Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting .257 Cal Bullets?

I have used the 100 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip, 100 grain Swift Scirocco, 120 Nosler PT, 100 TTSX, and the plain old green box 100 grain Core Lokts from the 25-06 and my brothers 257 Wby. Lotsa good ones for the quarter bores.

100 grain Hornady Interlocks - was the go to bullet for my 25-06. I tried SST’s and they were a miserable failure.
I’m going to go with partitions in my 257 and the 25-06, I believe.

I’m going to have to do a lot of testing with my 1 in 14” 250”. Ken Waters wrote that the 1 in 14” twist will shoot 100 grain bullets fine. Others say it won’t. I have 87 & 100 grain hot cores. Some 100 grain partitions. I have my eye out for some Sierras.

I’d like at this time to give a sign of my middle finger sticking up to the new Hornady management.

I have a 250Ai and tried a few bullets 110NPT, 110 AB, 100BT 100g hornady and 100g sierra. I shot one bear and a bunch of deer with it. All the bullets kill deer just fine. but I mostly just shoot 100BT seconds. I havent caught a 100BT and they do enough damage but don't make a mess. Surprisingly the 100NPT seems the softest of the bunch. lots of damage (too much for my taste) and I caught two on broadside shots at deer. The shank in that one is very short and the front very soft.

Yep about 30 years. 117 Sierra, 53-53.5 grains MRP or RL22, Win primer. Worked in both my 25.06. Good bullet.

120 partitions in my no1 since 1975 always made hairy things fall over

You're going to be looking a long time if you're looking for a bullet for any reasonable deer cartridge that's going to put them down right there with "..boiler room right behind the shoulder..." shots. It doesn't matter if you turn the lungs into a bloody pulp, they might run 100 yards or more. If you want them dead right there, you need to wreck the running gear and/or the central nervous system. In most cases, your best chance for doing that is the high shoulder shot. If you hit about a third of the way down the shoulder you have a good chance of busting the spine and the shoulders. You might ruin a couple of pounds of shoulder meat...so what? You've got a deer right there.

I have killed more than a truckload of deer. I can only recall one instance when I shot a deer through the "boiler room" that the deer dropped right on the spot without any big bones or CNS components being hit. That was a small doe hit angling down through the front of the chest at fairly close range by a 150 grain (original) X-bullet from a 7mm RM (not what anyone would consider a soft, explosive bullet.)

I like to shoot them clean, behind the shoulder, when possible and advisable. Since moving down here, however I tend to like them DRT. I only shot one behind the shoulder since I've been down here. It was a perfect hit, good bullet, wrecked the heart and lungs and the deer ran about 75 - 100 yards into the woods. Poking around in the rapidly diminishing light in fairly warm weather (70's) in the brush of the SC Low Country following a slight blood trail, I decided from then on my SC deer were all going to be shot high through the shoulders.

For what it's worth, I've begun playing with my .25-06 AI again after a hiatus of about 15 years and the first bullet I'm going to try is the 117 SGK.

My father put an early 130 grain Ballistic Tip at high speed through a buck, pure broadside behind the leg. The chest cavity contents were wrecked with a large portion blown out of a big exit hole. That deer still managed to go about a hundred yards.

cra1948

I shot four whitetail last fall and all four dropped instantly. They were shot with 7x57 and TTSX bullets. Penetration was through and the exit wounds were big. Two were hit behind the shoulder. one was straight on and hit in the chest. The fourth wasn't a perfect shot by any means it took out the back. I think that bullet was a little aggressive. It was fine for three of the deer. It took out a lot of meat on the fourth.

I have never had that kind of kills with my 25-06. But I think it's possible with the right bullets.

Bugger

I still shoot Nosler 100 grain bullets in both the 25-06 and 257 Roberts with good results. I shot a lot of deer and antelope, but only remember one dropping in it's tracks...

I like boiler room shots and then the animal runs 25 to 75 yards. All the while
pumping out blood from the muscles due to a blown up heart. Any DRT animals
I have shot had a lot of blood left in the whole body because none was pumped out.
Just my 2 cents.

It's a killer.

Expect short runs of maybe 20 yards on lungs shots.

DRT with any of the high or high forward shoulder shots, same as any other cartridge.

No surprise. The front of a Partition is about as soft of lead as you will find.

It's all in the design.

Good luck on the Sierra, especially if Prohunters as I believe those are discontinued.

CRA 1948, I agree with you. I if I have to find one that’s gone 75 yards I’m OK with that as long as I find it. I’ve had good luck with IMR 4831 behind 117s and 120s in my B78. I also have R22. The 4350 I’m trying to save for my 30-06 since it’s gotten hard to find more around here. As for bullets, I have the Sierras in 100 and 117 so I should be all set. If I come up with Partitions I’ll try them as well.

This thread is why I have enjoyed the Campfire for all these years. Your collective input is great and y’all have a lot of experience.

Here is 100g 25cal. partition from a .257 Roberts. Whitetail, quartering away L to R, 153yds, shot tight behind the right shoulder, caught under the hide of the off side shoulder.

Impact at about 2800fps, retained 64.2g. Mushroom to .445.

Looks like perfect performance.

I shot quite a few 100 grain nosler BTs in my 257 Roberts and it worked great on deer. Not sure how they act with the added juice of a 25-06 though

Yep,typical Partition performance and typical weight retention.


Front part of bullet smeared away, all part of the design and why they usually kill pretty quick.


Actual wider than how a Partition usually expands. That's well over 1.5x expansion. Normally the front of the jacket is laid back almost flat to the remaining shank.

The same in my book. That is a tough little bullet that seems to rock deer.

100 NPT is the most accurate bullet in my H.S. .240 Wby.

Never a bad thing when that happens.

DF