{"id":830,"date":"2019-01-14T08:00:04","date_gmt":"2019-01-14T13:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.wholesalehunter.com\/?p=830"},"modified":"2019-04-05T13:28:30","modified_gmt":"2019-04-05T17:28:30","slug":"roberts-257-a-quarter-bore-worth-a-comeback-craig-boddington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/roberts-257-a-quarter-bore-worth-a-comeback-craig-boddington\/","title":{"rendered":"Roberts .257: A Quarter-Bore Worth a Comeback"},"content":{"rendered":"

The enclosed blind was warm, and it was still early; I was unlikely to see anything for a while. Truth is, I was wool-gathering\u2026 and when I glanced up there was a very large black boar standing broadside near the feeder. Oops! I raised the rifle, slowly got the barrel outside the window, and took a rest.<\/p>\n

The distance was about a hundred yards; without further thought, I centered the crosshairs on the shoulder, a third up from the brisket. The shot felt good, but the pig lurched away, instantly lost behind some cedars. Now I needed to think about this. I\u2019d taken the shot with a .257 Roberts<\/a> and 117-grain Hornady SST<\/a>. Hindsight being perfect, steady and at that distance, I could just as well have taken a head or neck shot, but I\u2019d instinctively gone for my comfort zone, the shoulder shot, without considering that this was not a big gun for a large pig.<\/p>\n

Well, done was done, and something else might come in. I waited until about 15 minutes after sundown, turned the scope down low, and went to check. The boar was every bit as big as I\u2019d thought; he\u2019d gone about 20 yards and was stone-dead. Impressive!<\/p>\n

\"Wild
This big Texas hog took a 117-grain SST on the shoulder from the .257 Roberts and traveled about 20 yards.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

My History with the .25-Caliber Cartridge<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I have never been a huge .25-caliber fan, but over the years I\u2019ve used almost all of them, from the mild .25-20 to the .25-35, on up to the .250 Savage<\/a>, and then to the fast .25s: The short-lived .25 WSSM, the .25-06, and the .257 Weatherby Magnum<\/a>. Most popular by far is the .25-06<\/a>, almost a cult cartridge in Texas. That\u2019s where I was when I shot that boar, and indeed the flat-shooting .25-06 is almost perfect for shooting Texas deer down those long, featureless senderos<\/em> that defy rangefinders. Perhaps oddly, the .25-caliber that I\u2019ve missed and haven\u2019t used is the .257 Roberts<\/a>. Wildcatted by gunwriter Ned Roberts in the Twenties, the .257 Roberts was introduced by Remington in 1934. Remington has a long track record of \u201clegitimizing\u201d wildcat cartridges; other success stories have included the .22-250<\/a>, .35 Whelen<\/a>, and of course the .25-06!<\/p>\n

\"Savage
Left to right: .25-20, .25-35, .250 Savage, .2567 Roberts, .25 WSSM, .25-06, .257 Weatherby Magnum. The universe of .25-caliber cartridges is small and currently dominated by the .25-06, but the old .257 Roberts remains a viable choice.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

History of the .257 Roberts<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The .257 Roberts is based on the 7mm Mauser<\/a> (7×57) case necked down. Accurate and mild in recoil, the Roberts took off almost immediately and was extremely popular at least through the 1950s. Able to handle heavier bullets better than the .250 Savage (1915), it is without question a more effective big-game cartridge. However, it also held a primary niche as a crossover varmint\/deer cartridge, at least until the simultaneous introduction of the .243 Winchester<\/a> and .244 Remington in 1955.<\/p>\n

\"Remington
Left to right, 6mm Remington, .257 Roberts, 7×57, 8×57. All of these cartridges, plus several more obscure metrics, are based on the 7×57 case, developed by Peter Paul Mauser in 1892.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jack O\u2019Connor was a .257 fan for the running jackrabbits he loved to practice on, and the entire O\u2019Connor clan hunted deer and pronghorns with .257s. According to Frank C. Barnes\u2019 Cartridges of the World<\/em> (Krause 1965, now in its 16th<\/sup> Edition), \u201cThe .257 Roberts<\/a> has often been referred to as the \u2018most useful rifle cartridge ever developed.\u2019\u201d Uh, we all have our favorites! Somehow I missed the boat, and until autumn 2018, I\u2019d never taken game with the .257 Roberts.<\/p>\n

