Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Why so few guns in .257 Roberts?

No venom, just an honest assessment.

Ruger .257 Roberts 26".....100TTSX @ 3233fps, 80TTSX @ 3569fps.
Ruger .257 Roberts 22".....100TTSX @ 3164fps, 80TTSX @ 3479fps.

Just makes you

My soon to be finished 257 Roberts Hyper Single falling block.



The last photo is before stock finish, rust blue, and quarter rib.

It is just a great shooting rifle.
Bernie Harrell did the stock, Kathy Forster the checkering, and David Christman is doing the quarter rib and rust bluing.
Butch

The fans of the 257 Roberts on this forum seem to be individuals who like something different or have some kind of teenage cool factor that they have trumped up in their mind. It has some nostalgic value for older guys too. Reality is it's a fine cartridge along with many others. If it floats your boat, buy or build one. Heck, some other guy might think that it makes you cool which could be a plus if that is your sexual preference.

The .257 Roberts came along in a very different time than today. There wasn't any of this business of short action vs. long action and there weren't near the cartridges to choose from as there are today. Winchester and Remington had their offerings (.25-35 WCF/.25 Remington, .30-30 WCF/.30 Remington, and .32 Special/.32 Remington) which were viewed as 19th Century creations and there was this thing called the .270 Winchester (I've heard it became somewhat popular) and the .30-06. The .250-3000 Savage and .300 Savage were mostly Savage offerings and the 7x57mm, well, that was foreign. The .257 Roberts fit a good niche when it was legitimized during the '30s, but fell by the wayside beginning in the '50s when things like the .243 WCF and .244/6mm Remington appeared and high-stepping belted magnums started finding their way into factory chamberings. We've also seen a better variety of handloading components, especially powders, over the past 60 years or so that've allowed some cartridges reach their full potential.

The .257 Roberts has mostly remained popular in the realm of niche shooters/hunters who don't want a rifle that'll beat the snot out of them, yet still possesses the accuracy and energy to serve as an effective deer rifle. (My granddad realized back in the '40s that it didn't take a freight train to effectively kill deer; an accurate rifle with moderate recoil went a hell of a long ways towards that end.) It's a very practical caliber for most types of deer hunting in North America even yet.

Wow. That is a beautiful rifle in a grand old cartridge!

Well done.

257heaven,

My experience with the .257 Roberts is the same as yours. I've owned at least a dozen, including short-actioned factory rifles, custom rifles built on Mauser 98 actions (including one on a Mexican action, supposedly just perfect for the .257), a NULA Model 20, a pre-'64 Model 70, and a Ruger No. 1B with a 26" barrel and a throat so long that no bullet under 115 grains could be seated anywhere near the rifling. Right now I have three .257 Roberts rifles: a Remington 722, a Kimber 84M Classic Select Grade, and a custom 98 made by Bill Sukalle in 1947.

The only one that gained any significant velocity over any of the other rifles was the Ruger No. 1B. It could get 3100 fps or so out of 115-grain bullets. But even the short-actioned Kimber approaches 3000 fps with 115-grain handloads, and the difference in the field would be pretty much zip.

I haven't noticed any difference in accuracy, either. The rifles with the best barrels have shot the best groups, regardless of the action length. Probably the two most accurate .257's I've ever owned have been the 722 and the Sukalle, but the Kimber is quite accurate too, and has a noticeably lighter barrel.

Oh, and my wife I have used our various .257's to kill a semi-load of pronghorn and deer, including some big bucks, at ranges out to 400+ yards. Now, no doubt some other round would be more suitable at 500+ yards, but so far I haven't felt compelled to shoot at any big game animal past 500--other than one pronghorn buck that somebody else wounded. And I killed it at around 550 yards with my 722, depite the short magazine.

One thing that's always puzzled me is why so many hunters (especially the rifle loonies on the Campfire) feel compelled to put down a certain cartridge by claiming another one is "better." Personally, I've almost never encountered a rifle cartridge I didn't like--the reason that along with my .257 Bobs I also have (and hunt with) a custom .243 Winchester, a .25-06 Ruger No. 1 (one of the special Lipsey's run with Circassian walnut), two .257 Weatherbys, a custom 6.5x55, and a semi-custom 6.5-06, just to name a few. They all have their virtues, and while some might be better for certain purposes, none stand head-and-shoulders above the others.

