Major Ned H. Roberts, was an American hunter, competition target shooter, gun writer & editor, ballistician and firearms experimenter. Roberts was a prolific contributor to sporting publications, including Outdoor Life, Outers, Arms and the Man actions was desired. He originally intended to base the new cartridge on the.30-06 case, as proposed by Townsend Whelen, but Whelen's friend and correspondent Harvey A. Donaldson pointed out, in a letter to Whelen that it would save work to modify the shorter 7x57 Mauser case. Roberts was a perfectionist and there followed years of trial-and-error testing which involved the making up of literally dozens of barrels for his.25-caliber wildcat, with different chambers, groove dimensions and rifling twists. Colonel Whelen once told Ken Waters that he doubted if any man ever spent so much time perfecting a cartridge as Ned Roberts did with his.25 Roberts, as he originally called it. Colonel Townsend Whelen and Mr. L. C. Weldin, ballistic engineer of the Hercules Powder Company advised using a shoulder angle of 15° in order to hold down pressures with the rather fast-burning powders of the late 1920s. This suggestion was adopted and the 7mm case necked down, formed to the new long-sloping shoulder, and trimmed approximately 1/16". The Neidner Rifle Corporation of Dowagiac, Michigan proceeded to offer barrels and complete rifles in the new caliber featuring A.O. Neidner's usual close chambering. The result was availability to an elite audience of especially keen and affluent shooters of the original wildcat.25 Roberts cartridge, designed to be capable of firing 1-inch ten shot groups at 100 yards from a rest with a telescopic sight. Griffin & Howe, the great New York custom gun-making firm, soon followed suit, making custom rifles chambered in their own slightly-modified version of the wildcat cartridge. The.25 Griffin & Howe differed from the.25 Roberts only with respect to the New York company, skipping one step and opting for a slightly longer cartridge by leaving the 7x57 Mauser case untrimmed. In 1934, Remington decided to make the new.25 Roberts cartridge available commercially. Remington eliminated case-trimming and modified the shoulder angle from the original 15° to 20° for greater ease in manufacturing. The resulting cartridge had a 1/16" longer case, and was given the slightly different designation of.257 Roberts. The new Remington cartridge went on to become, for decades, one of the most popular North American hunting cartridges. Schuetzen Rifle and Other Target Shooting Roberts published extensively on match target, Schuetzen, and long-range hunting rifles of both the 19th century black powder era and the early 20th centurysmokeless powder era. After his death, a number of his articles and letters on these subjects were collected and published by Gerald O. Kelver in 1951.
