Who can relate to the "Bob"?

No pics? Man thats just torture, lol.

I've never fired a Bob or even seen one in person. Your Bob is a classic hunting rifle and a keeper.

.40

357smallbore

Got to say for his age "Bob" is still looking mighty good!

Ooooooo ahhhhhhhhh!

Mine is a Rem 721 that was left to me by my Grandfather. It killed a lot of whitetails for a lot of years with the Win 100 gr Silvertip load.

Stay safe.

The two travesties in your post are the nickname (Bob) and that you’ve not got 2 boxes through it in 20 years. Oh the humanity! Shoot that beauty more and use its proper name (please;-).

I think the Bob is an outstanding cartridge:









My pre 64 has a long throat, and once the previous owner removed the stupid short magazine and short bolt stop, bullets could be seated out to the throat. The pre 64 is afterall a long action. Seating the bullet out allowed more powder to be put in the case and I am certain velocities can be increased without increasing pressures.

When I look at my velocities, and compare trajectories, I really wonder why anyone needs a 243 Winchester when the Bob will do it all!

A Ruger Number One in the A model.....250 savage.......257 Roberts.,....or 7x57........just screams classic at me

My two “Bob’s” have taken more than 100 deer. Second one was a Ruger M77/MkII that I couldn’t warm up to. Sold it.

With 100+gr bullets, the Roberts hits deer a little bit harder than a .243. Same as a .30 hits just a bit better than a 7mm.
Best apples to apples comparison was a nuisance deer cropping I took place in. We shot 12 deer in all. The biologist I was assisting was using a Remington M788 in .243. He was using Remington 80gr Corlokts. I was using Hornady 75gr Hollow Points over H380 for a chrono’d 3,500fps.
The deer I shot (7), all dropped at the shot. Two so fast we thought I’d missed. Two were head shots under 200yds. No surprise. The other 5 were spine/shoulder hits. Longest shot was approximately 430yds. Impact on all sounded like a wet towel snapping.
With the .243, the impact was lower, and all but one deer ran. Shot placement seemed to be more critical with the .243.
I’ve killed several deer with a .243. It works. Mostly, I like the rifle, a Marlin X7S.

Of course if you don’t reload, you’re beholden to the tepid powered factory loads, even the +P variety.
In that case, you’re right! The .257Roberts offers little. For a beginning shooter/hunter, just get s 6.5Creed. You’ll be kewl, too...

My first hunting rifle was a Remington 700 bdl in 257 roberts. I hunted a lot with it as it was my only rifle. I don't carry it now though.

I purchased 500 117 gr bullets from American Reloading. They look like Hornady SST bullets.



I developed some loads with IMR 4350, got them up to 2783 fps with 44 grains AA4350 before I left for the day and have not conducted any further load development. Factory ammunition was slow and not very accurate with my long throated rifle. I just shot up the box for the brass

117 gr RN Powerpoint Winchester Factory
greased bullets & cases

7-Jan-19 T = 58 °F

Ave Vel = 2578
Std Dev = 29
ES = 76
Low = 2539
High = 2615
N = 10

But the question I have, how have 117 grain bullets performed on deer sized animals for you, and what powders are you using, and what velocities are you getting?

I thought that I needed a Bob and bought a Kimber Hunter. It was a really light rifle (5 3/4 lb) with a pencil barrel. Tried 4 different bullets and at least 4 powders but could never get it to shoot to suit me. 1 1/2"-2" three shot groups was as good as it got. That would work on 90% of my deer hunts, but I don't keep a rifle that doesn't MOA.

my Roberts are two Remington 722,s, a early one and a later transional with out rear sight boss. deer killers for sure.

That's a gorgeous rifle. I've got a soft spot for 257 Bob and pretty much any other 57mm cased round. I have a bunch of 8x57, a couple of 7x57 (one of which is my go-to at the moment), and one 257. I have everything I need for a 6mm Remington except the barrel to round things out. I might do a 6.5x57 also.

I've got a 257 Bob built on a Yugo captured K98k receiver. It's got a relatively heavy A&B barrel from Midway (back when they carried them), which isn't the best barrel. It's in a Boyds stock, has a boyds trigger and wears a Sightron hunter <mumble> scope. It has never seen a factory round.

