Can't find a NIB Tikka 6.5x55 Swede Hunter grade on the shelf anywhere I've looked & SAKO's are stupid spendy too high for me, and got to remembering the USRAC XTR Fwt M70 257 Rbt's experiences I had & realizing the modern bullets now available would have corrected all the negative issues I had in those days....but accuracy, overall weight, balance & usability features were why I kept that rifle longer than anything else I ever owned.

Used Ruger UL's & Mk II's prices are pushing NIB Kimber Classic Selects real world sales prices in 98% clean guns with ?? accuracy and would need other TLC touch's as well...and it'd be about as cheap to buy a NIB blue/syn Tikka T3 and do a build off of that platform as buy a Kimber...unless that's all there is in a All Up 7 1/2+ lb rig.

Anybody got any other suggestions???
MRC ASR's are too heavy but are the right price for a well made shooter, Dinnit see anything in Browning, Winchester, Savage, Ruger, uggh too damn many Recall's aka Remingtons, Wby VG's....
Ron

Winchester M70 are around in 257 Bob, as are Kimbers. Only problem I see with them is price. 1300 is a little high for the Cabela's 50th edition IMO but are nice rifles. They do have a M70 super grade for only 50 more in 7x57.

Buds has a Ruger #1 International in 257 Roberts for $1073

I had an A-bolt Browning that was 257 Roberts. Not sure if they still make them but it was only 700 I think when I bought it

Quite a few on gunbroker also, Mauser, Ruger, Winchester, Browning, Cooper...

If you can find a ffl to ship one to, here is a 6.5x55 tikka hunter. They sometimes have tikka models that no one else can get in the usa! They are in PA.
http://mobile.eurooptic.com/tikka-t3-hunter-65x55-jrta351-with-rings.aspx

WC: just curious, what were the negative issues that you had with the USRAC XTR Fwt M70 257 Rbt's?

Mine would not shoot under MOA groups with anything I could handload, anything a couple good gunsmiths could load, except White Box WW 100gr Silvertips, the old style standard velocity aluminum tipped bullet....and those I could and did write my initals with more than once on a business card at 100 yards with a Leo 2 1/2x8 on top.

It would shoot 5 in a steady 1 1/4- 1 1/2 all day every day in several loads...but the 1 round was awesome accurate.

I was working for a distributor in those days and bought the gun out of the 1st case of USRAC Roberts to hit the state of Texas in October 1979, and got ammo at our cost + 2% & tax and billed to my monthly commission statement.

On game the bullet was fine on WTails, but almost got me killed on the 1st hog I shot with it, a 125 lb'er. Long story but the last of the 4 kill shots was taken at under 20' with me trapped in a 30' tall briar thicket on my hands and knees and hit the hog in the face looking down the side of the barrel at the charge. 1st bullet at 35-40 yards broke his right shoulder when I missed the ear hole as he ran by me, 2nd bullet hit him 3-4"s behind the same shoulder at 20 yards when he got back up on his feet, the 3rd bullet hit him in the chest an inch or so left of the cowlick at 10-12 yards after I went after him in the briar & the 4th bullet was under his right eye. The bullet was too soft for deep penetration on THAT hog for sure.
Ron

I looked at GB yesterday and all I saw was some IMO over priced Rugers, NIB KImbers and Blasers @ Oil Baron prices + some custom Mausers and pre '64 Winnies that would cost me a down payment on a new Super Crew.

The goal was to run the market see what was out there in a 7lb 8-12oz All Up shooter ( ie rifle, rings & 16-18 oz scope) for about the same price, gun alone, as a Tikka T3 Swede Hunter Grade...that weighs 6lbs 10oz's nekkid + 3oz's for Rings & 16-18 oz's for a scope that comes close enough to call it done.

Kimber Classic Select's are 5lb 13oz's & Montana's are another couple ounces less from what I remember...but just over the planned budget's price threshhold @ MSRP's in the $1300's....but that's better than the SAKO FinnLites at $2k these days.

