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

It's claimed they are the same or nearly the same powder. I've read that MRP is a more refined version of RL-22 with less lot to lot variation.

I have a big jug of MRP, Will use up my current supply of RL-22, not getting any more, using RL-23 instead.

DF

Nice report rick. The Roberts always seemed like a great candidate for the 100gr loads. My brief trial with my first ( 700 classic, '82) I used the Speer 100 BT. I didn't get a kill with it, so can't say anything about it, other than it was super accurate. I reamed that rifle out to the Ackley ( it had a 24" barrel) and used the then available Hornady 120 HP. "To me" the 6.5 Creedmoor is the "modern day" .257 Roberts. By that I mean with comparable bullet weights. The Roberts has killed bookoo elk too. Good job Pard!

My daughter had a bad experience with the 100 ballistic tip from a 250 savage. Hit the point of shoulder and never penetrated. Huge buck. Never again. Ed k

My favorites for the .25cal stuff have been the Partition and the E-Tip thus far. It's hard to argue with a 115/120gr NPT as a great, little, big-game bullet in the quarter bore rifles. They killed well for me in a Roberts some years back. Shot some 115 NPTs a couple of days ago in a .257wby and they outshot the 100E-Tip, the 115NBT, and the 100gr Swift S2.

My Shilen barrel is SO accurate with that bullet (100 BT).
I got full lung penetration on a 165 yard doe with my 250 Savage Ackley Improved using H414 powder.(250 SAI).

I've been shooting and loading for the 257 and 257AI for nearly 40 years. During that time I've loaded a lot of different bullet weights and styles from the usual component bullet makes and have settled on 4 bullets that do everything that I expect from a 25 Souper, 257, 257AI. 25 WSSM, and 25-284.

For varmints I like the 75 grain Hornady VMax, 75 grain Sierra HP, and 90 grain Sierra BTHP.
For medium game I like the 110 grain AB.

The 100 grain BT is a bullet that works well for varmints and medium game, but I prefer the 4 that I've settled on. I have dedicated varmint and game rifles, so I don't have any need/reason to change loads in a particular rifle and have to re-zero with the different load. If I only had one rifle chambered in 257 and wanted to use one bullet, one load, for hunting both varmints and medium game, I would probably go with the 100 grain BT.

A few years ago now (probably 15 years) I loaded the 100gn Ballistic Tip in my first Roberts and shot about 10 pigs with them. They worked fine putting the pigs down as well as other cup and core 100gn .25 cal bullets. I then thought I'd try them in my 20 inch barrelled .250 Savage and loaded them to 2780 fps. They were not as good killers of pigs at that lower velocity, as the pigs would typically run off, some up to almost 100 metres. I once shot two pigs with the one bullet as the bullets were pencilling straight through. Exit holes were quite small compared to the exit holes when loaded in the Roberts at 3100 fps. I guess the lower velocity in the .250 didn't allow the bullets to open up as much, despite the plastic tip.

This was my first revelation that Ballistic Tips were not as frangible as some people were claiming. Perhaps the first ones were but the ones I bought definitely were not. Though I shot them about 15 years ago I bought them a couple of years before that, so Nosler had started beefing them up quite a while ago. A mate shoots them in his .25-06 and one exited the chest on a side on shot of a red deer hind.

I still have about four boxes of those bullets as I bought ten boxes initially and despite having two .257 Robs, a .257 AI and a .25-06 I haven't gotten round to loading them up as there are always other bullets to try. I wonder if the newly manufactured bullets are as tough as mine purchased almost 20 years ago? Or has Nosler beefed them up even more in the years since? Three years ago I loaded the 115gn Ballistic Tip in one of my Roberts at about 2800 fps and they were very good killers on pigs. Even going away shots would see the bullet penetrating forwards enough to reach the vitals and kill the pig which doesn't always happen with 100gn bullets.

Interesting stuff. Am thinking of going to 95nbt in my 6mm.......been bouncing around killing stuff with all sorts of projectiles and keep thinking I need to change. What is wrong with me?

"IF I'm OK, YOU are OK", because I do the same thing Ken! ha Life is too short and there are so many good bullets to try out! I've worked up loads from small to heavy in about every rifle I've owned since I started handloading, 43 yrs ago! I did it with factory loads before that, ha. I liked that old Hornady 120HP in that 257AI, it would open swell on crows and still penetrate like cracy on those East, Tx deer/hogs!

Years later, here in Utah, I bought a Mod 700 Classic back in the late 90s in 25-06 to go with my Mod 700 Classic 300WM (why not?). I shot one mule deer with it and the Sierra 117 SBT. I felt it was a pretty hard bullet. I had that rifle converted to 257Wby and shot the then available Federal Premium load with the 115PT. It was going a clocked 3200fps. I took it to Uvalde,Tx and shot a Blackbuck at 375 steps. I then shot a nice Black Hawaiian around 200. The outfitter offered me a wad of money for it, so it stayed with him! ha That 115PT was a real killer. Later on I had a custom Mark X in 257Wby/26 inch barrel, and it shot the 100TSX at 3500. Wicked killer too. I sold that rifle to the same outfitter! It seemed to me that 100-117 was a good fit for the 25 cal. Now, I know some guys in South Texas that shoot nothing but the older Hornady 87sp in their 25-06s. I think the old Roberts has a wonderful reputation, just wish they chambered more rifles in it.