The 257 Roberts

ruger 1B - 257

for thems that may be interested Reliable Guns & Tackle in Vancouver has a ruger #1 in 257 roberts available. big $$ tho. ($990)
i was interested in it until i got side tracked by Old Badger. he has a sweet 257 husqavarnia (sp?) that was done by some guy called epps in ontario.

it's soon to be mine. :dancingbanana:

epps had been heard of even in manitoba when i was a kid (yes they had cartridge rifles when i was a kid) :)
back then the 25s were spoken of in whispers - no one could really afford them. the came the 243.
 
yup i are a robynewbie!
i've been interested in 25s for a long time, since i heard about the 250 savage. (gettin' old - better commit fast!) :)

seems i can't get what i want out of 243s, even had a 6mm in a remy 600.
also 243 in ruger international, 243 in ruger #1. don't know why 6mms/243s don't like me.

oh well ... we all have our crosses to bear! with luck the epps will fill that empty void in my soul:rolleyes: (and that void my gun safe):D
 
Rem 760 in 257

Violator22 said:
25 cal is just about right. Les
Click to expand...

Ellwood Epps [Ont] wrote in one of his catalogues in the early 60's that if a man could only own 1 rifle it should be a 257 Roberts. He called it the best all around Ontario rifle. Mine is a Rem 760.
 
I owned a 700 Classic in 257 Bob for a number of years till my son........you know the rest, he shot his first whitey buck with it, so hard to say No. Anyway, it had a 24" tube, throated to accept the 115-120 Partition, and would make right around 3100 with those weights, and about 3300 with the 100's. When you whacked a deer with it, it was over, as long as you held right. I plugged a moose with it also, no problem, one shot, one moose (exit hole too) The 257 is just a sweetheart of a chambering, too bad so many felt that it was inferior to the 243, because it is certainly not! Regards, Eagleye.
 
I had a push feed win 70 fwt, bought the first year the new fwt came out, (also the last year they were made by the original Winchester before the sale to USRA). I had it long throated and the magazine lengthened. I never could get it to shoot good enough for varmints, only about 1.5" with good handloads and glass bedded. I killed a couple dozen deer with it though, and only sold it when my brother in law sweet talked me out of it at a gunshow while a ###y new Sako 25-06 was flirting with me. I like the Sako, but the Winchester had better handling. A 115-120 gr Nosler PTN in front of 4350 in a +P loaded Roberts ( 2800fps) is a great deer bullet. A 25-06 can do a little bit better, but that's an advantage only past about 300 yards. I don't normally shoot that far. The Roberts accomlishes the job with less boom and kick, and with 120 gr. shoots right through deer.
 
257 Roberts

Just thought to share photo of a .257 Epps improved I sold this gun not long ago I am sure there is a very happy Gunnutz, some fine made gun.
Looked at some loads, 87 gr ,4064 powder at 3300fps, deer load 120gr Nosler Partition,H 4831 2850fps photo of ammo cartridge on left is .257 roberts the one on right is the Epps improved

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257 Roberts in a Browning/Sako

I picked up a older Browning bolt action in the 257 Roberts with a Bausch & Laumb Balvar 2.5-10X40 AO on it already to be used a few years ago, the rifle has a Sako action on it (in fact it really looks more like a Sako Vixen, and is registered as a Sako but yet has no serial numbers anywhere, interesting?), anyhow this rifle was made in Belgum by FN when Browning was in the middle of moving their productions over to Japan.

It has a 22" sporter barrel that at one time used to be chambered in the 250 Savage, but noted on the barrel it was rechambered in 1980 to the "BOB" - thanks to who ever did that.

This thing is about 6.5 Lbs scoped and the L.O.P. (not sure) a bit shorter than most rifles I've held, but feels really good to hold up to the shoulder (that's why I bought it when I was searching for a 7mm-08, I just fell in love with it the way it felt in my hands instantly), it makes a really great forest/bush walker for Deer and Black Bear, and Cougar.
Like most others said, once that bullet makes contact with a Deer, that Deer drops right out of sight in less than a second.

I load with 43.5g IMR 4350 and Hornadys 117g RN to help take up some of the slack in the older throat, my Lyman's book tells me that this load in a 22" barrel is around 2780fps, maybe a bit less, I'll have to check out on a chrono some day, when I get one. at a 100yrds my MOA is within 1" and at 200yrds 1.5".

