Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 257 Roberts Accurcacy Issues?

Have a friend, bought a ruger..... in 257 roberts. Says no matter what hes' bought, shoots about 3 inch groups at 100 yards.

I bedded it some years ago, I don't even remember doing it. That didn t' change the accuracy.

Are they inherently innaccurate IE that round? Someone also said that Hill Country rifles won't guarantee that caliber and a few others in their accuracy guarantees.

Also, has anyone sent a rifle back to them, saying it won't shoot well enough and what hassle and what cost?

THanks, Jeff

I know of one 257 that could shoot cloverleafs at 100Yds. The issue is the throating of the round. My uncle had a custom built that he used for varmints. That old gun shot lights out. The original spec was a round on a short magazine but extended throat. Try the old Roberts bullet. 117 gr round nose seated to near the rifleing. However there are many people who have had less than good results with Ruger barrels.

I once owned two different Rugers in .257 RBTS, the first a M77, the second a M77MKII. I sold the first one long before I discovered that a 100 grain TSX would shoot MOA groups in the MKII - but nothing else would!

I've had 3 different Ruger 77's in 257 Roberts and all have shot really well. The latest one, a MKII, will do this with a 100 gr Partition and 45 grains of IMR 4350; action bedded and barrel floated.

My brother has a Ruger .257 UL I've done some loading for. With both the 100 TSX and the 110 AB it's a pretty solid 1" rifle at up to about 2800 fps then opens up to 2"

My Son recently bought a Kimber 84M Select Classic .257 Roberts that has been sub MOA with every load we've tried.
We've both had Ruger M77 Mark IIs that were MOA or better with several loads.
Our goto loads are 46-H4350-100 Hornady Interlock, and 44-H4895-75 Sierra hp. These loads have been terrific in 4 different rifles.

What is the twist of your friend's 257 Roberts? If it is 1-12, then keep the bullet weight down to 87 grains. 100 grain flatbase MAY be ok.

If the twist is 1-10, then try 100 grainers.

I had 1 257 roberts. It was on a WWII wartime M98 Mauser with an unknown barrel. Nice sporter, but not high end. It DID have double set triggers(a nice touch). It had a 1-10 twist 257 Roberts sporter barrel (24", unknown made) on it. I've long since sold it (20 years ago), but when I did have it, I did some limited load development with it.

I know the 120 grain bullets were in the 3-4" range at 100 yards. Most 87 grain bullets were in the 2" range at 100 yards.

I was getting discouraged, then I tried 100 grain flat base Hornady bullets over 45 grains of IMR 4350, and I was getting EASY sub 1 moa groups at 100 yards ( more like .6-.7 moa).

It was my first big eye opening moment in reloading, and seeing the huge difference in accuracy with components. I've seen many other internet references for accuracy groups with a 257 Roberts using 45/grains IMR 4350 and a 100 grain bullet. One of the above posters had some nice groups with it. To me, this is no surprise. It was exactly the combination which worked for my 257 Roberts.

Check the rifling twist of that rifle first.

Good luck.

New Ruger. Will have to check on twist. The UL version of the ruger. Would have to assume its 10.

I do know it shoots the heavier round nose the best around 3 inches.... 117 is my guess but I did not ask what weight for sure.

Any thoughts of having it AI'd? That could correct chamber issues?

I can't imagine it being the round... I just twisted together a take-off 25-06 barrel trimmed back to "short chamber" on a Turk Mauser for my son & w/o work it was shooting 1.5" w/ 117 gr Interlocks& 87 gr TNTs.

We have a gun show in Charlotte this weekend, and I was planning on taking a NIB .243 Ruger M77 to the show in hopes of trading it on a .257 Roberts. This accuracy situtation with the Bob has me reconsidering doing this. It appears that some rifles chambered in .257 Roberts can be very picky about bullet weight/configuration. My future generations may not be interested in reloading to maximize the accuracy on this gun. I may hold my nose and stick with the .243. From the .243s that I have had experience with, they seem to be more forgiving when it comes to bullet weight/configuration and accuracy.

