Any reason not to shoot the .257 Roberts +p stuff out of a Remington 760?

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Agsalaska

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I am pretty sure the answer is no, but any reason shooting a .257+p Roberts out of a 1957 Remington 760 chambered in .257 Roberts a problem? I would think not. Most of what I read said the issues are for the older rechambered Mausers and such but not for modern deer rifles. I would consider the 760 a modern action.

Any way. Just curious what THR says.

Thanks a lot. And looking forward to killing a few deer with this beauty. I wish deer season was tomorrow.
 
I'd also say no. IIRC when Rem commericilised the .257 Rob(Rem) they kept the pressure lower to operate out of those guns(740/760. Same with the excellent .280 Rem that was under loaded. When more factory bolt actions became available in the .257 Rob(Rem) they had a +P load. With the .280 Rem they renamed it to the 7MM Remington Express and loaded it to full pressure for bolt actions. Never caught on. So no. I wouldn't. JMHO
 
That's rewriting history, Scooter. The .257 Remington Roberts came out in 1934, nearly 20 years before the 760 pump.

There are legends about the reason the .257 Roberts was lightly loaded (which I disagree with) but the fact is that the .257 +P only brings the chamber pressure up from 45000 CUP , the same as .250 Savage for 99 lever action and less than 7x57 for pre-98 Mausers; to 50000 CUP, same as .30-06, which the 760 and 740 were made for from the start.

You will be fine.
 
I can't say about the 257 Roberts, but my guess is that it will probably be OK. I also don't know why Remington chose to initially load the 280 so light. Getting it to feed in the 742 or 760 is a myth. They offered the same rifles chambered in 270 which was always loaded to much higher pressures, no reason they couldn't have loaded the 280 to the same levels. For what ever reason they chose not to.

You may find certain loads (mostly hand loads ) that are too hot for any of the Remington pumps or semi's to handle that would be OK in most bolt rifles. The semi's need a fairly narrow range of pressures in order to cycle reliably and a pump doesn't have as strong of an extraction system as a bolt gun for removing brass that might be sticking in the chamber.

But I still think the 257 Roberts +P would not be a problem. Only hand loads that are pushing the envelope.
 
That's rewriting history, Scooter. The .257 Remington Roberts came out in 1934, nearly 20 years before the 760 pump. Thats why I sad IIRC. There was a issue Remington did have some Remigton cartridges loaded to lower pressure involving ones loaded in the 740/760 guns.. Myth or not they are loaded lower to this day.
 
Shoot it and find out. I sincerely doubt it would harm you or your rifle. Those cartridge companies have some pretty good lawyers who would doubtlessly not let their clients sell anything that would hurt any good-condition .25 Bob built by a factory.
 
There was a issue Remington did have some Remigton cartridges loaded to lower pressure involving ones loaded in the 740/760 guns.. Myth or not they are loaded lower to this day.

Actual history: Remington brought out the .280 Rem in the 740 auto to compete with the .270 Win at lower pressure. Until the Weatherbys were standardized, .270 was the hottest factory load in the country. So they specified the .280 at the same chamber pressure as .30-06, which the 740 was designed for. As far as I can tell, that was the only cartridge that was tailored to the 740.
When they temporarily renamed the .280 as 7mm Express, the advertising gave the impression that it was more heavily loaded but it was not. Worse, store clerks and once a year hunters had trouble telling 7mm Express from 7mm Magnum and there some wrong ammo complaints. So they went back to the .280 label.

By the time they jazzed up the 742 to become the 7400, they figured it would hold up to .270 pressure and built them side by side with 7mm Express/.280s. When the auto was upgraded to the model 750, they dropped the .280 altogether.

They offered the 760 pump in .280 just to round out the line, it had been available in .270 from the start.

As I said, the .257 Roberts +P has the same maximum pressure as the .30-06 and .280; a bit less than .270 or .308 and is not something to be worried about in a factory gun of any make.
Every gunzine writer in the country will tell you that the original .257 Roberts was lightly loaded because Remington was worried about factory loads finding their way into wildcats built on Spanish Mausers and low number Springfields. I doubt this because the .257 Remington Roberts never was a wildcat. The wildcat .25 Roberts (two different versions) were not the same as and not interchangeable with the final production cartridge.
 
re: low pressure .257Robt factory loads...
A recent article in "Handloader" magazine revisited this topic.
The author had a more plausable answer, one that I can verify. It was that original designer, Remington, and others found that accuracy was better in most rifles of the time with the lower pressure loads.
I have a custom M98 with an E.R.Shaw barrel mfg in 1983 with so-called 3" chamber. It is capable of taking .257AI and .257RCBS "Imp" level loads and attain 3,200fps with a 100gr bullet, often the "holy grail" of .257 shooter/loaders.
However, ALL of my accuracy loads are directly from late '80's and later Hodgdon manuals at maximum "non-+P" loads. In essence, accuracy "peaks" and thats where Hodgdon "stopped", until the saami established +P standards.
fwiw; I had a Ruger M77 in .257robt. It was in fact "at maximum" with the non-+P loads, and started having pressure signs above the published "low pressure" minimums.

As to the original poster's question, ANY of the commercial loads should be fine in the 760. However, there have been some lot#'s of Hornady Custom "Superformance" loads that have been a bit over the top and irrc; a recall by Hornady retrieved them from the distribution chain.
additional; from my experience shooting deer/varmints with my "bob's", except for some looonggg range applications, you won't see any practical difference between the non-+P and +P loads. Except for a bit flatter trajectory, I don't see enough difference between my .257Robt and my .257wbymag to justify carrying the 3lb heavier magnum.
Based on my numerous "experiments" shooting deer out my kitchen window, under 200yds, there's no practical difference in bullet performance, except some spectacular bullet failures with Nosler 115gr BallisticTips from the WbyMag. (3,350fps over RL25, just too much for the 115gr B.T.!!!).
The magnum is a dedicated "evening" bean field rifle. Carried no more than 2-300yds to shooting house and propped up until "needed". On the other hand, the feather-weight M98 is a woods "loafing" or mountain "huffing" delight to carry and shoot...
Exactly what a "Bob" is supposed to be...
 
A recent article in "Handloader" magazine revisited this topic.
The author had a more plausable answer, one that I can verify. It was that original designer, Remington, and others found that accuracy was better in most rifles of the time with the lower pressure loads.

My thought exactly. The .257 was marketed as a varmint rifle and they had to load it for best accuracy even if that did not make full use of its case volume. We went for decades with recommendations of light loads for best accuracy. You can now get bullets that will shoot accurately at top velocity but that was not the case for a long time.
 
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