on deer-size game. I once clobbered a pronghorn buck at just over 400 steps with a 90-gr. Remington softpoint. The 6mm is factory-loaded to an overall length of 2.91 inches. Handloaders find it superior to the .243 (OAL 2.75) in actions like the mid-length Ultra Light, whose magazine swallows 3-inch cartridges.
While you can accelerate 55-gr. bullets to over 4,100 fps in the 6mm case, you’ll deliver more energy at distance with 75- or 80-gr. hollowpoints clocking 3,500. A 100-gr. factory load at 3,100 fps is 140 fps faster than a comparable .243. Hornady’s Light Magnum ammo puts the 6mm close to Weatherby’s .240.
100-GR. POINTED SOFTPOINT (HORNADY LIGHT MAGNUM), 200-YARD ZERO
.257 ROBERTS
Charles Newton developed our first high-speed 25-caliber cartridge in 1912. It fired a 100-gr. bullet at around 2,800 fps, an 87-gr. bullet at 3,000. Savage called it the .250/3000. Ned Roberts bested it during the 1920s by necking down the 7x57 Mauser case. The .257 Roberts was apparently a joint venture with F.J. Sage and A.O. Neidner – who had necked the .30-06 to form the .25 Neidner, forerunner of the .25-06. Roberts liked the more compact (efficient) 7x57 hull and trimmed it 1/16 inch. Townsend Whelen recommended a 15-degree shoulder. By 1930 Griffin & Howe was chambering rifles in .25 Roberts. Mr. Griffin convinced Ned Roberts to dispense with the trimming. In 1934 Remington adopted the round as the .257 Roberts, using a groove-diameter name to distinguish it from other 25s. Remington moved the shoulder ahead, increasing its angle to 20 degrees.
The .257’s civil disposition prompted Jack O’Connor to predict at the close of World War II that the cartridge would soon rank among the top three in bolt rifles. He was wrong. The Roberts slipped partly because light bullets didn’t shoot accurately enough for varmint hunters, and blunt factory-loaded big game bullets lost enthusiasm quickly. By the early 1950s, when Winchester-Western fielded an accurate 87-gr. varmint bullet and Remington a 100-gr. pointed Core-Lokt, the .243 was about to debut. It would all but bury the Roberts. O’Connor still praised the .257 as a wind-bucking varmint cartridge and as a top pick for deer. Warren Page wrote that it was too short to stay with the .25-06 ballistically, too long for short actions.
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