I think it is one of the best deer calibers in any decade since Ned Roberts concived the original .25 Roberts. Remington, in one of their many bad decisions, chambered it short and with round nose bullets. If the chamber throat is lenghted, and the action is long enough to permit it, so that cartridge oal is 3.00 inches, the .257 Roberts is even better.
I've done this to mine and with Winchester plus P brass, Rem 9 1/2 primers, Norma 204, and the Nosler 110 accubond or 115 Partition, the Roberts is at its best.

Finn Aagard wrote a very good article on "long throating" the .257 Roberts in American Rifleman magazine. (August 1987) With the proper chamber he loaded out to 3.115" OAL with Nosler Square Base bullets.

Heavier bullets have to be deep seated well into the powder area below the neck to maintain the standard 2.775" OAL. With a long throated chamber the bullet can be seated farther out and the increased available case volume will allow a greater charge and higher speeds. It doesn't allow as much increase as a .257AI but it does allow some.

Of course the drawback is that the performance of factory ammo will most likely suffer and you will have to shoot your own custom reloads on a regular basis.

I have wondered if long throating a Roberts chamber might be a way to clean up an older barrel to get a bit more life out of it when the lands are getting a bit burned.

I have a long-throat .257 (3.00 OAL with 100 gr. Nosler BT), built on an Argentine 1909 action with a Douglas FWT barrel. After 1 fouling shot, it placed 2 within 0.6" at 100 yds., exactly where I sighted it in a year ago. It's my favorite deer/antelope rifle.

Clarence

The 257 Roberts simply works. Modern components and a few reloading tricks make this classic round even better!

Its very unfortunate but there is a huge mis conception that bullets seated below the neck "infringe" upon powder space. While this is true the difference is so small as to not amount to any discernable difference.

Ask yourself this question- if a roberts must be chambered in a long action to allow it to work correctly then why not just shoot a 25-06????

go over to www.24hourcampfire.com and ask John Barsness( a famous gun writer and excellent handloader) about this "problem" and he will give actual percentages of loss with deep seating bullets, its so small as to not even be a factor....

quote:

Originally posted by fgulla:
Its very unfortunate but there is a huge mis conception that bullets seated below the neck "infringe" upon powder space. While this is true the difference is so small as to not amount to any discernable difference.

Ask yourself this question- if a roberts must be chambered in a long action to allow it to work correctly then why not just shoot a 25-06??

I could not agree more. I have a short action 257 Roberts and have no issues with powder space even when using 115 NBTs. I can easily load to 2800 fps without excessive pressure and still have powder space. If you are trying to push velocity much beyond 2800 for 120 grainers and 3000 for 100 grainers, buy a 25-06. A 257 Roberts is not a 25-06, it's 90% of a 25-06 in a short action. It's very comparable to a 308 vs a 30-06.

Fgulla,
I won't argue with you. The difference is indeed slight. Rather than modify the chambers on one of my Bobs I would probably shoot a 25-06. Still for those who are into tinkering, the .257AI and long throated Roberts are something that they can play with and there are some modest gains in performance to be had.

Personally I load 'em long not so much for speed but to be able to get the bullet out near the lands if that is where the sweet spot is to be found. I have several rifles (in different calibers) that like to be seated out to about .020" off the lands with a Lee Factory Crimp put on the round. Your mileage of course may vary but that is what seems to work for me. I have loaded this combination in the .257 up to some fairly scary speeds without signs of over pressure but most often shoot around 97% of max load as this gives good accuracy.