Thinking (thats the problem) of the ultimate chuck gun. Anyone ever tried necking down a 308 to 257?

Yeah, it is called the 257 Roberts. It is a tiny bit longer and has a tiny bit more capacity. The Roberts is to the 25-08 as the 6mm Remington is to the 243 Winchester. That wheel got invented in the early 1930s. Damn fine cartridge too!! Consiter it carefully. With an appropriate throat and a 75 grain bullet it is hard to beat for accuracy, barrel life, and speed. 3400 fps, with outstanding accuracy and long barrel life is a pretty good deal.

I too love the Roberts. However, you might take it one step further and go with the 257 Ackley Imp. I consider it to be the very best of the 25s and one of the best "improved cartridges".

My son has one in a sporter weight that he hunts coyotes with. It loves the Sierra 75 grainers at around 3550 fps.

Seconding Scott -- If it is to be strictly a varmit rifle be sure to throat for the shorter / lighter bullets

Rich, The 308 case necked down one step furthur than you're thinking (25) is the commercially available 243 Winchester- an extremely good varmint cartridge. The 25/308 would be good, but not worth the trouble and expense of wildcatting over the 243, in my opinion.
The 257 Roberts, also a fine cartridge, is a necked down 7x57 case, it is not based on the 308. As someone else mentioned, the Ackley Improved version is a very fine cartridge,too.
I'd say look real hard at the 243 for varminting before going the wildcat route.

If I remember right the 308 necked down to 25 is the 25 Souper. It would have to be a pretty good cartridge. Slightly better suited to a short action than a 257 Roberts. With suitable action length though I would favour the 257 and to tell the truth, in a short action my pick would be the 250-3000. Regards, Bill.

I think I did not communicate well. I know that 257 Rob. is not a 308 necked down. It does duplicate the powder capacty quite closely, that was my point. With 257 Rob. you have a factory cartridge, factory dies and brass in bulk. My point is that performance will be the same with the good old 257 Rob. as with the wildcat. Why buy expensive dies, form brass, etc. etc. for no gain in performance??? Same goes for the improved cartridge. Sure you can get 25-06 performance, but......barrel life is reduced and dies are custom. I am a practical sort by nature. I do like to experiment, but not re-invent the wheel. If it were me I would get the Roberts, fill the case to the top with H4831, seat a bullet and go to blastin' chucks. Have fun no matter what you decide.

Your question is exactly why I designed the 257DGR. I use 260 rem brass instead of 308, as it is only a slight reduction is the neck dia. The shoulder angle is changed to 30*, from 20, and the neck is a little longer. A 75 gr V-max will go downrange at 3700fps easy from a 24" barrel. The ammo is formed about 95% with the reloading die with a loss of only 25fps between unformed brass and once fired brass with the same powder charge. Why go the route of a wildcat- because there is not another 25 cal round with similar performance that is designed to work in a Rem 700 SA mag box like a 257 DGR, check it out at www.geocities.com/dgrcustom/

[This message has been edited by DuaneinND (edited 05-11-2001).]

As another poster noted, your idea of .243 necked up / .308 necked down to .25 is called the .25 Souper. Since the .257 Roberts has up-ended a mighty pile of woodchucks over the decades, and the Souper would at least equal the mild-pressure factory Roberts loads, I think you can rest assured it would be a great groundhog thumper.

Duane's .257 DGR would be my pick if I had one of the shorter short actions like the Rem Model 7. My Ruger M77 in .308 has a magazine length of 2.9" If I rebarrelled it to .25 (which is an entertaining idea), I'd be hard pressed between the .257 DGR and the .257 Ackley. Decisions!!!!

BigIron

I went with the 257DGR and as soon as I get the rifle and get a chance to shoot it a bit I will post my results.

I like the looks of the 257DGR over the 25 souper because of the extra neck length and the 30 degree shoulder. The 257 Roberts is a bit to long for a short action (2.8" max case length for Magazine function) and the 250 Savage is shorter then it has to be for the short action.

Now everyone leave Duane alone so he can finish my rifle :-)

Later
Jeff in ND

------------------
243 Ackley Improved Reference Doucment
http://www.angelfire.com/nd/243ackleyimproved

hi Rich
I have been playing around with this combination for some time, and posted a similar question some time ago on this site.
The only conclusion that I came to was that there is an endless sea of combinations of this calibre. My criteria was a 25 short action, that gave similar ballistics to 2506. The one that immediately got my attention was the 257dgr,readily available and using 260 rem brass seemed easy to size, and gave similar ballistics to my 2506 without using bucket loads of powder.
Haven't got round to doing anything about it yet due to foot and mouth crisis that we are engulfed in at the moment, but once we have got over this problem will be contacting Duane and ordering a barrel and dies, after he has done Jeffs of course!!!
Griff

Before you decide to go to a 308 Souper (Cal 257) take a look at the price of a set of dies; if you can find them. I would as soon go .243 or if you are a quarter bore fan then .257 AI.

Well, I certainly have a .25/303, a common Australian wildcat, even commercially loaded. It is limited by the action platform - the No1 MkIII Lee Enfield - but is rather effective. As for the .25 Souper. Try this site for a very good brief on the Souper.

http://webcache.googleusercont...&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=nz

why not just get a .260 remington and the 95 gr HDY V-MAX at 3200 fps.. then load some 120s and go deer hunting..

SCOT the 257 roberts is really a 7x57 necked down. the case length is 2.233 the .308 case is 2.015

quote:

Originally posted by Wm. P. Smith:
Before you decide to go to a 308 Souper (Cal 257) take a look at the price of a set of dies; if you can find them. I would as soon go .243 or if you are a quarter bore fan then .257 AI.

I think that after 9 years he's probably already made his choice.

quote:

Originally posted by Wm. P. Smith:
Before you decide to go to a 308 Souper (Cal 257) take a look at the price of a set of dies; if you can find them. I would as soon go .243 or if you are a quarter bore fan then .257 AI.

THIS THREAD IS 9 YEARS OLD!!!! roger

quote:

flameTHIS THREAD IS 9 YEARS OLD!!!! homerroger

But there was no follow through! What did Rich Anderson decide to do?

And since the thread is nine years old - KimW9, might I ask what loads you use in your 25/303? I have one fitted with a suppressor and I find it to be a marvelous cartridge/rifle. I'm using AR2209 under a 85 gr Nosler Ballistic tip. It's dynamite!