just bought me a new #1

[Lloyd Smale]

found a 1a with pretty nice wood in 257 roberts. There pretty proud of them though.

[Shooter]

Yes they are! Truck gun?

[NHlever]

Lloyd, I've been looking at one that is in stock at a gun shop I frequent. If the wood were a little nicer I probably would have owned it already. Keep us posted on your .257 Roberts. I, for one, am very interested in how it shoots. I was sizing some .25 caliber cast bullets yesterday, and thinking about that gun again.

[rockrat]

Now you need to get one of the GB 25cal heavies for your "Bob". I have a 77 in the same caliber, just need a stock as someone cut 2" off the stock. Definitely won't fit my 6'4" frame.

[Lloyd Smale]

im not much on shooting cast out of small bore rifles. There about all i shoot in handguns and larger bore riffles but if im going out to plink with a rifle its usally a lever gun. I doubt this rifle will ever see a cast bullet. This gun was bought for a purpose. Ive got a bunch of long rifles that i use for crop damage shooting but only a couple short bolt guns. My deer blind is made from one of the portable outhouses and is small enough that even a 22 inch bolt is ungainly inside of it.

[Potsy]

1-A's have the nasty habit of making a man not want to deer hunt with anything else; unless it's too nasty a trip to take that pretty wood on. They just carry and point too dang good.

I've been fighting the urge for another #1 lately, I'll probably find one I want too, CAUSE I'M FLAT BROKE AT THE MOMENT!!!!

[NHlever]

im not much on shooting cast out of small bore rifles. There about all i shoot in handguns and larger bore riffles but if im going out to plink with a rifle its usally a lever gun. I doubt this rifle will ever see a cast bullet. This gun was bought for a purpose. Ive got a bunch of long rifles that i use for crop damage shooting but only a couple short bolt guns. My deer blind is made from one of the portable outhouses and is small enough that even a 22 inch bolt is ungainly inside of it.

They sure are handy, and short for their barrel length, and it should suit your purposes just fine. I've only shot a couple of deer with the .257 Roberts, both with the Hornady 117 grain RN which I doubt you are interested in. Ranges are short where I hunt so they worked fine.

[Potsy]

My ABolt .25-06 likes 100 grain partitions and RL-22 A LOT! RL22 might be a touch slow in a Bob though.

[stubshaft]

One of my favorite all time calibers Lloyd. When ya gonna post pictures???

[HEAD0001]

Pictures?? Pictures?? Did someone mention pictures??:D Tom.

[Lloyd Smale]

it isnt here yet. Should be arrriving sometime early next week. Ive had 3 other 257s through the years. two ruger ultralights and one win featherweight. All were sold because they were mediocure shooters. Ive killed probably a dozen deer with the 257 and its allways been kind of a favorite round for me. Finding one that shoots seems to be about like finding the holy grail though. NHlever mentioned the round nosed hornady. Funny thing is that all of the three i had did there best in accuracy with that bullet and if all i was going to do was shoot deer in deer season it would be a good bullet but this gun will also serve double duty as a crop damage gun and i need something that shoots a tad flatter. Ive got a shelf full of .257 bullets to try in it though. The .25s have allways been my favorite rifle calibers. Ive got a 257wby two 2506s and two 250 savages. The 257 roberts was just a hole i needed filled in my rifle battery. Another thing i may fool with in this gun is the new barnes tsx bullets. Ive had **** luck with the older barnes both in accuracy and performance on game but have been told by a few people i trust that the new ones are better so i ordered 4 boxes of both 80 and a 100 grain versions. That 80 grain version at about 3300 fps might be promising if it shoots for crop damage shooting.. Id also like to see if that bullet will stabilize in the 1-14 twist barrel in my win model 70 lightweight carbine. That gun prefers 87s and doesnt do well at all with anything much heavier.

[wsjones]

Who doesn't like a 257?! I'm scared to look at one of the #1's because I don't even have the last gun itch sorted out yet and (and barely paid for) and I don't need anothert this soon.

I struggled with my first 257 but got luckier on the next. Unless you've got something against BT's or Accubond's, you might give them a try with RL-22. Both shoot well in my M77. I previously had an A-Bolt medalion in 257 that was a cool rifle that I never got to shoot anything under an inch and a quarter. It shot Speer 120 Grand Slams to that and they were devastating on deer. Any and everything else was from that to an inch and a half and it just wasn't satisfying. I traded that rifle on the Ruger when I happened on it, and after a trigger job and free-floating the barrel, that one will shoot.