I've wanted one for years and I finally broke down and spent the money on the barrel after I had collected everything else. I rust blued it without a proper boiling tank and is is more of a really dark brown or plum color. I also had to do some inletting for the barrel and then glass bedded it. It shoots pretty well, but not great. About 2-3 MOA on a good day. Unless I'm shooting 87 gr Speer TNTs. It really likes those. Those sit at just over 1 MOA out to about 300 yards. It can get a little wonky after that, but I think that's more of a limitation of the shooter/scope as opposed to the round. Problem is I want to be able to hunt deer with it and those won't work. I may get it rebarrelled in the future, but it will stay 257 Roberts. It'll be doing coyote (and similar) duty for the foreseeable future.

I think the Bob and 7x57 are two of the most underrated rounds out there. They're extremely well balanced (performance v. recoil) and perform extremely well especially if you handload.

(I've given some serious thought to building a 257 Roberts AR-10. I know of a couple that exist along with a couple of 6mm Rem versions. Why not? )

Matt

I have build an AR10 in 257 Roberts, along with a number of bolt action guns. In the last year, I have probably shot close to 1000 rounds of it - it’s my favorite go-to chambering.

What is a”Bob”?

Short for Robert

Cartridge is 257 Roberts, came about by a guy named Ned Roberts back in the 20’s or 30’s

Rob Starline said:

Short for Robert

Cartridge is 257 Roberts, came about by a guy named Ned Roberts back in the 20’s or 30’s

Click to expand...

Ahhh... Thank you.

Sorry for the interruption.

The 257 is a great round typically underloaded in factory ammunition (check you rifle before loading plus P). I thought enough of the round to buy a 257 Ackley for my wife. Though she has only shot 257 Roberts through it, the round simply works.

After her experience, I bought a 257 Roberts for me....

.257 Roberts +P is still lower pressure than .30-06 (In ppsi, same in CUP.) And never factory chambered in a weaker action. No need to be timid with it.

My three favorite powders for the .257Robt are IMR4350, H4831, and IMR4831.
My Ruger M77MKII curiously liked IMR3031 with a 100 and 87gr bullets. I’m told that the original factory ammo was loaded with 3031. The best load through the Ruger was the Berger 115gr VLD over an ancient max load of 45.0gr IMR4831 (most newer manuals recommend lower). It trips the chrono at 3,000fps. Does ugly things to deer. Roughly MOA from the Ruger. My M98 with an E.R.Shaw barrel with 3” throat shoots close to 1/2”, though lightly pitted.

I worked up my original loads circa 1983, through my Mauser (22”bbl) and my gunsmiths Ruger#1B with a 26”bbl. the #1 liked the same loads my Mauser does.
48.0gr of H4831 (original WWII surplus) under a Hornady 100gr SPt at 2.995” yeilds 3,100fps and I once shot a 1/2” three shot clover-leaf at 200yds. Typically shoots 3/4moa. Gave just a touch under 3,200 with the #1. (non +P load, too).
My most used load, and go-to for any new 100gr bullet is the classic 45.0gr of IMR4350, Winchester brass, and a Federal 210 primer. Circa 1987, I was gifted 300rds of Federal OFB from Federal Premium ammo. I’ve still got some unused in original boxes...
Two other really good often overlooked powders are H414, and H380. H380 easily gets 3,100fps with 100gr bullet at NON-+P pressures. 3,500fps with a 75gr bullet. H414 essentially duplicates IMR4530.
Loaded to same pressures as a .25/06, the Roberts is only 75-100fps behind it with 8-10gr less powder.

Now, with all this “Bob” talk, I’ll have to take mine to the range and shoot it. Another rifle to have to clean...

I’ve wanted a .257 for a long time but, have been stuck on 7x57’s for many years. Throughout the years I’ve found some at gshows or lgs but the prices were out of the ballpark, couldn’t afford any of them at the time. I used to know someone that had one, that rifle had been used to take around 50 deer during the years, very capable round for deer hunting.