Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Good .257 Roberts loads

115 NBT, 45gn Hybrid 100V, W-W +P case, Fed 210m, 2.910 coal. 2925fps, less than 1moa from my Ruger Hawkeye UL 20" barrel.

I found a little better accuracy with RL23 and Norma MRP than with RL26. So most of my loading is with those 2. I have lots of MRP

so I,m mostly using that in that rifle. If I was hunting in cold country I,d load RL23. Accuracy is about the same with those 2 powders.

Wish my magazine was longer, i,m limited to 2.825" or so.

Ramshot Hunter with a 210m primer under a 100 gr TTSX at a shade over 3,000 FPS is a very accurate combo in my Ruger .257 Roberts. Happy Trails

SPS 120 gr. .257 NPT's are now even cheaper.

At this price, quarter bore shooter may need to stock up.

Shelf life is really good on these....

https://www.shootersproshop.com/loa...5-120gr-partition-spitzer-blem-50ct.html

DF

Tag

Must be that Flintlocke and I are in the same age range...

Roberts have been working for decades before I was born....

Me, I'd use anything from a 100 grain bullet to a 120, and wouldn't be real picky...

First one I'd reach for if I had them would be the old 117 Gr Round Nose... by Hornady or Sierra.

Powder? 3031 with 35 to 40 grains

IMR 4064 or 4895... about 40 to 45 grains....

Don't shoot a Roberts but I do shoot a 6.5 x 57.... more bullet choices and .007 thousandths difference in diameter in the bore...

and pretty much the powders I use for that one... 4064, IMR 4895, 3031, RL 15, W 748 once in a blue moon...

Had a Mauser 98 in 257 Roberts 30 years ago. It had a 1-10" twist 24" sporter barrel (unknown mfg), Fajen stock, DS trigger. Didn't have much money or time back then to spend on endless components and accuracy testing. 87grain Hornady and 120 grain Speer flat base bullets shot "ok", 1.5 - 2" @ 100 yards. I think the powders tested were IMR 4064 and IMR 4350. I only had two powders back then, one was IMR 4350, not 100% sure what the other powder was.

I found the Hornady flat base 100 grain bullet over 45 grains IMR 4350 made nice round 0.5" groups at 100 yards. That result ended my accuracy load development for that rifle.

Only shot one crow with that rifle/load. Sold the rifle 20 years ago.

It's too bad Hornady stopped making the 100gr SPs in 25cal. They always worked well for me.

I have enough to last a few years, so good for the time being. 100gr NPs will be next.

I loaded those for a friend's 257 Wby. with the IMR7828 data from the old tan IMR booklet. That load dropped deer right now style.

I've had good results with the 115 gr. NBT over H-4350. Kills stuff dead, although not running as fast as the 100's.

DF

My pet .257 loads .. I've had 5 different rifles (or is it 6?) and each liked something different .. more or less.

One load that seemed to work across the broadest spectrum of rifles was 43 grains of H414, WW +P brass, Fed 215 primers, and 120 grain partitions or 120 grain Hornady flat based hollowpoings. Next up was a varmint load, 44.0 grains of IMR 4064 with WW +P brass, Fed 210M primers, and 75 grain Sierra flat based hollowpoints.

A couple rifles liked 100 grain ballistic tips or partitions and 48 grains of H4831 with WW or Nosler +P brass and F210M primers.

Everything else was all over the place ... hit or miss, mostly miss.

The best rifle of the bunch was a 700, began live as a VSSF in .22-250 and was rebarreled with a Lilja 3 L&G 1-10" twist by Kevin Wyatt. He put in his longer magazine box while rebarreling so I could load to 2.97" and magazine feed. He did a little work on the stock and I dropped a Jewell HVR trigger into it and topped it with a Leupold 4.5-14X. It shot pretty well overall but with the 100 grain ballistic tip and the load I mention above, it would put 5 shots into the low 0.2s. Kinda hard on jackrabbits and ground squirrels.

They can be pretty accurate. Mine is a LA 700 with a Brux barrel. The LA allows longer COAL. Actually a 3" action would be perfect.

The 115 NBT load over H-4350 was slightly more accurate than this one.

DF