she was very young and she has killed deer, black bear and elk with it. In fact my 2 grandsons have used "mom's rifle" too, and both have killed deer with it, and one has killed an elk with it too. I loaded them 120 grain Partitions and later her husband loaded some Barnes 110 grain ammo. All have worked well.

I have owned two 7X57s in the past and I have killed deer and elk both with one of them. I have used 150 160 and 175 grain bullets and never had much to gripe about.

As a dedicated deer rifle I have to say I really can't see any difference between the 2 cartridges. The 7X57 is more powerful, but that power is not anything that I can see any quicker effect from for killing deer when I compare the kills to those from the 257 Roberts. I see the same effect from good 117 or 120 grain 25 cal bullets.

I live in elk country and so if I were to choose between the 2, I'd go with the 7MM Mauser just because the extra bullet weight is nice when you go from 250 pound game to 800 pound game.

But for deer I doubt there is any real-world difference at all. The diameter of the bullet wounds is not all that different, and with the good bullets, both go clear through even big western mule deer and leave impressive exits.
It's the bullet HOLE that does the killing, not the bullet per se. Once you have a good diameter hole that goes clear through, all the damage you can do is already done, and instant kills (or even 1-2 seconds before a deer falls) is pretty hard to improve on.

In my life I have killed deer with 6MM Remington, 6.5X55 (close to the standard X57 case, but not identical) 7X57, 8x57 and 9.3X57. I have seen kills made with the 257 Roberts and the 9X57 on deer. The 8X57 and the 9X57 can make noticeably larger diameter holes so if the speed of the "drops' from a 257 or a 7X57 was even in question (to me, it's not) just step up to the 8x57 and call it good. Or if you don't care about the more curved trajectory, try a 9.3X57 with Norma 232 grain bullets or even the Speer 270 grain bullets. Loaded to standard Europeian pressured of the 1920s the 9.3X57 only throws it's bullets (from 232 to 286 grains) at 2100 to 2450, but it REALLY makes a big hole through a deer's chest.

"...for deer"

While Ive killed deer with 175 and 180g bullets, I've never felt they were needed - they just happened to be what I had in my hands during elk season.

My .257 Roberts with +P brass and loads is hot on the heels of a 6.5CM when pushing a 110g AB to 3163fps, at least out to 600 yards. A 100g TTSX hits 3233fps and a 120 A-Frame goes 2947fps. The TTSX and AB are what I use for antelope and the A-Frame gets used when carrying the Roberts during combined deer and elk season.

Besides deer, I've taken uncounted (but lots) of prairie dogs and coyotes with my Roberts using 75g V-MAX, the longest being right around 500 yards. As a 600-yard clay-pigeon-on-the-berm shooter it does pretty well. Daughters and nephews have taken their first big game animals with it and all like the gentle recoil.

My sentiments exactly! I've killed a truckload or two of coyotes with mine, and still use it for deer frequently. It works very well on deer.

Please elaborate.

All the x57 cased cartridges are great and certainly the 6 mm Rem, 257 Rob and 7x57 Mauser have accounted for many deer sized game. The use of any really depends on your field needs. The 7x57 would be my choice if I wanted an all around big game cartridge. However all show a nice benefit when they become AI and run on the heels of 240 Wby, 25-06 and 280 Rem. A good enhancement if you like to play with AI cartridges and reload.

Yes, please.

"Best" is a qualitative term that requires specific criteria. The 7x57 is a fine round but has a lot of drawbacks. These include a severely limited selection of rifles and ammo when compared to the 7mm-08. This, for many, is a deal breaker.

Along with widely variable throating.

I stumbled across an interesting comment the other day on the Africa Hunting site. Whoever it was that posted mentioned that in his opinion the biggest downside to the 7-08 is that the throats are too short. I assume that his comment centered around shooting 175-grain bullets seated out long.

I am getting a custom 7x57 and had to buy a match reamer to avoid the std long throats common on the old military chambers.