In my defense, in my time the Roberts has languished in the shadow of the .243 Winchester.<\/a> Winchester, who considered this cartridge to be both a varmint and big game cartridge, offered the .243 in both 80- and 100-grain loads right out of the gate, with a 1:10 twist that stabilized both loads. This was a good move for Winchester; by the time Remington caught up with the 6mm Remington<\/a> (an updated version of its .244 Remington) the popularity of the Winchester .243 was unassailable. It still remains the standard crossover varmint and deer cartridge, and generations of hunters (including me!) have taken their first big game with a .243.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Intent Matters: .25s vs 6mm Cartridges<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Of course, the success of a cartridge depends on what you intend to do with it. For big game, the .25s offer more bullet weight than is possible with a 6mm, and the Roberts case can propel them at meaningful velocities. For unknown reasons, for many years .257 Roberts factory<\/a> ammo was mild and handloading was necessary to make it strut its stuff. By about 1990, pressures and velocities were increased, with packaging and headstamps showing \u201c+P\u201d. Loads vary, but Hornady\u2019s Superformance with 117-grain SST<\/a> is rated at 2950 fps in a 24-inch barrel, which is knocking on the door of .25-06 velocity.<\/p>\n

\"target
There is no accounting for exactly what load a given rifle will group the best. Boddington\u2019s Dakota .257 prints half-inch groups with Remington\u2019s 117-grain round-nose Core-Lokt\u2026not a bad choice for larger game at short range.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"target
Boddington\u2019s Dakota in .257 Roberts groups right at an inch with Hornady\u2019s fast 117-grain SST Superformance load.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Finally Flexing with the .257 Roberts<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Honestly, I never considered my life ruined by lack of a .257 Roberts, but a couple of years ago I ran across a Dakota M76 in .257 Roberts that fit Donna perfectly and we had to have it. It shot well, but it seemed a hard-luck rifle and on several outings nothing happened. This past fall I decided to fix that, so I packed it along for our Kansas whitetail season. In the mix among our<\/p>\n

bucks, we have a weird gene that throws a normal antler on one side and ugly trash on the other.<\/p>\n

\"Georgia,
Boddington\u2019s Dakota .257 Roberts on a favorite deer stand in Georgia. This rifle started as a hard-luck case and suffered several dry runs before being used afield\u2026but that has nothing to do with its capabilities.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kansas is a strict one-buck state so culling is difficult\u2014but for sure I\u2019ll take such a buck if I see one. On the fourth afternoon of our rifle season, a grown-up buck strolled into a food plot with a good beam on his left and clubby fork on his right. Without hesitation I grabbed the Roberts and shot him, with an SST, at about 130 yards, on the point of the shoulder. The buck hit the ground so hard it bounced, and never moved!<\/p>\n

\"Craig
Boddington\u2019s farm in Kansas has a known gene pool that he calls \u201cfour-by-weird.\u201d Such a buck is taken whenever possible, but a one-buck limit makes management difficult. This buck was literally flattened by a 117-grain SST from the Roberts at 130 yards.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A .257 Roberts Renaissance?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Interestingly, I\u2019m not the only guy to \u201cdiscover\u201d the .257 Roberts this past fall. Gordon Marsh, proprietor of LG-Outdoors and Wholesale Hunter, ran across an uncommon Ruger<\/a> No. One in .257 Roberts at a good price and bought it. I wish I\u2019d seen it first! Gordon had also never hunted with the Roberts, but used it to take a big-bodied Alabama buck. He used the same 117-grain SST; his shot was close, 50 yards, no exit. His buck dropped, got up, and went about a hundred yards before expiring.<\/p>\n

\"deer
Gordon Marsh with an Alabama whitetail taken with his Ruger No. One single-shot in .257 Roberts. Over the chronograph his 26-inch barrel yielded a noticeable velocity bonus, almost 3050 fps with a 117-grain Hornady factory load!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

New factory rifles in .257 Roberts are scarce these days, but there are plenty of rifles out there, and all the majors offer factory loads. Gordon\u2019s Ruger has a 26-inch barrel and he\u2019s getting quite a bonus in velocity, nearly 3050 fps with that Hornady factory load. This suggests something often suggested in years gone by: the time is past when the .257 Roberts can compete with the .25-06 in popularity, but the Roberts is probably the more efficient cartridge.<\/p>\n

\"Examples
Today the .257 Roberts is chambered to almost no new factory rifles, but it is still loaded by all major ammunition manufacturers, with a reasonable choice in loads.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Based on the much longer .30-06 case, the .25-06 is borderline over bore capacity. This is not a kiss of death, and with modern powders, the .25-06 will always outrun the Roberts. But I doubt any deer, antelope\u2014or wild hog\u2014would ever know the difference, and, with sound choices in bullets, the Roberts is fully adequate as a light-kicking choice for black bear and elk at moderate range. I\u2019m glad I ran across \u201cold Bob.\u201d I think we\u2019re going to be friends!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The enclosed blind was warm, and it was still early; I was unlikely to see anything for a while. Truth is, I was wool-gathering\u2026 and when I glanced up there was a very large black boar standing broadside near the feeder. Oops! I raised the rifle, slowly got the barrel outside the window, and took … Continue reading “Roberts .257: A Quarter-Bore Worth a Comeback”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[7,21],"tags":[153,8,70,17],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=830"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":937,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830\/revisions\/937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}