I had a friend give me a couple boxes of old 100gr silvertip bullets in sealed original tan Winchester boxes to reload for my 250Savage. One box is labeled 250 Savage and the other 257 Roberts. I hate to open the vintage 257 Roberts box if I can't reload them for the 250 Savage. Does anyone know if there is any difference between these two bullets and would the box labeled 257Roberts be safe to shoot in my 250Savage rifle?

Well there are a couple things you could do:
1. Sell the un opened vintage bullets to someone who may collect such a thing and then buy several times the amount of bullets you had.
2. Load them and shoot them in your .250/3000.

They are safe in either rifle as they are .257 diameter (both rifles are .257 diameter)the only difference if any may be the hardness of the bullet and its expanding characteristics the ones intended for the .257 Rob may be harder and not as expansive at your .250/3000 velocity. I doubt you would notice any difference though.
My first thoughts would be to sell them or keep them as a collectors item. I have a few dozen un-opened boxes of .224 "Sisk" bullets from the 40's that I shot hundreds of and sold a bunch to collectors and then I still have a bunch. They aren't making anymore un opened boxes of old bullets.

The published velocities were 2820 for the 250 savage with the 100 gr Silvertip and 2900 for the 257 Roberts, so I don't think there is any difference at all in the construction of the bullets, but location of the cannalure is different for throat and neck length of the two cartridges.You can load to whatever overall length you want too. I always liked the silvertips, the 180gr 30 cal version has accounted for 8 of my elk, hated to see them disappear.

quote:

They aren't making anymore un opened boxes of old bullets.

snell - i'm definitely not criticizing you since i do the same thing (i've got a box of herter's bullets and also herter's ammunition, among quite a few other things...and i don't even want to talk about my D&D collection, which is starting to sprawl badly) but it always amazes me to see some of the things that people (myself included) collect, especially when most of the items (toys, bullets etc.) that are meant to be used, played with, consumed or otherwised utilized.

an empty box or other package makes perfect sense, but why do we hold on to the stuff inside, even to the point of leaving the price tag and cellophane wrapper intact?

"well, because it has more value when it is in such mint condition."

true, but then that goes back to the question, why would someone want to collect something meant to be used?

piece of history, i guess!