.257 Roberts ammo recommendation

[westside103147]

I was recently given a Ruger M77 in .257 Roberts that belonged to  my late uncle. I'm very unfamiliar with the cartridge and was wondering if anyone had a recommendation for factory ammo. I cant find much for sale online beside hornady and nosler. Any help would be great.

Thanks.

[superdown]

here's the link for midway usa they have federal,remington,hsm,winchester,double tap along with the nosler and hornady you already mentioned.I would read the reviews and pick what i thought was the best.I wish i could give some first hand knowledge but i don't own a rifle in that cartridge    http://www.midwayusa.com/find?sortby=1&itemsperpage=20&newcategorydimensionid=9828

[Biggerhammer]

Old school Ruger red pad, tang safety? Purchased a .257 Roberts from a friend of mine when he retired from driving  Aircraft Carriers.  Classy rifle!, for factory stuff. The Federal Premium 120gr Partition is hard to beat.

[westside103147]

Yes sir! It's a classic, I received it in the facotry box with the plastic sleeve still on the gun.

[h2ofowlr]

I've been trying to track down ammo for my .257 Roberts for the past year and a half.  Found 3 boxes in that time period!  Good luck getting some.  Buy several boxes if you do.

[coachcw]

Big r/north 40 carries it  I found the federal premium 120 np  shoot well .

[coachcw]

Little gun/pawn shop in river side has it too.

[huntnphool]

 

Old school Ruger red pad, tang safety? Purchased a .257 Roberts from a friend of mine when he retired from driving  Aircraft Carriers.  Classy rifle!, for factory stuff. The Federal Premium 120gr Partition is hard to beat.

 I own a '72 model year with factory adjustable trigger, great gun.

 Save your brass and load your own, I too use the partitions.

[salmonchaser]

Probably one of the most overlooked and undervalued cartridges out there. Dad got stationed at Ft. WAINWRIGHT Alaska in 1959 bought a Remington 722 for Mom then. She killed moose and caribou with that little cartridge. When we returned to Oregon she regularly killed mule deer and a couple elk as well. She packed that rifle for about 40 years. Never lost an animal she shot with it.
Either Hornady or Nosler will serve you well, I load partitions or ballistic tips.

[Biggerhammer]

Old school Ruger red pad, tang safety? Purchased a .257 Roberts from a friend of mine when he retired from driving  Aircraft Carriers.  Classy rifle!, for factory stuff. The Federal Premium 120gr Partition is hard to beat.

 I own a '72 model year with factory adjustable trigger, great gun.

 Save your brass and load your own, I too use the partitions.

I just run 6mm Remington brass through my full length .257 Bob die, load and shoot.

[RadSav]

We run the Ultra Light version of that gun you have.  Both great shooters.  Most of the factory ammo is disappointing.  Heavy bullets almost ruin the benefit of the little cartridge.  Small diameter bullets need speed to perform their best.  While the Partition works well at nearly all velocities the 120 grain doesn't optimize the cartridge unless shooting elk.  Even the 117 Inner-Lok Hornady in Light Magnum (best factory load so far) has given us 50 to 100 yard recoveries on deer when impacts have been reaching 200 yards.  Never lost an animal with the 117HIL, but was always lacking in fast kills at medium range.

After a lot of research and an inability to find factory ammo I started loading my own.  Both the Hornady SST and the 100 grain Partition have been extremely impressive on bear and deer.  Giving the accuracy advantage to the 117 SST and the quick kill advantage to the 100 grain Partition.  After seeing the results of those two I'd guess if the wife decided to tackle elk with her Bob I'd split the difference and load the 115 Partition for that.

I'm loading both Nosler and Remington brass with Norma powders at darn near max velocities.  We are getting .5" and .75" groups with the two guns using the Nosler brass, Norma URP and 117 SST.  .75" and 1" groups with the Remington Brass, Norma 204 and 100 Partition.  If the wife would let me put pillars in her gun I'd expect she would get the same groups my gun gets.  Though I guess within the range limitations of the Bob 1/4" difference doesn't really matter all that much.

Crazy thing about these little Bob's is they seem to kill bear much faster than they do deer.  I assume that is due to resistance giving better expansion at the Bob velocity limits.  Penetration has never been a factor and always left us impressed!

[one shot kill]

I have 65 rounds of once fired 257 bob brass if you want to buy those and load your own

[Bwana Bob]

We run the Ultra Light version of that gun you have.  Both great shooters.  Most of the factory ammo is disappointing.  Heavy bullets almost ruin the benefit of the little cartridge.  Small diameter bullets need speed to perform their best.  While the Partition works well at nearly all velocities the 120 grain doesn't optimize the cartridge unless shooting elk.  Even the 117 Inner-Lok Hornady in Light Magnum (best factory load so far) has given us 50 to 100 yard recoveries on deer when impacts have been reaching 200 yards.  Never lost an animal with the 117HIL, but was always lacking in fast kills at medium range.

After a lot of research and an inability to find factory ammo I started loading my own.  Both the Hornady SST and the 100 grain Partition have been extremely impressive on bear and deer.  Giving the accuracy advantage to the 117 SST and the quick kill advantage to the 100 grain Partition.  After seeing the results of those two I'd guess if the wife decided to tackle elk with her Bob I'd split the difference and load the 115 Partition for that.

I'm loading both Nosler and Remington brass with Norma powders at darn near max velocities.  We are getting .5" and .75" groups with the two guns using the Nosler brass, Norma URP and 117 SST.  .75" and 1" groups with the Remington Brass, Norma 204 and 100 Partition.  If the wife would let me put pillars in her gun I'd expect she would get the same groups my gun gets.  Though I guess within the range limitations of the Bob 1/4" difference doesn't really matter all that much.

