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loading 257 Roberts
skyfish
Member Posts: 1,068 ✭✭✭✭
How big of difference does it make if the rifle is a short action or long action. I like the idea of a new Remington in that caliber but it is a short action.
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If the rifle is a short action then you would need to seat the bullets down in the case a ways. This isn't completely detrimental to the .257 Roberts, but it isn't helpful either.
I like to at least seat longer bullets out to where the bottom of the bullet is no further into the case than the bottom of the shoulder. With some of the heavier/longer bullets and especially the Wildcat bullets this isn't conducive to easy single feeding in a short action. Let alone the fact they won't feed that way from a magazine.
The real indicator in this caliber is the length of the leade. That dictates exactly how far out you can seat your bullets. A long action with a short leade still means you would have to seat the bullets deep. You can follow the old addage, which is true to a certain extent, that shorter actions are stiffer therefore more accurate. To me, the .257 Roberts has heavy/long enough bullets that it needs a long action. I have short and long action and I definitely prefer the long action.
Long action, beautiful rifle.
FWIW: I have a Ruger 77 (long action) with a 22" barrel and an A-bolt (short action) with a 20" barrel. The A-bolt magazine box limits the cartridge length to 2.81". Still, with identical loads, the A-bolt is 75 fps faster and groups a bit better than the Ruger. The Ruger is a 1976 era rifle and rumor has it that Ruger was having quality issues with barrel suppliers back then. Like I said, for what it's worth.
You mean like they were made out of 'rebar'?[:0]
I had a tang safety model 77 in 7mm that might hold 2" @ 50 yds. I swore I wouldn't own a Ruger again. In a fit of "I had to have one", I bought a .257 Roberts in the Ruger 77 Ultralite model. It wasn't really finicky but with the right load it would always hold 5 shots under an inch. It never shot over 2" with any load. I took nine deer an antelope and an elk with it. Now my daughter has it. She and her new husband plan on taking it deer hunting this year, for their first hunt together. My short action is a Rem 722, with believe it or not a 1-10" twist. It will stabilize heavy bullets great but really does best with the standard .257 load we used out in NV and that is 41 gr. of 4895 behind a 87 gr. bullet. It's not max so any brand of 4895(AA2495) will do.
Edit:
FWIW, I would recommend the Ruger Hawkeye, and if you find one the MKII. I understand it was the MK1's (tang safety) that had barrel quality issues.
My best though is the Custom '98 I'm finishing up the new stock for. I had it in a solid synthetic stock and it would put five 115 Berger VLDs touching consistently. Five in a 1.025 group @ 300. It's got a light varmint barrel that was throated to take longer bullets seated out a bit. I hope it shoots as good as it did in the synthetic stock once I get it into the new wood stock all finished and bedded. Whether it does or doesn't, it'll sure look nice once it's finished.
Laugh if you will but that's how I fed them. It was cheaper, when I lived in Montana, to fill everyones tags than to buy meat by the 1/2 or 1/4. Tough times, but the rifle helped feed the kids.
"This may, or may not, be true."
To quote an old friend of mine,
"This may, or may not, be true."
I agree.
Since, I made the rebar comment I'll take it as I don't know how to shoot my rifles into one hole 'all day long'. I've got a few target rifles that will come pretty close. But, not 'all day long.' I'd be a champion shooter for sure if I could do that.
FWIW, I've seen some Ruger rifles, the heavy barreled target ones, shoot one hole. Not every one of them, though. But, I haven't seen any of the standard hunting rifles do that. IMO they do what they were intended to do and that is provide hunting accuracy in one of the most reliable actions out there.
Load? Range?