Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles .225 Win

One of my coworkers got a .225 Winchester from his dad & he's looking for loads. Anyone have any to share?

I know he has H414/Win760, if that works?

https://www.hodgdonreloading.com/reloading-data-center

Lots of data here

4064 and Varget have worked well for me

Some of my very successful loads:
As always start with a few grains less.

36 Barnes Varmint Grenade with 35.4 gn of 8208XBR - 4070 fps

50 Nosler Ballistic Tip with 34.5 gn of IMR4064 - 3650 fps

50 Nosler Ballistic Tip with 38 gn of Big Game - 3620 fps - my favorite because it is temp stable as well as extremely accurate.

any 52 gn bullet with 34 gn Imr4064 - 3470 fps
or 37.5 gn 2000MR - 3500 fps

Model 70 - 22" barrel - Win cases - 210M primers
This was my gopher and rock chuck rifle until I discovered the Swift. It still shoots into 1/2".

Cheers,
Walt

I had one of the early ones. March 1965, Varmint barrel version. used 33grs of 4895 with any bullet. The best was the 53 gr Sierra benchrest bullet. First rifle i had seen that would beat 1/2 inch groups. 4895 at that time was in Hodgdon cans but we know it was surplus Dupont IMR powder.

My old boss used one that belonged to his father in law for pest control. He asked me to help with reloading, since factory ammo was hard to find. We settled on a near max load of IMR 4064 and a 55 grain Hornady soft point. The load runs about 100 fps slower than what my .22-250 was getting with the same bullet and 4895.

its hard to find any flies on a 225 Winchester

Article on .225 Win in the Fall 2023 special Varmint issue from Handloader/Rifle. Focused on traditional powders and needed more editing, but maybe worth the read. Just picked it up on the magazine stand at the local grocery store.

Lyman 44th and Hodgdon's no 20. Next page is cast bullets in the Lyman manual.
I have only used IMR 4064 and IMR 4320.

Would love to have one built on a rem 700 and have it feed reliably.
I think that cartridge on a long action with a quick twist barrel would be a hammer.

I'd think 4064 or varget would get a 50 or 55 running just fine.
Heck, I bet 4350 would push a bullet out the bore as well. I used to shoot 4350 out of a 22-250 with 55s just to do it and it was actually pretty good. 4320 was a decent powder as well.

Actually, fill a case to the tip top with that 4350 and measure it. Back off two grains and seat a bullet. I bet within a grain either way, you'll get good velocity and the accuracy you want. You can't get enough 4350 in the case to get in trouble so don't worry about blowing yourself up. It'll be fine....a handloader should be able to match 22-250 performance. I'm not saying 4350 is the best choice, but it's readily available in a pinch.

The .225 is a cartridge that I have never messed with, nor do I know of anyone locally that has one. Am curious to see what this one can do.