The latest 257 is an old Remington 760 that's like new and that I shot for the first time just 2 weeks ago with Hornady factory ammo (everything else on hand was fitted to the Ruger). No real acuracy report but it did get on target at 25 and we went to shooting clay birds at 100 but no paper.

Post some pictures when it arrives. -WSJ

[pistolman44]

I was just wondering would an upgrade to 257 Ackly Improved help in the accuracy department or just push the bullet faster if a rifle wasn't very accurate in the standard 257 Roberts caliber.

[wsjones]

I was just wondering would an upgrade to 257 Ackly Improved help in the accuracy department or just push the bullet faster if a rifle wasn't very accurate in the standard 257 Roberts caliber.

I've got to think that depends on where tha accurcy issues are. Neither the parent 7x57 or 257 Rbts is inherently inaccurate. A good barrel on a less than ideal chamber might perform a lot better with an improved chamber and neck sized handloald but a nice chamber opened up to the imp wouldn't improve performance from a crappy barrel/bore a bit, would it?

[Lloyd Smale]

I doubt it. Problem is that you just spent more money on a gun that doesnt shoot and your rolling the dice that you wasted it and it still wont shoot. I give a gun a fair crack. If there mediocure shooters i at least bed and float them. If that doesnt cure it they go on the block.
I've got to think that depends on where tha accurcy issues are. Neither the parent 7x57 or 257 Rbts is inherently inaccurate. A good barrel on a less than ideal chamber might perform a lot better with an improved chamber and neck sized handloald but a nice chamber opened up to the imp wouldn't improve performance from a crappy barrel/bore a bit, would it?

[NHlever]

Over the past 50 years I have owned a Remington 722, a Ruger 77, and two Ruger 77MKII Ultra Lights ( I noticed they took the Ultra Light (RL) out of the catalog this year) in .257 Roberts. The old Remington, and my current Ruger MKII RL have been the most accurate. The .257 Roberts has had a strange life with chamber, and magazine dimensions over the years. My 722 had a short magazine, but a longer throat, and I could seat bullets out to touch the rifling, and have them still fit the magazine. My current Ruger has a long action, and a short chamber so I don't have a clue why they used a long action. One certainly can't seat bullets out to even short action lengths before running into the rifling. I heard that Kimber got it right with their short action offering, and that it has a chamber to match. Remington's new liimited offering with the fluted barrel also has a short action, but I don't know what the chamber looks like. Both of those guns are just a few dollars different than the Ruger No.1 so they are possibilities for me too. They aren't as short (especially the Remington) as the No.1 A so they wouldn't work for the OP's needs.

[bowfin]

The Ruger #1 is one of the most elegant rifles made.

I had to sell mine (300 Winchester Magnum) to keep my wife home with my kids way back when. However, it went to my brother and I can always buy another one or two.

It was a great antelope gun on days when the gentle breeze of the Oglala National Grasslands comes wafting out of the Northwest at 35 mph.

[Bodydoc447]

I just checked with my gun dealer. He can get me a Ruger #1 in .257 for ~$50 over his cost plus shipping if I pay cash. Dang it! Anyone need a kidney?

Doc

[wsjones]

I just checked with my gun dealer. He can get me a Ruger #1 in .257 for ~$50 over his cost plus shipping if I pay cash. Dang it! Anyone need a kidney?

Doc

Nah, but check back with me on a liver in a year or two if you still have the itch! ;)

[Lloyd Smale]

got mine the other day and started loading some rounds for it and figured id better test a couple before i mass loaded. Took it outside with 10 rounds and about half the time it would missfire. First thought was the brass was twice fired from my old 77 and thought maybe the shoulder was shoved back to far so i took the ones that did go off and neck sized them and tried again with the same results. Took a look at the fired brass and the primer hits were real light and also off center. Had to box it up and ups picked it up yesterday. I had to put a note in the box to tell ruger if they replaced it i wanted that same stock back as it had nice wood and i didnt want to get stung with a crappy stock. Seems lately about half the rugers i get are flawed in one way or the other.

[NHlever]

That isn't what we wanted to hear Lloyd! Bad news indeed with so much anticipation, and an expensive gun. I had heard that a few got out of the plant with some hole in the hammer / trigger linkage / area that was drilled off location, and that it was causing light primer strikes. Hopefully it will be a very quick fix, and you will be shooting it very soon. Darn!

[Bodydoc447]

Sorry to distract from the thread but I have a quick follow-up question on the problems mentioned about the #1's. Is this limited to the .257 #1's or just a few #1's of all calibers? I am concerned cause I am saving my sheckels for a .257 and I don't want to invest in a lemon. I could be almost as happy with a #1 in 6.5x55 which Lipseys still had at least one of left in stock.

