Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 25-06 Practice loads

I just got myself a Weatherby Vanguard in 25-06 and plan to hunt with it this fall. I plan to use the 110gr. Accubond as my hunting bullet but, in the meantime, I'd like to find a good economical load to practice with. Does anyone have a good handload that works good for practice and would be ballistically similar to the accubond? I'd hate to use up my good (and expensive) hunting bullets for practice.

BTW- I have some IMR 4350 on hand I'd like to use up if it will work. Thanks.

Only test shooting will tell you what is balistically like the accubond. I think the least expensive would be bulk 100 gr Remington softpoints that you can usually get from Midway.

I have found them to have good accuracy in any 1 in 10 257 caliber rifle. 4350 will work fine, although depending on barrel length, 4831, W780 or 7828 might be faster.

I'm sure the 100 Rems will be "close" out to 200 and redialing for hunting will be no big deal.

Best thing to do is go get a couple of reloading manuals like Nosler, Hornady, Sierra. 4350 is a very good powder in 25-06 so you should have no problems working up a good load.

My own general rule is to practice with what I want to hunt with once I find the most accurate load.

If you are going to plan on shooting very often, just go buy some sierra bullets and run those instead of the AB's.

Just leave some time as the season approaches to shoot the AB's so you become familiar with their trajectory.

CLB

The best bet for matching the ballistics is to find a bullet with the same ballistic coefficient and run it at the same muzzle velocity as your chosen Accubond load (which you would probably want to work up before choosing your practice load). That being said, manufacturers' BC numbers aren't always trustworthy, and you may have to do a little trial and error to find which bullet matches an Accubond the best, but you are looking for practice anyway.

The practice load doesn't have to shoot to the same point of impact the Accubond - much more important is for your practice load to have the same amount of wind drift as your Accubond load if you plan on shooting past 150 to 200 yds.

FWIW, 115 BT's match up great with 110 AB's(257 Roberts).
I just drop 1/2 a grain from the AB load, pretty much the same POI out to 400 yards.

As Sam indicated, a 115 gr BT probably would be a good one to use because it has a higher BC than the Accubond so you can drop the muzzle velocity a little from what you're running the Accubond at and get the same wind drift at 300 or 400 yds (whatever your choice of distance). Just run an external ballistic software program to determine what velocity you need from the 115 gr BT to match the Accubond's wind drift at a given distance.

Back in 2003 I was in that situation; I was getting my 25-06 ready for my first ever antelope hunt and wanted both a good hunting load and a good practice load to save money. But when I found out that my barrel really liked the 117 gr. Sierra Pro-Hunter bullet pushed along by some RL-22 I went and bought a couple boxes of 'em and carefully made up a bunch of that load. I wanted to be absolutely sure I was very familiar with that chosen load. I filled my doe tag that year at about 200 yds. with little or no wind and it was no problem. When the real moment of truth arrived it was about 320 yards across a small depression in a stiff cross wind and I got a nice buck with one round. My last thought as I began the trigger squeeze was; "I KNOW how this thing shoots". I don't recall what those bullets cost back then but the memory of that shot, which is still my longest big game shot, is priceless.

"Dance with the one who brung ya", comes to mind. If I were hunting with buck-a-bullet projectiles, I'd be ranging with the same.

When I'm up to the same scenario you are, not wanting to shoot expensive Nosler Partitions for practice, I buy Sierra bullets that are cheaper, and have a similar BC. Works for me.
Last year I bought the same rifle you have in 25-06. I've dedicated it to shooting the 25 caliber heavy weight bullets, 115's to 120's. There are 3 powders that I tested that shot very well; H-4831SC, 7828 and RL-22. All loads tested shot 3 shots into 1/2" groups at 100 yards, or less in a couple of cases.
I tried RL-17 and got bad accuracy.

This is precisely what I did for my kids on an antelope hunt a couple of years ago. I bought 500 of these bullets (think I paid <$50 for them at the time). I used SR4759 reduced loads and the kids shot all summer out to 200 yards. A week before we left, I resighted their rifles for full power loads behind Nosler 115gr. Partitions. Both children made one shot kills on their antelope when the time came.

Why not just load the excellent 100 grain Hornady and use it for everything? Cheap, accurate,flat shooting, and great on game. Should work well with I 4350

As long as you don't strike bone on a close-in shoulder shot I would agree. Because these were children, I was bound and determined that bullet performance wouldn't be an issue. It was cheap insurance to shoot Partitions.

Because I used them all in my 250-3000 . Actually, I haven't ruled it out for the 25-06 because it is an excellent bullet, but I tend to think the heavier bullets will get more out of the 25-06. I've also read plenty of info about the various 100's being too explosive in the 25-06. I suppose there's always the 117gr. Hornady BTSP.

I really want to try those Accubonds though.

Load up some 100gr Sierra MK's with 53gr IMR4350 (work up to 53gr), and you're good to go for a practice round that will behave very similarly to the 110gr AB. The AB has a slightly better BC, and the MK will exit the muzzle slightly faster. I doubt you'd notice a difference in external ballistics.

Good thread, I just purchased a A7 in 25-06 and will be reloading for it this weekend. I picked up some Sierra's 120's for break in to start but will check on some of the suggestions above as well.

Thanks

Ted; PM sent your way. Tom

For practice loads I use a load that is low pressure and easy on the barrel as I have had throat erosion in as little as 600 rounds in the 2506 using large charges of slow burning powder thru such a small bore. For practice I now use 100 grain remingtons or hornadys with between 40 and 42 grains of 4064. Velocity is 2900 or so. trajectory is very close to 120 gr full power loads. You may have to resight come hunting season, but my model 700 doesnt require much adjustment at all, just a few clicks. This load hardly erodes the barrel at all and if you wanted could be used for hunting as it is ballistically just like a 243 or 257 roberts.