I'm in no hurry, so maybe there'll be some T3 Swedes show up again this winter.

I have a win model 70STR sporter, new, have never had It out of the gun room

Do a search on the Roberts. Remington has produced a few along with Winchester.

With all due respect, given all the multiple trigger Recalls that Remington has had with their most recent products, and the experiences I had with the 2 700's I've owned way back when 700's were supposed to be at their very best quality wise, Remington will never sell me another Centerfire rifle....except for a 798, which is a Zastava Mauser in Remington cosmetics and a very nice looking rifle as well as a stout solid reliable accurate well made rifle....or mebbe a 760-7600.

Sell me another 870, probably, as I've owned more than a dozen or so. I did however trade the last 870 on a Benelli Super Nova...so we'll see how that goes.

But thanks for the suggestion.
Ron

Interesting. Just when we think we have it all figured out, a a rifle like that comes along to prove us wrong!

I have a twin to your XTR FWT that I bought in 79 or 80. It's still one of my fav's. Picked up its "brother" a couple of years ago when Winny offered their Shot Show Special in 257. Might keep an eye out on GB for one of those ....bet you would like it!

Colt, look on the butt pad or the side of the barrel and see if it sez U S Repeating Arms aka USRAC, or Winchester.

USRAC was an interim ownership that only lasted a couple years that took over production at the New Haven plant during the break up of The Winchester Company. The ammo plants went one way under Olin Corp, who was driving the deal as ammo was 90% of the revenue stream, along with the Miroku Japanese made O/U's & SxS's, and the BA Rifle & US Made Lever Action, Shotgun & Rimfire Company went under the USRAC name, along with the re introduciton of the Featherweight line.

Both USRAC and later Winchester made an XTR line, which was a styling package & Push Feed only series.

FN Herstal bought out the New Haven Winchester plant, and later re org'ed the line under Browning's management & renamed that company as BACO of Morgan UT, closed the New Haven plant in a labor dispute and to avoid the lawsuit over the Patent infringement on the royalty to the gun writer who claimed ownership of the WSM concept on the intro of the WSM's..and moved M70 et al production to the new FN South Carolina plant after a couple years per the settlement is what I heard.

Remington at one time made the Model 7 in 257 Roberts. It was the longer barreled CDL version. To my knowledge there has never been a recall on the Model 7's.

Winchester..New Haven, Con. does this make it more desirable?

You need to check out the 257 Roberts listed on Gunsamerica This item 968286290 is a Sako 257 Roberts AI. It's just above your budget but comes with scope, dies, and brass.

A 125 lb hog isn't a big hog....maybe it was your time to go and you cheated death that day

TT85...THAT thought occurred to me when I sat back on my heels and looked around trying to figure out how I was gonna get the pig out of the woods thru all this briar. Found another game trail, and crawled out about the time my partner walked up and asked what the $%#$@ I was shooting at as I had spooked a herd of 15-20 hogs that came by him about 400 yards away at the south edge of the patch, while he was watching his feeder pen in another direction. He was prolly asleep would be more like it.

And YES a 125lb'er was not a big hog and why I was PO'd about the Rbt's bullet performance, and started carrying the Ruger 270 again.
Ron

Colt 45, No Not necessarily, USRAC, a privately held Corp organization strictly for the purchase of the New Haven operation, had bought out the New Haven plant, and later sold it to another ownership group that had bought all the remaining assets of the original Corp who retained the Winchester name. So the distinctive labeling for USRAC is the scroll lettering on the side of the barrel and the USRAC name and logo on the butt pad, are the only differences I can think of.

Call or better still go see Joe McBride with the gun and he can tell you in a micro second what you have or don't have, since you are not far from Austin. The guy in LaGrange may be able to tell you also, but I don't know him except 2nd hand thru a nephew.
Ron

you need to ponder that one some more....no reason that .257 shouldn't have knocked that pig flat on his rear.