Thanks,
Doc

[NHlever]

I have heard about the problem in other calibers too, and like the last poster, it does tend to make me a little cautious about buying one, as much as I like them. Years ago I went through a spell of buying No.1's, but I did get burned by bad accuracy on most of them, and kind of got away from them. Remington has a limited edition 700 available now in .257 Roberts for just a few bucks less, and I might go that way to be a bit safer with spending nearly a thousand dollars. That is still big bucks for me to spend on a gun.

[x101airborne]

I had a 257 bob #1 years ago when I just HAD to have one. Accuracy off the bench was mediocre at best at first. I tried probably 100 different combinations in that rifle. I started with 3 shot groups changing bullets, and powders. When I found one that looked like it might work out, I went to 5 shot groups for powder weight. When I started checking seating depth, I went to 10 shot groups. When checking different primers and cases, I used 15 shot groups. The last variable to check is what I refer to as "shoulder bump". My #1 would walk groups and some flyers as I moved the shoulder back during resizing. Also try placing your bags in different places on the fore-end. The last thing to try, and this only matters to bench shooting is to allow different amounts of time between shots. My bob would do best allowing 13 - 15 mminutes between shots. Shooting one shot every two minutes would increase groups 2X. I was also using neck turned and annealed 7x57 cases. Wound up with Rl-22, Winchester mag rifle primers of one lot, Winchester cases and Nosler bal-tips. With 13-15 minutes between shots, 5 shots went into a 30 cal hole at 100. Quick shooting yielded 1 to 1 1/4 inch groups. I just lost interest in the rifle and a buddy HAD to have it.

[Lloyd Smale]

for the most part i havent had the bad luck with #1s that some of you have had. My b in 2506 easily shoots under moa and so did the 280 b i foolishly sold. Ive had As in 243 and 06 and both were great shooters. I had one 220swift 1v and it was one of the most accurate guns ive ever owned. The only bad ones i had were a 1a in 757 and a v in 22250 neither of them would do any better then 1.5 and most groups were around two inch. My 4570 1s isnt a tack driver either but at 2 inch its plenty accurate for what it would be called on to do. to be truthfull ive had much better luck of the draw when it comes to accuracy with the #1s then ive had with model 77 rugers. Ive only owned one 77 that would do an inch or less at a 100 and that was an old 280. Now im talking the old tang saftey guns. I havent fooled much with the mark IIs or hawkeyes. I just picked up a hawkeye in 264 mag and im not going to the range wearing rose colared glasses.

[Bodydoc447]

I was just wondering if it had come back yet. I am still saving up for one. Several mould purchases have slowed me down some but was hopeful that yours was back and all that you were expecting it to be.

Doc

[rockrat]

I have one in 460 S&W that did the same thing. Told them it had a mis-machined breech block. Sent it back and on the repair, said they replaced the firing pin. Now it only mis-fires about two times out of a box of 50 instead of 30 misfires in a box of 50 :(
Firing pin was only about .002" shorter than another one of my #1's, but the hole for the pivot that the hammer hits was about .030" farther to the rear of the breechblock. Made for a big difference when you manually pushed the pivot to hit the firing pin, as the firing pin protrusion was alot less with the mis-machined block.
Never had a mis-fire problem with any #1 I have had before, but think I might have bought my last new #1 due to the problems with this 460. Will buy a used older one if I feel the need.

[Lloyd Smale]

mines back and working fine. I really dont see the big sweat in buying another #1. They fixed it and paid for the shipping both ways so im out nothing. Sure i was without a gun for a month but i have others and id bet a dime to a dollar that 90 percent of these that were sold havent even been fired yet anyway. Speaking of firing. I spent a few days doing load developement and the gun shoots fine. Its not a 1/2moa gun but Most loads went under an inch and a half at a 100 and a couple did moa at a 100 for 5 shots. Best load consisted of Re17 and a 100 grain nos ballistic tip. that load shot consistant 3/4-1 inch groups. You do have to go slow. If fired fairly quickly the first 3 go into an inch and the next two go wild but if you slow down all 5 stay together. I think bedding the forearm will take care of that. Ill get it done when i get a chance. Overall its the hands down best shooting 257 ive owned.

[Longwood]

What powders do you like best for 405 - 500gr and better bullets in a big straight case?
I'm not killing bears or dinosaurs, just like shooting big bullets for fun. Accuracy is by far more important than how quick they get there.
Thanks.