120 Grand Slams/.257 Roberts

RCrosby

Just picked up 2 boxes of Speer Grandslams and am considering them for use in my Ruger Hawkeye for next falls northern N.E. deer hunting.
I usually work up a good load with "inexpensive" bullets like Hornady or Speer standards and then fine tune that load switching over to Nosler Partitians of the same weight; but I've always loaded 100 grains.
Anyone have some favorite loads that like to share and/or experience with this bullet on 150 to 300 pound deer?

nononsense

Accurate Arms, for guidance use the data for the 117 Sierra which is highlighted. Start at the minimum charge with the Grand Slam and work your way up. My tests with my lot number of powder and batch of bullets goes very close to this data.

.257 Roberts

Barrel: 24", Twist: 1-10" Primer: FED 210 Bullet Dia.: .257"

2700 75 SIE HP 43.7 3,048 46.0 3,243 44,800 2.745
2700 85 BAR X 40.9 2,868 43.0 3,051 44,100 2.770
2700 90 SIE HPBT 39.9 2,810 42.0 2,989 42,700 2.735
4350 75 HDY V-MAX 42.3 2,866 47.0 3,257 43,600 2.745
4350 85 BAR X 41.4 2,728 46.0 3,100 44,500 2.770
4350 90 SIE HPBT 40.5 2,641 45.0 3,001 42,100 2.735
4350 100 BAR X 36.9 2,410 41.0 2,739 42,700 2.760
4350 100 NOS B-TIP 40.1 2,550 44.5 2,898 44,100 2.775
4350 117 SIE SBT 38.7 2,376 43.0 2,700 44,100 2.775
3100 90 SIE HPBT 45.0 2,689 50.0 3,056 44,000 2.735
3100 100 BAR X 41.4 2,381 46.0 2,706 37,800 2.760
3100 100 NOS BT 44.1 2,520 49.0 2,864 39,900 2.775
3100 117 HDY SST 43.2 2,408 48.0 2,736 43,700 2.775

Best.

Mobuck

Those bullets should work but are plenty tough for deer. I doubt if you'll recover any of them as I would expect pass through from anything except an end on hit.

RCrosby

Thanks guys. Will proceed with caution; trying some 117 grain W-W flat nose first, then backing off appropriately and trying the 120 grain Grand Slams. I'll let you know how it goes.