Crazy thing about these little Bob's is they seem to kill bear much faster than they do deer.  I assume that is due to resistance giving better expansion at the Bob velocity limits.  Penetration has never been a factor and always left us impressed!

Rad,
I have been shooting a Bob since the late 70's My first a Ruger M-77 that I sold to a friend out here. My current a Ruger #1 I bought in 1982.

my go to bullet was the 120gr Hornady Hp. It will open fast at Robert's vel's and deer never go more than 20 yd. My new go to bullet is the 100gr Barnes TS. Withs its 26in barrel and long throat I get 3200 fpr. I'm using close to roberts improved data in it. I may try it on a cow elk if I draw a tag this year. 
With IMR 4350 & 4831 you should be able to load the Bob in a modern rifle to 2800  fps using 120/117gr bullets.  I can't understand why you are having deer run so far with the bullets your using.

[RadSav]

We've never had issues with deer running too far when shots are inside 150 yards.  And last year we had great results with both the SST and the 100 grain Partition at longer distances.  So those issues have been resolved to some degree both with the newer bullets and the hand loads.  OP was asking about factory ammo and I still contend that just about all the factory ammo is WAY under loaded.  And usually loaded with average at best bullets.  Nosler got the speeds up, but I can not get any accuracy out of their load.  Superformance loads were also less than perfect grouping with my wife's opening up to almost 2.5".

One thing to realize is that we are shooting the Ultra-Light "RL".  So compared to your 26" barrel we can not compete in velocity with our 20" barrels.  Although I am breaking 3000 with the 100 grain and Norma 204.  Coming dang close to it with the URP/SST combination.  I do have room to push them harder if I wanted to have bigger groups.  But after about 20 different loads with these two bullets I settled on the Sub-MOA instead of the 75-120 gain in speed.  Just didn't seem like a decent trade off to me.

Even with the old box ammo we have had zero recovery distances on animals killed inside 150 yards.  It's those 200 yard shots where travel after impact have been longer than we would like.  Low velocity combined with bullets designed for the 25-06 are my conclusion to the issues.  Although that 120 grain Partition that Federal loads is made specifically for the Bob.  That could be one of the reasons guys are having such good luck with that even if the velocity is rather anemic. 

I'm not a real Partition fan, but in the Bob it seems to be the perfect compromise so far.  And even with a low BC if the wind isn't blowing those poor coyotes are in some serious trouble if they stop inside 500 yards.  Well, 500 yards hasn't been proven in the field as our longest coyote with that 100 Partition was 448 yards.   We did have a blast trying to keep the Toutle 'yote population I check last year with these new loads.  Now if I could just get a Ballistic Tip varmint bullet load to shoot as accurately!  We will be working on that very soon

[westside103147]

Thanks for all the info guys!  It sounds like investing in a reloading set up will be the way to go.

[RadSav]

Mine is a cheap RCBS that I got on sale.  Nothing at all fancy.  I just load slow and check, double check and check again as I go.  Made sure I got a good set of calipers and a Hornady Lock & Load Comparator set. 

It is nothing like the high precision/high capacity stuff we used when I shot competitively.  Yet if I go slow and check as I go results have been great!  And I had the extra hundreds to stock up on powder, brass and bullets since they have been hard to find in Bob's size!

[Bwana Bob]

Rad,
good point on you using a 20 in barrel.
 Both my 22in barreled Ruger  M-77 and #1 accounted for lots of deer especially when I lived in NY. I shot all my biggest mule deer in WY and MT with it and the average shot was over 200 yd but under 300 and that goes for 15 WY antelope also. I used the 120gr Sierra bullet a few years back on a doe WT and antelope hunt in WY. All one shot kills and all died within 20 yd or less. I do load on the warm side in my guns but as far as bullets go, I can't see any real differences between the 120/117 gr bullets from speer, hornady or sierra. I shot a few deer with the 100gr hornady and that worked well. I really like the 100gr Barns TS if I'm hunting big mule deer and I have to take a less than perfect shot. I even took the #1 to Africa and killed 4 or 5 head of game wit hit. My PH wanted to buy it from me but no sell'UM to him. I will keep it until I can't hunt and give it to one of my friends sons.

An underrated cartridge that needs to be hand loaded to get to its true potential. Inside of 300-350yd it gives nothing up to a 25/06, after that the 25/06 really shines.

[h2ofowlr]

What's the .257 BOB?  I have saved all my brass and probably have a 100 rounds of it.  Just need to set up the re-loader as mentioned and try it.

[Bwana Bob]

What's the .257 = BOB? 257 Robert's

[bradslam]

My recommendation would be to get yourself some IMR 4350 powder and the following bullets:  Nosler 115 gr Partition, Nosler 110 gr Accubond, and Barnes 100 gr TTSX.  Work up loads in each and see what your gun shoots best.  I've killed a bunch of game including quite a few elk with the 115 gr Partitions.  The .257 Roberts is a great caliber if you take good shots and don't try to stretch the limits of the caliber.

[RadSav]

My recommendation would be to get yourself some IMR 4350 powder and the following bullets:  Nosler 115 gr Partition, Nosler 110 gr Accubond, and Barnes 100 gr TTSX.  Work up loads in each and see what your gun shoots best.  I've killed a bunch of game including quite a few elk with the 115 gr Partitions.  The .257 Roberts is a great caliber if you take good shots and don't try to stretch the limits of the caliber.

Or bullet design