Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting 257 Roberts and the 100 gr. Ballistic tip

A cull buck met his maker this morning. Tweaked out and busted 8 point rack, three year old weighing 160 pounds. He was facing to my left about 45 degrees toward me. I meant to put the bullet just inside the shoulder and have it angle through his chest to somewhere in front of his diaphram. Well it hit the point of the shoulder pretty solid destroying it impressively, it then went through the ribs making a 1 inch hole and on its way through it destroyed the throat tube where it connects to the lungs, coursed over the heart damaging the big arteries and making a not so impressive hole through the lungs and ends up breaking a rib then disappearing. I'm thinking the hide stretched and pushed it back into the chest cavity never to be found after I gutted it. The deer ran 100 yards and did not leave a drop of blood but I found it pretty easy using the search grid method. I then went back to get the truck and when I let Amber out at the spot the deer was standing when I shot it she immediately ran the 100 yards to where the buck was laying and started barking (training her to blood trail). I will call this adequate but not perfect performance due to lack of a blood trail, the deer had plenty of blood coming out of his mouth where he died some blood did come out of the entrance hole that he was laying on. I was originally going to use the 120 gr. Grand Slam but though it shot OK with AA4350 (that I had run out of) I could hardly count on 3 inch groups with IMR 4350 so I just loaded up a known good shooting load with the Ballistic tip and used it. WLRM primer, 43.0 grains of IMR 4350 and the 100 grain Ballistic Tip.

I use that bullet in a 25-06. Should be fantastic in a Bob

Rick, what was the range, and MV?

That bullet is the backup plan for when I run out of 100 Interlocks. I've got a couple boxes of them on hand and have shot a few with 4451 as a trial. The 250-3000s will probably stay with Hot Cores, 100 for the M77, 87s for the M99.

The two deer I have shot with 115 NBTs out of a 257 Roberts were caught by the far side hide. They lived for less than 40 yards before they expired.

Mine loves a 100 grain partition with 42 grains of IMR-4350.....
Shot well over a hundred deer with it and never had to trail a single one.

I have switched from the 100BT to the 110AB with RL16.
Shoots good, but no shots on game yet to report.
Using a R77RL chambered in the Bob.

That's the same one I have. Love the gun. It's my favorite. My go-to load is a mild helping of H4350 pushing a 115 Partition.

80 yards and I haven't chronied it yet but surely in the 2800 fps area out of my 20 inch barrel. It and the 100 gr. Speer hollow point are this rifle's most accurate bullets.

The bullet spent a lot of energy when it hit that shoulder bone, impressive blood shot/shattered bone some even made it to the backstrap. I am not knocking it as it did a tough job and I have had deer run that far with similar hits and more powerful rifles.

With my 260, I used 100 gr Ballistic Tips for a few years, then switched to the 120 gr version. Honestly, I can’t tell any difference in effectiveness on deer or hogs between the two bullets. Both are deadly, and it has changed my opinion on how big a bullet is needed. Smaller isn’t necessarily worse.

i have shot some very nice whitetail and mule deer bucks with a 100 gr, 257 bullet and have always had good results with dead deer. but i have noticed this i seem to have smaller size groups at 100 yards with the 115 GR. B.T. 257 bullets,but bullet grain weight of 15 gr.s on deer i don`t think it matters much ?

I think that this is the explanation. IME BTs from .224" thru .264" are generally a little more fragile than those of a larger diameter when it comes to busting bone, but they generally perform great on behind the shoulder lung shots. The long run after impact seems like an anomaly, but who knows. If the bone splinters had traveled down and back instead of upward they probably would have shredded the lungs and resulted a much shorter run. Just a bad outcome from what should have been a good shot, kind of like in bowling when you hit the head pin and get a 7-10 split instead of a strike.

Since I have 30 more loaded up testing will continue.

The 100 grain ballistic tip was my jackrabbit and digger squirrel bullet. It was a little bit harder than ideal but it blew them up pretty good. My load was 48 grains of H4831, WW +P brass, and fed 210M primers. I had bad results with the 110 grain accubond in my .257. They broke apart badly inside small blacktails. Load was 47 grains of RL 22 if I remember right. After 2 back to back disappointments, I decided to save them for coyotes and use the ballistic tips instead. Wasn't long after that, though, that the 120 grain partitions appeared on store shelves again. I stocked up and haven't looked back.

That is my back up bullet when I run out of 90 grain Barnes X-bullets. It's accurate as heck, but not my first choice in my Roberts.

I look at it this way, the not so large bullet hit the shoulder right on the biggest end of the bone destroying it and penetrated through the chest in the line I had chosen. While it was not a huge wound internally it damaged the heart and lungs, the trachea and ends up at the back end of the ribcage. Personally I can only call this pretty good bullet performance. The rifle will put three into 3/4 of an inch so it is hard to complain.

I have never had a single buck run further than 20-25 yards shot with my Kimber 257 Roberts using the Hornady 117 grain interlock over 45 IIRC grains of H4350 shot into or near the front shoulder. I don't think I would need a ballistic tip near this bullet weight, in this caliber, and at this speed.

Well I just happen to have them in my bullet collection and they are one of the bullets the rifle shoots well. I have some 117 Hornady BTSP's but if I try to get near 2700 fps accuracy goes to pieces. I am bedding the rifle waiting for the compound to dry as we speak. Hopefully this will help. If the buck had been more broadside it probably would not have run as far.

I used to use 43.5 gr of IMR 4350 at 2925 FPS or a little more using 117gr Nosler partitions or 115gr Nosler partitions, Those 117gr came with Model 70

when I bought it used. They killed Antelope real well. Have now changed to RL23 with the 115gr Nosler Partitions at about 3100 FPS. Norma MRP works

good as well as RL22.