In order to investigate the evolution of strain states during screw rolling, the samples of copper rod were rolled in a three-roll screw rolling mill. Microstructure observations and hardness measurements were carried out for examining the deformation history during screw rolling. The finite element method(FEM) was employed to calculate the evolution of strain states during screw rolling. The strain state in the roll gap is quite inhomogeneous through the rod thickness layers. It turned out that shear strain gradients through the thickness layers are reduced by applying a higher reduction.