whats a good load for the 257 roberts...

hycountryuser, there's two questions.....
1. what gun do you have?...there's standard .257 Rob data and +P data.

2. Load for deer?...varmints???

257 roberts... and hunting for deer....

I've used the Hornady 100 grain spire point with good success on deer, however there's no reason why the 117 and 120 grain bullets won't do the job as well if not better.

A max load of H-414 with 100 grain bullets should get you around 3,000 ft/sec and with 120 grain bullets a max load velocity of 2,700 ft/sec.

This is a round that can be improved upon with careful handloading as I was easily able to achieve 3,100 ft/sec with the 100 grain bullets in a 20" Browning Micro medalion with a 20" barrel.

I intentionally didn't list amounts of powder for that reason.....Get the free Hodgdon phamphlet for the starting data and work up. The data is also available at www.hodgdon.com

ever try any ballistic tips for the 257... the load i was thinking about is the100gr ballistic tip with imr 4350 41. grains.. or the 115 grain ballistic tip..

I can think of no reason the Ballistic tip won't serve you well in the .257 Roberts...although I haven't used it.

I loaded the Barnes X bullet 100 grain for deer season this year. Max load from the New Barnes manual. H 414 powder WW Mag primer. WW +P brass. 3129 fps. Shot a big mule deer doe that droped like a rock in its tracks. I loaded the Nosler 115 gr Ballistic tip with IMR 4831 Same Brass same primer from the new Nosler Manual. This turned out to be the most accurate load I tested with groups under one half inch. Velocity was 2791.

I currently shoot the Hornady 117 gr btsp out of my 700 ADL. The only thing I don't care for is how deep you have to seat the bullet to fit in the magazine. I load with H380 and I4350 and get moa groups with both powders. I use WLR primers with the 4350 and Fed LRM with the H380. I have been kicking around the idea of moving down in bullet weight to 100 or 110 gr. Haven't taking a deer with the gun yet because most of my hunting is thick woods and such and the 06 usually gets the call. For deer any standard sp bullet will do nicely as long as you put it in the boiler room. If you plan on moving up to something bigger I would suggest one of the bonded bullets or the partition.

I'm glad to see someone using the Roberts. I have a Remington 700 Classic Stainless that I love. I handload to get decent velocity out of the round. As I'm sure you are aware even the +P loads are anemic. I use 115 gr. Winchester ballistic silvertips and H4831. The only manual that loads the Roberts acceptably to me is the barnes manual. Barnes bullets are harder to push down the barrel than other bullets. I generally use the above bullets with 50 gr. on H4831 and a Federal 210M primer. I seat the bullets .015 off the lands and get honest 1/2" 3 shot groups out of the rifle. The rifle is bedded and free floated and the trigger has been adjusted to 2-12 lbs. Over my chronograph I get 2942 fps. This is a 10 shot string average. I use the rifle as my primary deer and feral hog rifle in Oklahoma. This load has never let me down even on a feral hog weighing just shy of 400 lbs on my cattle scale.

One word of caution. If you move down in bullet weight stay away from the 100 gr. Noslet ballistic tip. The 115 works great but I have not had good results with the 100 grainer.