John and Bricktop,
Put very eluquatly, (still have not figured out an ISpell here, dam Vista), as I said in my thread a few weeks ago, "Tell the Gun Writers" most of all these new SWM and SUWM Ect, are for the gun writers to write about and the Manifactures to sell something "new" to the public. I am not advocating everyone should just have a 30-30, or a 30-06. I reality that is all one would need, but would take out some individuality, heck then we should be living in Russia.
But how many ways, do you need to kill a 90-300lb deer? A bear, Elk or Moose, which most do not have hunters do not hunt compared to deer, are main stay "big game" or a 120lb Lope? Shoot, a few 100-200fps in any caliber does not make a real difference to them when it hits the lungs.
And Bricktop, I thought you had a vendita about 257Heaven, but he hit me on another thread for someone selling a scope for on the for sale post for more then Cabelas is selling it new for. That I posted a FYI on it, he came across real arogant to me, and God like, hit me the wrong way, and his "attitude" towards you here on this thread and I saw his true inards!! I maybe wrong, but when other people say the same thing then I reflect and say, no I am not wrong, they are not wrong, 257Heaven is really, really, off the flat of the earth!

257heaven and I are pretty well on the same page most of the time.

Then it must have been just good clean debate, and loving abuse, between to known abonents. I am sorry if I misinterpeted. Was not trying to stir anything up.

Congratulations Bricktop!!!!

You've made it into my 'ignore' list. You're in there with ISS and Jim62. You're the final member of the f*%kwit trifecta.

More behavior I don't quite understand. Is there any particular reason you felt the need to publicly announce that you're ignoring me? Are you that insecure and diminished that this is the only venue where you feel important? I've always understood that when brain activity was monitored in homosexuals that differences were noted between them and straight people. I'm guessing your brain works in much the same way. I'll watch my cornhole around you.

Really....I'm serious.....YOU NEED TO TAKE A READING COMPREHENSION COURSE.

BT and I are both arguing in favor of the 257 Rbts. My point, as Mule Deer so eloquently backed, is that there's not one iota of real-world difference between a short action Roberts and a long action Roberts. I'm not arrogant. I'm a nice guy. You're the one that crapped on somebody else's "For Sale" thread and you did it to two different posters. So not only do you have a problem with reading comprehension.........you also publicly butt into others' business when you shouldn't.

I'd love to like you, because we obviously have a love for the same cartridges as apparent from your moniker. But your badmouthing me is not going to help the situation ANY.

Mule Deer.....I don't have nearly the field experience that you do, but thank you for your comments. I have several Bobs and improved Bobs along with several rifles chambered for other 25 caliber cartridges.

My first 257 Roberts was a Winchester M70 Featherweight push feed. I couldn't get it to shoot accurately and I didn't have near the experience I have now with rifles and didn't know how to make it shoot better. I traded it for a like new 1982 Remington Classic 700, which was a long action Bob with a 24 inch barrel. I think the weight and length of the rifle kept me from utilizing it as often as I wanted. I sold it a year or so ago...mainly because it sat in the safe while other rifles got trigger time.

The first Roberts that I really shot a lot was a Kimber Montana. It was easy to get good groups and I've killed several coyotes and numerous prairie doge with that rifle. I've yet to kill a big game animal with it.

That began a buying spree of Bobs and I've never looked back. I also have two 257 AI's, including a custom by Mickey Coleman and a NULA. I've never found a need for a larger caliber, but have hunted a lot with a faux Ti in 270 Win as well as a NULA in 284 Win and a GA Precision non-typical in 308. I keep going back to the 257's...because they kill easily with minimal recoil and I could see myself keeping one or two 257's when all of the others are gone.

My 9-year old son hunts with a 6mm-250, but I have a semi-custom Model 7 in 250 Savage that I've been thinking about having reamed out to 257 Rbts and letting him use that. I guess we'll see....he's really taken to the 6mm-250 and has a lot of confidence in it after taking 2 does with it 2 years in a row.

Again.....Thanks.