Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 257 Roberts +P vs Standard

I have enjoyed this thread immensely, as I have a 250-3000 and believe much of what was said here has some application to the old Savage cartridge. Mine is a Ruger M77RSI with a 20 inch barrel (Mannlicher stock) and I have to believe it can handle the 65000 pressure, same as the 6mm Rem and .270. I'm not looking to hotrod it necessarily, but there must be some performance potential to be accessed safely between the 48000 SAAMI standard and the 65000. Factory ammo is hard to come by and the Remington is PSP, NOT Core-lokt. Not sure if Winchester loads it any more. I've only seen one box of Hornady Custom ammo for sale in the last five years and they wanted mucho dinero for for that, so I decided they didn't really want to sell it and left it there.

Fortunately, I have 500 pieces of new Remington brass acquired at a gun show several years ago. Unfortunately, Hornady has discontinued the 100 gr. Interlock .257 component bullets, though that's exactly what they load in their Custom ammo and I just have a hunch that could be a 'perfect' bullet for the .250-3000.

Hornady 115-117gr .257 IL bullets seem to be plentiful and relatively cheap, but I wonder if they were designed for 25-06 and Weatherby velocities. I also wonder if the Savage would spin them fast enough to stabilize. Has anyone here loaded the heavier bullets in the Savage? What was your experience with them?

I'm also not concerned about making it a dinosaur slayer. It's a dandy little deer stand rifle but if I had a chance to hunt something big (Nilgai? Elk?) I would just take my 7mm-08, 30-06, .270 or 7 Mag. I also have a .260 Mountaiin Rifle that punches above its weight with 140 Nosler Partitions...you get the idea.

Good post.

Yeah, the old Roberts does what it does and does it very well.

It’s stood the test of time and is still going strong.

It’s a very versatile round, IMO.

Mine is a keeper.

DF

Look into Nosler's top load of H4895 with 100 grain bullets in the 250 Savage. It's a real performer in my 700 Classic.

Another old timer that keeps on keeping on.

Modern bullets and powder can enhance already good performance in those rounds.

DF

Ruger 77 RSIs would probably balance better if they had 20" barrels.

You forgot in include the excellent, but mostly ignored, 25 WSSM!

I also have a Ruger RSI in 250 Savage. Waiting on Alaska Arms QD rings to arrive before I take it to the range for the first time. Mine is tang safety model, and yes it has an 18.5” barrel. Bought it from a member here recently. It’s beautiful.

Never saw much point in the .25 WSSM, since it's (was?) basically a very short .25-06. Though shot a lot of prairie dogs with one when it was first introduced, during a hunt hosted by Winchester.

But my old friend, fellow gun writer and Montanan John Haviland, has used one considerably--including to take a B&C bighorn ram with the tag he finally drew maybe 12-15 years ago. John's a long-time fan of the .25-06, and was totally convinced it was the best .25 until trying the WSSM.

Not too long after he got the ram, we both went on an "industry" hunt on the King Ranch in South Texas, along with some other folks. The company was USRAC, and the rifles provided were Model 70s in .257 Roberts and .264 Winchester Magnum, and a Browning 1886 in .45-70. I worked up handloads for the .257s and the .45-70, since another "shortage" was occurring and factory ammo was scarce. The .257 load used H4350 and the 115 Nosler Partition, at 2900+ fps.

John had never killed anything with .25s other than the .25-06 and .25 WSSM, and apparently guessed the .257 Roberts wouldn't kill as well. But on the last evening of the hunt I got a shot at a 180-pound feral boar at around 200 yards, during the last few minutes of light. There had been a LOT of recent rain, and the grass was very high. Luckily, the pig was feeding alongside a dirt 2-track, and I managed to get with 200 yards--and had shooting sticks. Instead of trying to get fancy and try for a head or spine shot, I aimed just behind the shoulder and that's where the 115 Partition landed.

The pig collapsed and never moved. John said something like "Wow!" (I did too, silently. Have yet to hunt with any cartridge that always drops 'em right there with broadside lung shots.)

The other nice thing was the boar tasted fine....

I like the 25’s.
I have a 256, 250’s, 257R, 25-06’s. I’m lacking the 257 Weatherby but am looking for a good deal.

This fall I’m hoping to do a couple of white tails in with the 257R, maybe TTSX.

Before partitions, I thought the 25 caliber lacked decent bullets. Not so any more, IMHO.

Maybe someone will come out with a 25-08 factory chambered rifle.

Didn’t Rocky Rab do a write up on the 25-08? I seem to remember reading something like that, he wrote.
Have a very good friend that uses her 250 Savage to great effect on VT whitetails. If that gun could talk it would have some stories to tell.

Hand's down, the best part of Connecticut.

Doubt there’s a market for that one.

DF

I've had a pile of Rob's, and I've mostly just used H4350. In 22" bbl's I just load 100's to around 3,050 fps +/- and 115/120's to 2,900 fps +/-. That's always worked well for me. But the 250 Savage is my favorite 25. Larry Koller got me on it, and I can't shake that introduction in my formative years...

That's what the 6.5 Creedmoor is... the "Better Bob."

Isn’t the 6.5 Creedmoor the 6.5 man bun?

Didn’t someone come up with the .25 Souper (25-08).

Didn’t set the woods on fire regarding popularity.

Probably enough .25’s already.

I like my .257R and my Creed.

DF

Only for insecure people who are projecting.

Man bun rounds kills’em pretty dead.

And is accurate.

And is easy to load.

And has great factory ammo that’s available and reasonably priced.

And, what’s not to like.

DF

Interesting how similar looking the 250 Savage and 6.5 Creedmoor are if you put the the two side by side.

It seems like some people resent having an easy button presented to them.