Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 257 Roberts whats the attraction

Exactly!

My twin .257 Roberts rifles are spending a lot of time in the gun safe now that a Speer HotCor 87 grain bullet and a .250-3000 does the same job on Whitetails.

Never fiddled with the high horsepower 1/4 bores, the Roberts being the most powerful. Have a .25-20 Win. and Single Shot, a .250 Savage and Bob. The .250 shoots a wee bit better but not enough to make any difference in the field. They are all very functional and make me smile more often than not. I don't need anything that shoots further, flatter, faster etc. etc. etc.

you have the perfect scope on the m-70. i've used one for years.

Most hunters aren't reloaders or rifle looneys, so they buy their rifles and ammo at a big box store and go blissfully on their way.

The Bob works. Grew up reading Whelan and O’Connor and got one of the first of the 1980s Featherweights as my first. As a wildlife biologist and Hunter killed over 100 white tails with every factory load available. Lost that rifle in 1999 to a house fire and my best friend gave me a Remington custom shop M7 Bob. My daughter and I killed another 50 or so with that rifle. Took my youngest stepson Colorado elk hunting and he used a Ruger 77 Ultralight Bob. We use 87 gr. or lighter for Fox/coyotes, 80 grain Barnes and 100 grain lead jacketed for deer and 100-120 Nosler partitions for Elk.
I would hunt anything anywhere with a 115gr. Nosler partition.

Note that I have killed game with everything from the Hornet to the .375 H&H. Bullet placement is more important than cartridge/Caliber.

Or not very blissfully, now and then--and now is one of those times.

Go back to sleep.

MIssed the boat on having a custom 257 over thirty years ago. Knew a local gunsmith that was not only a pretty good rifle builder, but an endless resource on firearms yarns and history.

Alex was a WWII vet and a big M98 fan. Once told me how many M98 actions he'd mailed back home after VE Day, when he was part of a group gathering German arms from the piles of surrendered weapons and packing up the better examples for officers to take home. When he had the time, he'd pick out a few K98s,and saw off the barrel, leaving enough of a stub to remove after the war. Said over a year after he'd gotten back home to PA, a relative or friend would show up now and then, with yet another M98 action he'd mailed back. Alex built rifles on those actions for quite a few years.

When he was still in Germany, one of the locals hired to help gather, clean and inspect firearms, tool exception to him sawing barrels off. Translator told Alex that the German thought he should just heat the action and screw the barrel off? Alex tried to explain that heating the action wasn't a good idea and it was quicker to just saw the barrel off, but the local just shook his head, thought Alex was an idiot.

One night we were putting a medium heavy Douglass SS barrel on an FN M98 action I had. I was on a 25-06 kick at the time and wanted something with a bit more heft than my M700ADL. Mentioned I also had a small ring Danzig M98 I'd acquired in a swap. 8x57 with splinter fore end sporter stock.

Alex brightened at the mention of the small ring action. Told me he'd built a 257 Roberts back in the 1950s on one. He wanted to build me a 257 with a slim barrel, but I never got around to it, before he passed away in the 1990s.

Just read your gun shop article on the home page. Brought back some great memories of gun shops I'd been in since I was a kid many years ago, that no longer exist..

I used to like you, DD.

Now...???

Still, rates a two cool

Glad you liked the gun shop article!

-Sniff-

Didn’t mean to hurt your feelers. No more gun pics, OK?

Wanna buy it?

Anecdotally, the only rifle I ever bought to give to a woman was a Ruger M77 lightweight/featherweight/whatever they called them back in the late 80's - in .257 Roberts. Shoulda married that girl. She was a small person, 4'11" and 98 pounds on a fat day, such that I had to shorten the butt stock a lot for the gun to fit her. Cut that thing before a round ever went down the tube. Put a Leupold 1.5-5 on it and off to the races she went. That thing would put three into a half-inch or so and then shots would start to walk vertically. No matter, she never needed more than one shot to execute a whitetail anyway. Special kind of girl who would brag on the .257 Roberts her man gave her when her girlfriends were bragging about their jewelry! I know, I know....

I aquired the 257 Roberts to as a donor fornan 338 Fed or 358 win project. Normally i dont bother with such things because i prefer the economy of depth ofncomponents for 270win and 308win. Ive used very regular 180gr cheap bullets in 308win for very good predictable results. Recently i got me a 270win for the first time and i found factory ammo very cheap and components as well so thats impressive from the start.

Anyway when i look at the 270win shooting only slightly heavier 130gr bullets compared to a 257 roberts its somewhat similiar but only far more common and cheap. I picked up a bunch of that Federal Premium Trophy Copper 130gr for $$24.99 box. Federal blue box i picked up at $20 box recently. Then i aquired Speer 270 bullets for a decent $19.99 for 100. It just seems its close to the 257 but far better choices and economy. With the 308 win inalready had the components over the years so im really set for it.

Its not a matter that the 257 sucks but rather theres really a few things out there like the 270win and now the ever popular 6.5 creed that use just slightly heavier bullets but offer far better choice and economy and do the same thing. Thats why i dont get the wow factor of the 257 Roberts.

Cricker
If you were truly looking for economy you would have stopped buying rifles when you acquired your 308. No question cheap ammo can be bought at any Wal Mart. Nothing about hunting or shooting is inexpensive.
Besides you have learned by this thread that 25 calibers are where all the cool kids hang out!😁
GreggH

I like and use the Bob, I have two a Winchester model 70 Super Grade Featherweight 50th anniversary Cabela's edition, and a Pre 64 Model 70 standard. I have one other quarter bore and that is a 257 Weatherby in a Mk V. Never used the Bobs on Elk but I have shot Elk with the 257 Weatherby using 115 grain Nosler Partitions. I have no complaints on any of the three.

When this thread popped up I was going to tell you that I shot a fox with your old 257 Roberts a couple of weeks ago. 75 grain VMax over 42.6 grains of Varget in a Winchester +P case and CCI primer. It still has one of those optically inferior Leupold VX-II 2-7x33s on it and after 18 years it still tends to send the projectile on its way to a POI close to the POA. I was in a hurry, so I didn't throw anything over the hood of the Sport Trac and it got another muzzle flash character mark.

I was in a Wal-Mart last week and saw a guy buying every box of ammo in their display case. WM was selling at the regular prices and no limit on the number of boxes that one person could buy. I'm sure that he was buying low so that he could sell high. Just as in all aspects of life, if you fail to prepare by default you are preparing to fail.

Or a Creedmoor.....

"257 Roberts whats the attraction"

Mild muzzle blast, light recoil, with ample velocity. If I were into quarter bores I would certainly have a 257 Roberts

A tale of two "Bobs". After owning no less than a dozen Roberts, two Ruger 77s remain in the rifle battery, because they earned it. Form and fit to my liking and accurate, however there are differences. The red pad prefers 100 grain and lower bullets, the black pad likes 115 grain bullets.

Twins:



Black pad killed my largest Whitetail. 115 grain Nosler Partition, 44 grs H4350, 280 yards. Buck scaled 270 lbs. field dressed down at the local feed mill.

Black pad.