Where I live, this rifle will do it all, from sniping grouse in the head, to some good sized Black Bears, that's about it for around here, except for Elk, but you need to win a draw for them over here, and there's not many openings for the draws either. (here's to hoping for that day).

I love this gun, but then again, I love them all. (the ones I own that is).
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Mauser98, Douglas #3 barrel, button floor plate, timney trigger, cherry wood stock. It's done cast on sillohets from the 50's the old fellow who did the work kept detailed records accounted for 70 deer, 3 bear by the time I got it in the eighties. I use it for deer, great caliber. All the work was done north of Madoc Ontario
 
Hey fellers...Is a 20" tube enough to get good performance out of this cartridge? I really like the short, lightweight rifles.

Thanks, Jeff.
 
I had an 257 AI. in a Win. Fwt. Great deer rifle. Bullets would start to wonder a bit when the barrel heated up, but the rifle isn't designed for target shooting. The block can be removed from the M70's mag to faciltate longer OAL cartridges.

There did seem to be a bit of a lack in bullet selection for a while but I see that isn't so anymore.
 
I saw a Ruger 77 Stainless Full Stock in 257 Roberts a couple of weeks ago at a gun show. Supposedly it was one of a limited run of 750 rifles. It looked nice.
 
Great thread!

My gun collecting spans almost 3 decades, and the toys have come and gone as my tastes and interests have grown and changed. But the one and only rifle that's been a constant since I was 15 years old is a Ruger 77 in .257 Roberts. It's not the most accurate rifle I've owned, nor the most potent -- but the fit and balance matches my proportions perfectly, better than any other rifle I've ever held.

That rifle has taken its fair share of deer over the years, and hunting with it has always been like hunting with an old friend. It still wears the same Burris Fullfield 2-7x that I bought so many years ago, a scope that has held up as well as the rifle it's mounted on.

Truly, this is one of the very few rifles I own that I will never sell. I don't hunt with it as much as I used to, as I've come to appreciate having a bit more range and flatter trajectory. But now that I have a 6-month old son starting to crawl around the house, I know exactly where that old 'Bob is headed... ;) It's still many years in the future, but in my mind's eye I can already see him grinning from ear-to-ear as he stumbles back into camp with that rifle slung over his shoulder and one less deer tag in his pocket.
 
Jeff/1911,
I have a 20" bbl on my BLR and it works great.
I have not yet chronagraphed all my loads, but my 117gr RN runs between 2650 and 2700 fps depending on the temperature. (46gr IMR 4350)
Thanks for bringing the thread back to life.
257 Roberts
 
my bob's here

had it out to the range with a box of remington & a box of federal.
my rifle is an ellwood epps based on a huskavarnia (sp?) action.
i stuck a 6x leupold on it.
it worked good.
held about 2"@200 yards with the feds.( from the bench, of course)
certainly hunting accurate. at one time someone cut back the stock to shorten the LOP. someone else did a good job matching the infill to the original stock.
first time i shot a 25. nice cartridge. no big recoil and accurate enough for me. just have to work on some loads now.
 
Sounds like you are one happy hornhead.
What are your plan for the Roberts?
I have found it a very easy cartridge to reload and most published loads are very conservative.
I have tried 49gr of IMR 4350 behind 100 gr bullets with no problems but have settled on 47.5 gr as a std load, it is more accurate, I will be testing the velocity when the warm weather comes. As I have said before my Ruger loves 100gr bullets.
I have a set of RCBS 257 dies with a 25 Cal. neck expander for sale if you are interested.
Keep us posted on your loading progress.
257 Roberts
 
I got my .257 Roberts about 15 years ago at a gun show in Ontario. I swapped a Sako .22-250 for a Sako AII action with a Douglas barrel in a plain uncheckered straight grained walnut stock. I pillar bedded it and added a 3-9 Tasco. The bad news is the long throat on the chamber. I tried 85 and 100 grain bullets with mediocre results but with 117 and 120's she is a literal tack-driver. I have shot 5 shot quarter inch groups with this quarter bore! This used to be my usual chuck gun when I lived in Ontario and I nuked a lot of them. For the right amount of power with the least amount of recoil in a rifle that can take game easily in the deer/black bear category it is very hard to beat.

270 totheend
 
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