2006 was a very good year for me. I was top salesman in my company and ended up with quite the nice bonus. A gift to me for my success was a new rifle and I wanted something that would be an heriloom.

The caliber would be easy: .257 Roberts. My namesake (Robert). And it had to have a full Mannlicher stock. Short(er) barel. All day carryable weight.



I found a Remington Model 7ms, from the custom shop for a really nice price. Fully floated barrel, bedded action, nice. I topped it with a Leupold VX-III in 2.5-8x on quick-detach Leupold bases. I sighted the rifle for a 200 yard zero and the Irons for 2" high at 50 yards.

A lot of people bag on the Remington Custom Shop guns (bought mine for around 50% of retail...) but this particular speciman really shines. The trigger is a truly perfect 4# pull with almost no creep. It ejects shells very positively and doesn't feed jam.




Load testing was next. This rifle's been to the range all of three times so far...my first day out it threw 100gr SGK's into a 1/2" group. I was, quite honestly, stunned.

What I've found with the Bob is that IMR 4350 is the only powder I will likely ever need.

My baseline load: 100gr. Sierra GK, 42.5 gr of IMR 4350. Fully capable of putting 3 rounds into a sub 1/2" group. That is, if I do my job.

I shoot three round groups: I don't know why. First two shots are great and I almost always pull the third.

110 Gr. Nosler Accubond with 41.5gr of IMR 4350 puts two rounds into around 4/10" and, as it goes, I pull the third round...

117 Gr. Hornady SST with 40gr of IMR 4350 (sensing a trend here?) put the first two rounds even tighter...and of course I pulled the third...the thing that kills me is that I KNOW I pulled that last shot (damn PA speaker...LINE BREAK! Bang...).

My next move is to bump up the 110 & 117 loads up to 43.5 gr. & 43 gr. (1 gr. at a time) and test accuracy. My goal is to put either the Accubond or the SST at 2900fps...



BTW, balistically the Nosler 110 Accubond and the Hornady 117 are virtually identical. Bullet drop at 300 yards is .24" different (Nosler edge) with a 25 foot pound difference edge to the Hornady. I honestly don't think there is any real difference balistically - the Nosler might have an edge in toughness but dang is that hard to really see.

Of course I didn't take just the Bob - I brought along my 673 Remington in .350 Rem Mag. Dropped 2 rounds of 225 Sierra GK's into a .3" group - yep, you guess it. Pulled the third!

Pulled out the Marlin 336 SS ltd .35 Remington and busted out 4 rounds touching...yep! Pulled a 5th round! LMAO!

I'd complain but that's a darn good day of shooting for me!

I had one in 260, was a great little rifle. Hope you enjoy it, I did.

That is a beautiful gun. I love my bob as most do that own one.

Nice looking rig you got there.
IMR 4350 is working great in my "Bob" too I'm shooting 41.5 grains with 117 grain Sierra's and it is shooting great. My gals 257 Ruger Ultra Light shoots 100 grain Sierra's really well with IMR 4064.
You have quite an heirloom their, very nice rifle my guess is the more you shoot it and get it broke in the better it will shoot. My 257 is doing just that right now.
Good luck and keep us updated on the progress.

I have 1 in 308, very nice rifle. Mine had the metal forend installed where it was pushing to the left side of the barrel. Filled in the hole with plastic wood then reinstalled correctly & mine's a sub 1" shooter.

My normal 257 load is 120 partations(we have big hogs on the farm) with 43.0-45.0gr of h4350. I have killed several deer with 117 sierra flat bases & 120 speer hot cores both did well.

Nice Rifle there.
In my 20 inch Roberts , I shoot 100 grain partitions with 44.5 grains of IMR 4350.
Very acurate and just a bump over 2900 fps.
I will be trying a little hotter load. I have seen printed data as high as 46 grains.
My hope is to aproach 3100, and still be at MOA.
I shoot the Bob alot. I have 2 and an AI as well.
H-414 is another excelent powder and so is H-4350 and IMR-4064.
Great fun round. I have a 2.5X8 on my little robbie. (Ruger RL)
My custom springfield is getting checkerd at the moment. When I get it back I am thing VX2 3X9.
My AI will likly get a burris Signiture select 2.5X10...tj3006

Congrats on the new Roberts. I am having one put together right now. It is a Rem 700 SA, with a LVSF stock and contour barrel by Pac-Nor.

quote:

I shoot three round groups: I don't know why. First two shots are great and I almost always pull the third.

110 Gr. Nosler Accubond with 41.5gr of IMR 4350 puts two rounds into around 4/10" and, as it goes, I pull the third round...

117 Gr. Hornady SST with 40gr of IMR 4350 (sensing a trend here?) put the first two rounds even tighter...and of course I pulled the third...the thing that kills me is that I KNOW I pulled that last shot (damn PA speaker...LINE BREAK! Bang...).

Do you chronograph the loads?
Are you calling the pulled shots?

I would try a different primer for those loads. I was told quite a few years back by a guy who does custom ammo reloading that the two close, one flyer is indicative of inconsistent powder burn/ignition.

The bottom left load, will probably tighten up with some seating depth tweaking.

If you have time, play around and see if it works.

I hit the range again last weekend - lots of range time with plenty of info forthcoming. I'll be posting up again tonite...

A second visit to the range was in order of course. I spent Saturday with a couple friends ringing gongs out in the desert. No paper but the steel was "Minute of Deer" at 100 and 200 yards. It was quite confidence building to be ringing the bell regularly from standing and sitting positions.

Sunday was range time.