I kill them that size all the time with 9mm's and .40 cal handguns.

those silvertips in .277 130 grain's were a very destructive bullet....I would have thought a .257 bullet would have made a mess of that pig

Ron I did a search on Guns International. Halifax Supply in Florida has several NIB rifles in 257 Roberts including a Ruger 77 lite weight and Browning A Bolt micro. I tried to copy the search but it wouldn't let me.

Oh he was dead on his feet after the 2nd round's lung shot...and bleeding out from the 1st round breaking his shoulder, but still had plenty of steam to run off in a giant 1-200 yard circle thru the woods and came right back down the game trail by me sitting in a ground level box blind, and after the 3rd shot in the chest after I followed him onto the briar to not loose him. A few minutes later he laid down and I thought he'd finally passed after 5-10 minutes...but got up again still clicking his cutters and gave me the bums rush until I gave him a headache fixerupper that burned his eye lashes and left a exit hole in the back of his head about as big as the base of my thumb.

That was my 1st pig and an eye opener for sure...but he ate good too big and fat from living on acorns in an couple hundred acres of oak thickets.

None of the other hogs we've killed acted this way either...but we;ve started taking head shots around the ear or raking away shot where you can put a bullet inside the ribs from just past the last rib and out thru the boiler room and HVAC system. Only had trouble sometimes with classic WTail bulet placements right behind the shoulder with loosing hogs that have run off...but the guys I usually hunt with have been shooting bigger/faster bullets too, from 270 up.

I busted a 150/175 lb'er one time near Ladonia in the deep woods with an '06 & 165gr SGK's. Bullet hit right behind the last rib that busted his offside front shoulder and "souped" everything in between...but penetrated completely thru the joint and was found just under the skin of the off side shoulder. He wasn't dead yet but wasn't motivating at all either ...with the shot taken at 50-60 feet in the rain...and exactly what I bought a 308 rough gun last April for.
Ron

My dad has a kimber in 257 and it is a sweet little gun. It is very accurate with factory hornady ammo. I sighted the gun in for him and he has since shot it five times, and killed three pigs, a deer, and a ram.

Walter

thanks Ron, good luck in quest, let us know what you come up with

Walter...thanks for THAT...now I gotta find one and go at least look at it LOLOL. Really sucks having mebbe cheap beer money and 30 year old scotch taste's.

Seriously this gets into a conversation the wife & I have periodically...at my age and level of hunting activity would you rather have 2 really decent - NOT BLASER $$$'s - mebbe up to Kimber price point rifles or 4-5 Tikka/Ruger/Remington priced rifles...so far I've stayed with the latter 4-5+ gun choice after always owning 8-10-12 or more at a time over the years.

But I am beginning to re think the deal. The problem is which 2 calibers to settle on. If I had to make that decision today it'd prolly be a 257/264/284 of some sort and a 30/338 of some sort until this last issue with my shoulder jumped up....or a pair of 257's, 264's or 284's in different calibers & stock styles, like a 250 Savage/257 Rbts & 257WBy, 6.5 Swede & 264Wmg or 7x57 & 280AI/7WSM in a short barrel/lite weight everyday 2-300 yard gun & a longer barreled heavier longer range gun.

All of these combos have merit with common bullet & powder usage in these days of shortages that go on forever and makes me think about needing to begin hoarding. Dunno what I'll do yet...but I'm getting there. PTL the Eye doc sez I can get back in the game without damaging his work soon.

OBTW TC is s'posed to ship Venture platform 6.5x55 Swede's sometime later this year ...maybe. They did do a limited run of 6.5x284's at one time recently in both Matte blue or WeatherShield with fluted 24" barrels on both and not gooped up with the spray on full covering of Camo coating. This could beccome more interesting with the advent of Boyd's now offering their full line of wood & Laminate stocks at regular pricing.
Ron