Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Was the 257 Roberts the premier deer round at one time ?

I read that somewhere - but had never heard it before, the source even mentioned that the 243 was the demise of the 257 Bob....

Huh

I'm going to guess no to your first posit and yes to the second. Having said that, I'm going to agree that you probably read that somewhere. No, it was not ever THE Premier deer round, but it did have a lot of initial interest. Yes, 243 WIN and 6mm REM stole its thunder.

.257 Rob was kind of like 30 WSM in its sales trajectory. It came out with a lot of hype. It DID and DOES have a lot going for it, but after the rush wore off, it settled into a life of mediocre sales. Writers moved on to the next big thing.

Just for grins, I looked up the .257 Roberts in my 1942 Outdoor Life Cyclopedia. While most of what is in this epic tome is complete balderdash, it does give you an idea of the zeitgeist of the time. Here's what it said:

". . . but for some reason the .257 [Roberts] has remained almost entirely a gun fan's rifle. Paradoxically, the majority of those who own this great all-round rifle have several others in the rack, and the men who need it haven't given it much consideration."

Jack O'Connor loved the round, and developed a bunch of loads for it. However, he lamented at some point around WWII that there was a lack of good bullets for it. Yes, they were out there, but they varied greatly in weight and this led to less accuracy. As we all know, Herr O'Connor became linked to the 270 Winchester and not the 257 Rob.

There was a period after WWII that saw a resurgence in interest in .257 Rob when folks brought back Japanese Arisakas and could not find ammo for them. They had the option of rechambering them for .257 Rob.


In case you're wondering, no I don't own a 257 Roberts. However, I was all ready to go out and buy one 25 years ago, and my gunwriter friend, Bob, talked me out of it. About 10 years ago, another friend of mine went blind and sold me his 25-06. I found that I could load it up with H4895 and get a very close appoximation to the 257 Rob. I hunted with it a few years and. . . like the article said, I find myself picking its neighbors on the rack when it comes time for deer season.

Was Premier for me for a few years.

Hell on whitetails with a 90 grain Sierra HPBT and a goodly dose of IMR-4064.

It is for me

For deer sized game, a Roberts and a 115 gr Ballistic Tip is all a person needs.

A box of Nosler premium 257+ brass and a set of RCBS dies on the shelf tells me I'm looking for another 257 Roberts - again.

I have one and it is a fine deer rifle/cartridge. Fills the gap between 223 and 270 nicely.

I have one, a 722 with a Lyman peep, I use on whitetails in 3rd growth conifers in western Montana, most shots under 75 yds. I use 100gr. Barnes and I've never needed a second shot.

i now have 6 - 257 Roberts and so will have one more Roberts soon, i purchased all of them with the thought when my grandkids and daughter deer hunt they can all have the same cartridge to hunt with, i also have 25 boxes of ammo loaded up for them in the future too. i have enough deer hunting land that is paid for that will be given to them all including my son and as i age i plan on using a 257 Roberts too and retire my magnums someday. > in Minnesota yes when i was a kid 257 Roberts was kinda a premier deer round,this cartridge has a unique name so as kids we all wanted a 257 Roberts ,maybe that`s why i guess i have to many 257 Roberts and you can bet many on the fire have 1 or 2 yet just in case.

I have one 257 Roberts. A Ruger Ultralight. Most of the deer I have killed with it, I killed with a 115 Partition. It puts them to sleep instantaneously. It's my favorite rifle. In my lifetime it has never been too popular. Is any manufacturer other than Kimber making them?

I probably won't make friends for this, but i find the 257 Roberts to be an adequate northern whitetail round. As a kid I was given the Outdoor Life Cylcopedia. I was young enough that I wrote my name in it in crayon. I believed the write up on the 257, that was definitely typewriter hunting, not real world. I bought my first one in 1972. I still have it and have killed a pickup load of deer with it. Ive owned and hunted several others. But it is not the same class as a 270 or the 308/06 or the over 30 crowd. If all things are perfect, it's bang flop. But things are not always perfect. There is rain and snow on the scope, twigs andleaves that you dont see, deer that arenot standing the way you think they are, bullets that dont work as advertised, and on and on. Little holes make poor blood trails on rain soaked oak leaves and laurel thickets. It will do the job, but in my experience not premier. I've killed a pile of groundhogs with it, some 300 plus yards. Great versatile cartridge, but I prefer a bit more.
Bfly

Ruger hung on there for quite a while and were still chambering the Roberts when they introduced the Hawkeye stocked M77 MKll rifle. But even they have dropped it finally. I have two Hawkeye Roberts', one with matt bluing and one with gloss blueing and have owned three others.

Excellent post BlackFly. The Roberts is my all time favourite cartridge and has a heap of nostalgic appeal but it also pays to be realistic. I have taken fallow deer with mine but I take a bigger cartridge for bigger deer, a 7mm or .30 for reds and a Whelen for sambar.

WTF

I've used about every caliber on a whitetail . The 257's do a tremendous job .

My first rifle was a 270 win, my second was a 93 Mauser in 257 Roberts. I bought it when I was 15 years old and used it exclusively on deer,antelope and elk for 5 years. Don’t use it hardly at all anymore which is a shame, it’ll do it all just fine if you can hunt.

I think there has always been a niche for them, I can remember oldtimers in the early '50s mentioning them around the barbershop when the BS would include hunting.

However, the term premier would have had to be compared with the older established rounds that were also popular. 30-30, 30-06, .270, .300 Savage, and .250 Savage.

It was quite popular at one time. Gaining ground in the depression years slowly and then it's ammo sales spiked at the end of the WW2 years until around 1960

Funny how some "stars" are now seen as antiques.

Another one that was a surprise for me is how popular the 300 Savage was in it's prime. I always figured the 30-30 was the leading caliber for many years as a "deer rifle" and that was correct for close to 80 years. What I was surprised to learn was that the 30-06 was NOT the #2 selling deer round in the USA until the mid 1960s. From around the mid 20s until the mid 60s the 300 Savage was the #2 seller every deer season for ammunition sales in the USA. Growing up from the 50s through the 60s, I always thought the 30-06 was the "All American Round' and would be the big seller all the way from WW1 until then. Nope! The 300 Savage was the #2. 30-06 was #3 for a long time

The sales of the 257 Roberts were fairly high too. Always in the top 7 to 10 from the late 20s until about the late 50s or early 60s. So today, when we think of the old 257 Roberts as an "oldie" we may not fully appreciate how good and well loved it was. It's mostly forgotten today my gun makers and ammo producers, but those that have one and have used it seem to know very well how good it is for deer, and it has been for many years. With todays better bullets, it's a better round now then it ever was, but that has not made it have any resurgence of interest.

Kinda sad....

Ah! Another fan of the Outdoor Life 'Cyclopedia!

I got mine at the used bookstore just after college. My friends were nagging me to go deer hunting, and I was looking for something to read up on the subject. Mine is from 1942.

The 257R has ALWAYS been the premier deer cartridge and always will be 👍

Tell it like it is!