Shooting & Loading for the .257 Roberts

[Skyhunter]

Several years ago I bought a Ruger Hawkeye in .257 Roberts. I wasn't able to work up a load for it the 1st year (I was still working then - this was before the China virus bit us). After working up a load, I did deer hunt with it in 2020. 

My current load is as follows: Neck sized Nosler brass, Rem 9½ primer, 42.0 grs. of IMR 4350 powder, and the Speer 120 gr. Grand Slam bullet. This has proven to be a good load for the deer and hogs where I hunt in North Central Texas. In 2020, it accounted for two bucks, a doe, and a couple of feral hogs. My shots are typically taken at ~80 to 165 yds., but I have shot at deer nudging 300 yds.

Lately I've been thinking about working up a load using a 100-110 gr. bullet.

So my question for the other .257 Roberts shooters/hunters out there - What's your favorite load (powder, bullets, etc.) and how far do you typically shoot?

 

WYT-P

Skyhunter 

[scatman]

Personally, I bounce between Speer and Hornady projectiles. Powder is all depending on the individual firearm. Which is why I have quite the variety of them.

Edited July 23, 2022 by scatman

[gregintenn]

100 grainSierra Game King backed by IMR 3031. I’ll let you work up the charge weight.

An 87 grain load makes this versatile chambering a capable varmint cartridge as well.

[Mowgli Terry]

I have had very good accuracy using 4350 and 100 gr. Sierra spitzer. The Roberts responds well to a pretty wide selection of powders.  For 100 gr. bullet and heaver bullets it's somebody's 4350,  I recently ran an experiment using RL-17 and 100 gr. Barnes bullets. This combo gave me 2902 fps with SD is 29 fps, The rifle is and older M-70 Featherweight. The load looked decent but sample was too small to judge accuracy,  Varget has also worked for me with several heavier bullets with very good to excellent accuracy out of several 257 Roberts caliber rifles.

Edited July 30, 2022 by Mowgli Terry

[faraim45]

My load mimics yours, although I used H4350. It's about the perfect light deer rifle in my opinion.

[Luvall]

The best guy on 257 Roberts is Tom Gresham from GunTalk. He is a huge Roberts fan.