Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 257 Roberts M70 Featherweight XTR

I've got this beautiful little early 80's Winchester that I'm looking to load up some 100 gr TSX/TTSX for. I do have a nice 120 gr load but have never played around with the 100's. I normally enjoy working up a load but right now powder is so damn scarce up here and I'm running too low to fool around. I know there's quite a few who shoot this same rifle on here and hope that some can help me save a bit of powder by sharing your 100 TSX load. My OAL is mag restricted to about 2.83". I have H4350 and H4831sc.

Pleeese!

44-46 g of h4350 with those 100's.

I use h414 in mine and have pretty good luck.

The 70 XTRs in 257 Roberts are all long actions with blocked magazines, so you can easily resolve the magazine COAL limits by replacing the magazine box and follower.

Jeff

well went and took the plunge and picked up a cabalas special edition 264 win mag and WOW what a great rifle and in the best cal. needed for hunting long range animals in Idaho they really have done a really nice job in reproducing this awesome rifle and cal. there are some guys that are talking some crap about the logo on the bottom plate I think cabalas should have a little pride in doing a fine job and it is worth the price as well and if that's all they have to say then well its pretty narrow and small minded thinking of putting some siroccos through it 120 gr any thoughts thanks

Good info. H4350 is a good powder for the 257R. My brother gave me this same model after he re-chambered it to 257RAI in the early '80s, IIRC. I liked 117s and 120s in mine for whitetails, but that was many years ago. I like the premium 100 gn bullets now yielding a bit more MV.

I have the 257 Rbts and for 100g pills I would stay between

IMR 4064
and
IMR 4350

Burn rates.

The fact that Barnes are a bit longer compared to other bullets of same weight that would trend towards the 4350 of powder.

It might help if we know what powders you have to work with.

My listing for Barnes 100g bullet shows 4350 as the 'best'. But that is just me.

The H4831SC works real good in my Model 70 257 Roberts.
Longest OAL I can use is 2.825 OAL. Mine also likes
RL22 with 110gr Accubonds and 115 Nosler partitions. The
IMR 4350 Also worked good.

I had one of those rifles and it liked all manner of light bullets. The only heavy I could get to shoot was the 115 Gr NPT�..shot like crazy�wouldn't group a 120 NPT though�..go figure.

Both of mine shoot lights out with Nosler factory 110 ABs.

Hammer - welcome to the 'fire. I think you may have set a record for hijacking a thread on your second post. You may want to start up a different thread with your question down in the reloading section.

Don't want to seem rude but none of this is saving me any powder.

Maybe I didn't explain my dilemma properly....I was asking for pet loads in a Featherweight with 100 gr TSX and H4350 or H4831sc not another generic "Bob" love-in.

Please.

100 grain TSX WW cases Fed 210 46 grains of H4350. I avoid IMR 4350 as folks say its more temp sensitive.

Bingo! Thank you kind sir

That's the one most oft cited here; 46 gr. H-4350.

N8dawg likely gave you good advice with H4350,although those rifles had slightly long throats(longer than you can load to at 2.8 OAL)...this is based on memory since I have only had two of these and neither one in quite awhile.

One was made into a 3" Roberts and the other left "as is'.

Point being you may be able to boost charges a bit with either H4350 or H4831,and IME the Roberts behaves somewhat like a 270 with slow burning powders in that it tends to shoot better with loads at or near top end..

Nobody can give you loads guaranteed to work in your rifle....some things you just have to work out yourself.

That pretty much sums it up.

Like others have said H4350 is the place to start, its all I run in my Bob with 100 gr pills, regardless of brand of bullet. Charge weight you'll have to figure for your rifle. Although 45-46 gr. works in most with no problems.

Bill

I generally load 46grains of H4350 in a "new to me" .257 with a good 100-grain bullet, and if the rifle doesn't shoot that well I figure there's something about the rifle that needs fixing.

One of the greatest lies in shooting, handloading it will save you money on ammo costs. Yea Right. The Model 70 XTRs were and are good rifles, I had one in 270 and I shot a lot of deer on crop damage permit with it, sold it when I paired down my collection some years back. Then again we never really expected to save any money, we just shoot ten times as much.

Killzone, BobinNH's experience with the same gun parallel's mine it took 2.93" COAL with 100 gr Hornady SP's to get the accuracy I wanted and the mag was to short to hold them. It held the factory 100 gr Sivertip+P load and the 117 gr RN soft point well. But handloads with high bc bullets and dink magazines weren't a good deal on that gun. Magnum Man