The results this time were better across the board. I spent much more time concentrating on the trigger. The rifle was sandbagged on the front and rear - still had some movement. I'm really beginning to understand the value of those specialized shooters rests...



I'm now at 3/4" groups using the Hornady 117gr. SST. The rifle shot three 3/4" groups - here are two in a pic.

Loads and velocities: (note: I only had two rounds each to chrono - good enough for relative estimates...I'll do more work down the road here.)

IMR 4350 & Horn. 117 SST, CCI LR
40.0 gr. : 2584, 2591
41.0 gr. : chrono glitched.
42.0 gr. : 2687, 2697 (This will be my current hunting load for the year.)
43.0 gr. : 2735, 2759 (note, accuracy fell off - might have been a bad string).


IMR 4350 & Nosler 110 AB
41.5 gr. : 2664, 2698
42.5 gr. : chrono glitched
43.5 gr. : 2790, 2832

Hornady 117 SST "Light Magnum" Factory Ammo: 2805, 2831 (Factory lists 2950...)


Conclusions: as of right now the SST's are shooting better than the Accubonds in the rifle. That's not to say it won't shoot better than 1" - I just haven't made it happen yet. What I am concerned about is the velocity. This rifle has a 20" BBL and it's really knocked velocities down pretty significantly. I'm shooting 150fps slower than Book. I think I can assume that the factory uses a 24" barrel though (Nosler & Speer list 24's...not sure about Hornady).

My ultimate goal was to be able to push the 117 SST at 2800fps + or the 110 AB at 2900 - I don't think I will push either of those speeds with 4350 in the 20" bbl. I'm not showing any pressure signs but the truth is that pushing these rounds somewhat defeats my purpose. I doubt a Whitetail is going to really notice any difference between a 117/2800 load, a 110/2900 load, or a 117/2700 load.

Balistically the 117/2700 load prints 1.5" lower at 300 yards than a 110/2900 load. Not that much...

I've got some RWS Benchrest primers in the garage - I think I may test the RWS primers and see how they do accuracy-wise...

On another note, check out the mirror image. This is the target for my Marlin 336 SS LTD in .35 Rem. Top target was shot with 200 GR Leverlution Ammo. Bottom target is my handloaded 180gr. Speer at 2350fps.
I'm actually very pleased with the 180 gr. load: it groups exactly like that whether it's hot out, cold out, dry or humid. Super consistent. It's still got a lousy trigger which I think has got to be worth 1/4" or more on the target.



All in all, things are moving forward. I'm comfortable with the Bob for this year and I now have a decent baseline to build against.

Awesome groups.

I think you and that 257 are going to get along just fine.

Congrats again on the nice rifle.

How much free bore do you have on your rifle? I have played around with the 257 a good bit & with my 24" barrels a charge of 43.5 gr of h3450 & a 117 sierra bullet yields just under 2,800, 45.0 of h4350 yields 2,850 fps. In the dozen or so 257's I've owned the 117 sierra boat tail has been the most accurate bullet.

My m7ms in .308 is a stedy 3/4-1" rifle with almost any load & will be in my lap next friday for opening day..

Hi Tom, I haven't measured free bore yet, but it's a good question. I'll mock up a dummy round and try to find out.

On the other hand I'm not sure I need to measure. It's a Model 7 short action - which likely means that while I've got a mag length of 2.80 the chamber - bore is probably quite a bit longer...

As to the 117 Sierra - I've got a box of them on the shelf. I haven't fired them yet, but I do suspect it will be more accurate than the SST. I've heard mixed things about the Sierra's - great accuracy but very mediocre performance with a lot of cup-core separations.

Is your 45 gr. load a Book load anywhere? Or is that just a hefty +p load you worked up?

PS: Let's see some pix of the .308 MS!

1. I meantioned free bore only because I had a 257 Mountain Rifle which was on a short action that I never could get shooting, it had 1/4" of free bore in most bullets. You are obviously not having accuracy problems.

2. Have you had a trigger job done? All 5 of my custom shop rifles had a crisp 5+# pull.

3.Owning a Roberts is like having a wildcat because the manuels are very mild. Of the 16 cals I reload this is the only 1 I exceed load manuels. John Barmess at Wolf publishing has written a number of articles where the roberts is loaded yo 6mm remington levels. At a minimum you need to buy the Handloader magazine of Feb. 2003, june 2007, & june 1999. These will give you a good basis for loading your rifle. In addition Ken Waters wrote a long article about an original 20" Mannlicar he owned in 257.If you are uncomfortable over 43 gr there is no reason to go higher for a few fps more. The Alliant web page has some fast loads using Rl22.

I have shot several deer with sierra 117 but mostly use 115-120 Nosler partation because we have some really big hogs on the farm. I would not shoot a large deer with SST's or Balistic Tips because I have seen failures on deer with both.

I do not have a digital camera but my MS looks just like yours except for a German Zeiss 4 x scope.I have several nice custom 257's so I really need to get pictures that can be shared with the board.

I have a 1968 336A that I have been playing around with for 4 years, It shoots Walmart Federal 170's better than any of my handloads.

PM me if I can help you in any way.

2.80 is a little short mag for a Bob. All that really means is you might have a little trouble getting top velocity with a heavy bullet.
I strongly recomend trying a 100 grain tripple shock over H-414. I would start at about 44 grains. My Ruger did real well with 46 grains pushing that barnes at 3100 fps and printing well under MOA.
I have not been able to get that load to work in that rifle any more, no idea why , but after Elk season I will be be finding out.
The only Buck I took with that load convinced me it was a deadly round...tj3006