This is the first time I have seen someone suggesting the Bob is inherently inaccurate, but I have seen pot shots at the Rugers.

I have owned several Bob 2.8's and 3.0's spanning at least 4 decades and currently own two tang safety M77's and a LT (long throat) M77. They all have been a pleasure to reload and shoot.

Some loads that stand out are 42-43 grains H4895, 75 grain Hornady V-Max. 43-44 grains H4350, 115 grain Nosler Partition. 47-48 grains H4350, 90 grain Sierra HPBT.

Have two in the house now. Both are ruger mk11, and one of those is a ul. Try IMR 4064 with 100 gr. bullets. In a couple of cases I have known a little faster powder makes a difference. Nothing at all wrong with the Roberts as far as accuracy goes. One of my favorites.
GreggH

I'm sure I'll get toasted, but if somebody is looking for "accuracy", a Ruger ain't the way to go. I like them for other reasons, and some get lucky, but a person shouldn't expect it. Tht said, I've not seen any that shoot REALLY bad. Not 3 moa with handloads, for sure.

have him try free floating the barrel. it ain't the cartridge.

I once owned a custom Mexican Mauser in 257 Roberts that was
very accurate with a cheap scope. Wish I would have kept it.

I have several Rugers and shoot only factory loads. They are plenty good for what I need. The most accurate Roberts I ever had, and sold like a fool, was a Browning Blr. It was freaky accurate with Winchester 117g round nose loads. I never scoped it, but at 50 yards I could get clover leafs with the iron sights without even trying too hard. Should have kept that one and played with it some more.

Dale

I have a tang safety M77 in the Roberts, and mine is very accurate.

The Roberts is not magically inaccurate or hard to get to shoot in my experience. If you can't get anything to shoot well, it is more likely a rifle bedding problem than a cartridge problem.

Try loosening the 2 action screws and the trigger guard screw. Tighten the angled screw first tighter than seems appropriate, tighten the back trigger guard screw almost as tight, and then snug up the front trigger guard screw, don't torque it, just snugged up. That usually helps a troubled Ruger.

Seeing if it shoots better squeaky clean or dirty may be another thing to try.


Try a 100grn bullet with a fast powder, and a 115-117grn bullet with a slow powder. Whichever is more acurate is the rabbithole you need to go down to sort out the rest. Mine shoots best with RL19, but h4350, h414, RL22 and 4831 all have been good powders for the Roberts in 100-117grn.

First part ... nothing inherently wrong with the Ruger in .257, but there does seem to be a lot of variation in accuracy gun to gun. Especially if you're talking about the RL model with the light 20" barrel. I've had 2 of those.

The first was a little booger to get to shoot but I won eventually. It never shot accurately 'til about 2 years into my ownership I got pissed off and just shot up all my ammo, over 100 rounds, within a couple minutes. It got HOT. I could smell wood charring. It melted the rubber on the gun rack when I put it back in the truck. Prior to that day, it would not reliably shoot under 2-1/2 inches. After that, I had an small number of loads that went very reliably sub 3/4 inch. I can't explain it other than to guess that either the heat burned out a high spot in the barrel channel or that much shooting pounded down a high spot around the tang or bedding block. (Shrug) All I know is it worked.

The other one beat me. It was quite a few years later, a Mark II version of the 77 RL, not a tang-safety gun like the first. I shot 1000 rounds or more through it looking for accuracy, gave up, sent it back to the factory (so this answers both of your questions) ... it left shooting no better than 3-1/2 inch groups and came back shooting 3 inch groups instead. "Wow." Well, at least all I had to pay was shipping.

Not sure what I'd recommend ... probably the simplest answer is to sell the damn thing and, if you're set on .257, buy another and start from scratch.

Tom

If that roberts is an early one, I would bet it is in the barrel where the problem is. I had one of the early 257 when Ruger brought them out. No matter what i did to that gun, it was not accurate. Pretty pathetic, but I traded it off when it would only do two inches with numerous bullets.

Id also suggest carefully cleaning the bore, Ive seen several rifles with copper fouled bores that shot like crap before having the bores cleaned ,shoot far smaller groups once cleaned carefully