257 Roberts improved

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Rob Starline

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Found a 257 improved rifle but not sure it’s worth buying. I assume that I will need to do a casting of the camber to see what’s really been done to this rifle. What if I wanted to get some headspace gauges? Will I need special hs gauges or will regular 257 Roberts gauges do the job? It’s an older rifle that’s been used a lot but the price is right as long as I don’t have to put a new barrel on it. Any suggestions on what to look for besides the usual wear and tear?
 
Aside from determining what this rifle's owner determined *Improved* implied by case/chamber dimensions... I'd also confirm concentricity of this improved chamber.

I've seen enough geniuses with a book and crappy tool box go to hogging on chambers for me to ever trust one out of hand.

Todd.
 
I've seen enough geniuses with a book and crappy tool box go to hogging on chambers for me to ever trust one out of hand.

Todd.
What you said is sad, but unfortunately so true.
Were you saying book smart armed with a rented reamer? ;)

I have a '03 Springfield with a Douglas supreme barrel 25-06 AI. It is dot an i accurate and a joy to shoot.
 
Don’t know about this rifle the more I think about it. I can rebarreled it, but not sure it’s worth it if I also gotta restock it too, I’m not keen on Monte Carlo stocks. It’s all work I can do, but lots of cash to dump into it and may never get back out of it. I’ve been looking around for a 257 Roberts for awhile and most have been pretty expensive. Too bad someone messed with this one. Last weekend I went to a show where I found one in a Winchester lite weight that was like new and that one ran $850.
 
It's an AI chamber so I'm sure you are a handloader. Check out the quality of work on the other parts of the gun & if you are happy buy it. Initially you can tailor your ammunition to headspace with the bullet started in the rifling. Once you have a few cases fired, you can measure & determine if it is safe for firing .257 Robt factory ammo. Worst case, you'll always have to handload for that rifle.

JIMHO
 
May not feed well. Taking the taper from rounds can cause problems with feeding from the magazine.

These are pictures from this forum showing a very straight round used in the AR15.

T5YHY9z.jpg

P2IsEt0.jpg

You notice how the magazine has to precisely orient the round to the center of the chamber? Something I just learned recently is that five round magazines are only available because anything greater than five rounds had double feeds, or at least that is what I read. Supposedly there is a 10 round 450 Bushmaster magazine at a very high price, but I can't find it with a search. All the ones I found have been discontinued.

If you only want to use the rifle as a single shot platform, magazine feed will be ill relevant. Something else, the AI crowd did not have published data and the hot dogs who chambered their rifles in AI cartridges typically created loads well over the proof pressures of the action. They believed the BS that P.O Ackley put out. P.O. Ackley was a snake oil salesman and claimed that straightening the case reduced bolt thrust. This is total BS and his uninstrumented pseudo science experiments were no better than any other perpetuated hoax. He never really explained how it worked, rather leaving it up to his followers to apply their own nonsensical ideas on the physical world operates.

this is a famous example and most people get it wrong

bjysRnW.jpg

https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13423-012-0302-2#Sec1

We are all Confident idiots

It turns out people are very suggestible and want to believe BS. According to Ackleyites you can increase chamber pressures 15,000 or 20,000 psia above industry maximums, and by applying the principle of straightness VOILA! the load goes away!!!o_O Too bad we can't use the principle of straightness to cause the national deficit to disappear.

I would carefully examine the bolt lugs of any AI for set back, and I would get my finger into the action and feel for receiver seat set back.
 
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you know, I have a 257AI, and when I had the barrel scoped it has fire cracking the whole length of the barrel. Looks terrible, and apparently the chamber is cut kind of crooked to the bore. It shoots about .3 moa.
 
Remington 722. $280

After further consideration, I’m passing on it due to extreme looking wear on the bolt with possible issues with extractor. Personally I don’t want to deal with an improved version when there was nothing wrong with a standard 257 Roberts caliber. Dealer has no idea about “improvement” part concerning shoulder angle which leads back to maybe rebarreling and restocking. I’ve got a line on another 257 in a Winchester action that I’m checking out tomorrow.
 
I have the same Ruger M77 .257 Roberts I bought my senior year in high school at Gibsons Discount in Gonzales Texas for $110 seems like....too many years ago. To me I cant see an improvement ....after all these years it only shoots the old round nosed Remington Core Lokts, new ammo may get 3 inch groups......At almost 66 years of age, I am still happy with the original.
 
I have an early 80's vintage Winchester Model 70 XTR Featherweight in .257 Roberts with beautiful wood and like new condition. Was given to me by my dad when I turned 13. Used it to kill a few elk, deer, and antelope. Haven't shot it in over a decade. I had no idea it was worth so much. Still, not for sale...
 
The whole AI thing has always perplexed me a bit. Had a friend that was hot to trot for a 6MM / 22 AI...6MM Remington case necked down to 22 with the shoulder blown out and moved forward to something like 40 degrees. That round will send a bullet down range at over 4000 fps. Only problem is that a good many of the bullets he’s tried disintegrated mid flight. You see dust fly up all over the range around 200 yards of so. 1500 rounds and his barrel was washed out...had so much throat erosion that accuracy really trailed off.

That 257 Roberts AI? As someone else pointed out you can fire form your cases to match the specs of the chamber. Where it goes from there is anyone’s guess. The guy that did the work may or may not have known what he was doing. Basically you’re rolling the dice on this one. You may find out that it’s for sale because someone decided to cut their losses and dump the rifle.
 
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