257 Roberts best handloads/?

BOWLSEYE

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I have been working with a Ruger Hawkeye 257 Roberts and looking for suggestions for a good coyote handload with, hopefully some speed behind it. I have +P brass and bullets from 75 to 100 grains. What has shocked me was I tried some round nose 117 Winchester ammo and it liked it. Wanting to have something worked up to sight in so I can just hold on the back of the coyote for 300 yard shot if that is possible.

Anyone with some 257 roberts experience I would appreciate the feed back. I shoot a 25-06 and realize the Roberts is not a 25-06.
 
Just saw this. I've loaded for 3 different .257 Roberts, two of them Ruger MkII.
They've all done great with H4895/75 Sierra hp or 75 V-Max.
My favorite deer load is 46/H4350/100 Hornady Interlock. Not redlined, but I get 3050fps and terrific performance on whitetail and antelope.
H4350/115 Partition goes 2900 in my rifle with out pushing it too hard. Not that far behind a 25-06 given equal barrel lengths.
I've never worked with the 87 gr. weights in this cartridge but can't imagine a 87 TNT not turning a coyote wrong side out.
 
Thanks ole 270. I have those powders and will give em a shot. Have you played with seating the bullet out farther? Or do you load the 100 grain Hornadys to the book lenght. I believe that puts the canelure in just about the right spot. Did not know if you might have picked up some improved accuracy.

Sorry for the late response, I could not get on earlier.
 
I never seat to the book except maybe for a lever action. I seat to the rifle, whether start of the lands or magazine length limitations.
I'm way past book length, I started at the lands and worked backwards till I got the best groups. Just "eyeballing" the loaded case without measuring I'd say I'm .10 past the cannnelure. I use a Stoney Point(now Hornady) tool to set length and these are at 2.455, about .05 short of the lands for this rifle. This tool measures to the ogive not the over all length so it will read shorter than book.
The little 75 Sierra hp is a long way off the lands with only about .15 of the base of the bullet in the case. Shoots like a dream though, in all 3 rifles we've tried them in.

You can find your length to the lands without any special tools. Just polish the ogive of the bullet with 0000 steel wool, seat it real long on an empty case and chamber the round. You'll see marks on the bullet where it was jammed into the rifling. Polish it again or use a different bullet, keep seating it shorter by a quarter turn of the seating screw till you don't see those marks. I usually have pretty good luck at a few thousandths off to maybe .05 short, depends on the rifle.
 
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I have those Stoney Points for all my other rifles and planned on getting one for the Robert. I think before I used those, I used to mark the bullets with a sharpe to see where it was hitting the lands.

I had picked up some 100 grain Ballistic Tips from a guy that loads new ammo just to see how it would shoot and have some brass to get started with. Man, those things had more bullet in than out of the case, essentially book length for the Hornady 75 v-max.

I have had a few times when I had shot either a factory load or some from one of the small independent loaders and got lucky then fine tunned it from there. It always seems like it was the lightest for caliber v-max, i.e. 32 grain 204, 58 grain .243 that shot great at factory packaged length. I don't want to sound lazy but sometimes its nice to start at a good base and work from there and not chase it.

Anxious to give the H4895 and H4350 a try. I had good luck in a 25-06 with 75 v-max and a full tilt load thats on the H4350's label. I sighted in a just a little over 2 inches @ 100 and took out a coyote at 424 yards with the cross hairs on his back.

I don't think to Robert is going to flex it's muscle that much!
 
Venatic loaded some 90 grain sierra game kings for my Roberts and they were like a lightning bolt on the two deer shot with them so far.

I don't know the speed, but I think the powder was Varget. I will have to look.
 
I have a Ruger 77R and have had good luck with either H414 or IMR-4064. I am currently shooting a 85gr Nosler with IMR-4064.
 
I just started with the .257 Bob...I have been loading 760, 748 and BL-c2...Mine is a Remington 722 and it seems to like the 748 load with an 80 bullet and its moving at 3086 fps avaerage.

That should drop ol Wiley
 
This is my first go aroud with with a Ruger bolt action and I have to compare it to a Chrysler vs. a Chevy. Not good or bad, just different. The stock is nice but after getting the action out of it the forend was rubbing the barrell, not just the pressure point but the right side. I trued it up leaving the pressure point then shimmed the action so it was free floated and the consistancey is coming around. I have less then 75 shots down the tube and think its improved with the breakin.

The way supplies are you hate to burn up too much on load development but you just can't help yourself sometimes wanting something differant. It looks like the 4064 and 4350 range of burn rate has been pretty successful.

Anyone had success with H380 or 3031?
 
IMR 4350 41.5 gr Winchester SRP 100gr Sierra Gamekings 2850 fps 1-10 twist 21 1/2" Douglas Supreme Sporter Excellent results No pressure signs
 
Worked up some loads over the weekend of H380 and 75 grain V-max's. Seems to be consistant enough that I can work with getting the load and rifle dialed in to accepable levels.

IMR 4350 with 100 Hornady's also showing promise.

I have put enought shots down the tube that I can see a differance on how the barrel is cleaning up now.

I have been using a Lee Collet Neck sizing die and have shells on their 6th firing and still don't need trimed. So far I have only had one shell I could not chamber do to stretch. I am impressed as I have ran some hot loads.

I think I will work on getting the gun dialed in and then see how Varget and a few other can do. I had shimmed the action to free float the barrel but when I swithced from the bags to bipod I saw some point shift do to me pulling on the stock and tightening up the forend to barrel fit. Just need to hit the sweet spot and I need to get the scope positioned back farther, may have to order an extended front ring.

Anybody use one of the factory extended rings on their Ruger?
 
I worked through 40-43.5 grs of 4350 got consistent 2960-3005 from 43.5 but got some opening up of groups. I eventually stopped at 41.5 because I got good groups and a PBR of 250 to sighted in at 200 (6 3/4" drop at 300yrds)with the 100gr Sierras. Bc of .393. Great success on Deer to 150 yards (haven't had anything longer in years)
 
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51.5 of IMR 4350 with a 75 grain Hornady V-max around 3300 fps has been my go to coyote load, but lately I've switched to 46.0 H335 as powder has become harder to find. Better velocity and nearly as good in accuracy.

The trigger on your Ruger has to be fixed if you are shooting off a bipod in the field. Rife Basix sear is the way to go to accomplish this. I also put mine into a B&C stock. The Ruger bolt is pretty fast so if your technique is right you can sometimes get off a second shot and that is what makes it worth fixing.

I used to hunt antelope with my Ruger 77 and used 120 grain Nosler Partitions. Now, I only hunt coyotes so as soon as I get my 6mm WOA upper the Ruger goes on Midwest Gun Trader. The Ruger bolt is fast, but the second shot is much faster with an AR. I've had a lifetime of experience with the AR, I shot Viet Cong with it in my 20's and now coyotes as I near 70.
 
LTCFA, those coyotes are kind of like Varmint Cong now! I had dry fired it a number of times to watch for where the crosshairs were after I pulled the trigger and I agree the trigger could be better. I am goint to lap the rings too as I think the scope may be in a bit of a bind. I will have to try the 4350 with the 75's.

Greg I am going to back down the IMR4350 on the 100 grain loads to see if it tightens it up more. I am at 45.5 grains and did not have any signs of pressure. I seen an article on 25 calibers and they had it at 46 grains. I keep thinking the mauals are not giving +P loads. Sure is a lot of variance on load data with the same powder but differant bullet companies. H4831 seems to be about the only one they agree on. I have seen max being at 48 grains in differant manuals.
 
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