Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Hornady 117 grain RN

Has anyone had the above bullet not mushroom at low velocity? I want to use my .25 Remington for less than 100 yd shots on W/T deer but, rumor says it won't open. It would be starting at 2300 fps but, I may stick with 100 gr. Sierra PH at 2630 fps. Thanks

This is my favorite bullet of any caliber both for accuracy and performance on deer sized game - of strictly hunting bullets. For years I loaded this exclusively in 25.06 and 257 Roberts.

Obviously my loads in those cartridges would be anywhere from 600-1100 fps faster than what you would likely realize in the .25 Remington so your results will vary greatly on the terminal end. But I would think that you would have acceptable bullet performance starting at around 2100 fps which would be about right (mild) for that cartridge and bullet weight.

It's a damned fine bullet for deer sized game. About perfect I would say. Good luck and have fun.

A whike back, Brian Pearce did a piece on the new .25/35 ammo from Hornady. They created a new FTX just for that reason, plus better downrange performance. He killed a pronghorn with it at about 190 yards, IIRC. Don't know if they sell the bullet separately, but I bet you can find out on the www.

Edit: Had to look. They do. It's 110gr.

Until very recently, the 117 Hornady RN was loaded in .257 Weatherby factory ammo. This may seem odd, but way back when a 117 RN was considered THE heavy bullet in .25-caliber cartridges.

If it holds together at .257 Weatherby velocities, it's stouter than required for, say, the .250 Savage or .25-35. Which is exactly my experience with it.

There are better bullets

JB, I thought Weatherby used the RN bullet due to the twist of their earlier .257’s?

At the time, many .25 caliber rifles had twists slower than 1-10 inches. As a result, almost all "heavy" (117-120 grain) .25 caliber bullets had pretty blunt noses, so they'd stand a chance of stabilizing in slower twists. Nosler's original 117-grain Partition, for instance, was originally called "blunt-nose," though later the name was changed to "semi-spitzer." Same bullet, different euphemism--and one reason no real spitzer .25-caliber bullet over 100 grains even existed back then.

But the factor back then was the widespread belief that any high-velocity spitzer would deflect on "brush" more than a heavier, slower round-nose. Which is the other reason "heavy" .25-caliber bullets were traditionally roundnoses.

In reality a 117-grain Sierra ProHunter flatbased spitzer (or a Nosler 115 Partition) will stabilize in a 1-12 twist at .257 Weatherby velocities. But neither existed in the early days of the .257 Weatherby--or any other 115-120 grain spitzers--because hunters simply wouldn't buy them. The same thinking is why the first 150-grain .270 Winchester loads all used blunt-nosed bullets, despite the fact that 150-grain spitzers would stabilize fine in the standard 1-10 twist.

Drill shoulders and you'll be fine with the 117 grain at that velocity.

Shrapnel posted a few years back his Winchester 94 in 25/35 using the Hornady 117 gr round nose on his local whitetail with internal damage pictures......bullet performance seems more than acceptable.

I have a bunch of them loaded in 257 Weatherby factory ammo bought on closeout at a great price. Both my 257s shoot them, one of them (German made) as the slower twist and will not stabilize the 100gr TTSX so I shoot the 177RNs out of it. They do penetrate better than the 100gr Hornadys, but the 100s seek to kill better.

That was my favorite when I hunted the 257. If wind wasn't in my favor on the stretch I could retreat into the woods and hunt. That RN at 3K Impact velocity dropped them like pulling a plug out of the wall. Never had one move outside it's shadow.

A minor hijack:

Y'all seem to be knowledgeable about the Hornady .25 offerings. Of the two, 117 grain SP and the 117 grain RN, which Hornady .257 bullet would you say is the stouter of the two?

Take a look at the Hornady 110 gr. FTX.

Should be about perfect for the .25 Remington.

I have used the 117 grain BTSP in the 25-06 for deer,I thought it was on the tough side,I switched to the 100 Balistic Tip,it seemed to be about right.

Never used the 117 grain round nose.

I was considering that bullet but, I don't know if the nose is short enough to function through the magazine. The 100 gr. Spire Point nose is too long and has to be seated well past the canalure so the mouth of the case is almost to the junction where the taper begins. I switched to Sierra's because of that.

It's length from the cannelure to the tip is close to the same as the 117 gr. RN.

It was designed to upgrade the 25-35 Winchester.

I can't pass up a thread on a 25 caliber 117 RN bullet, and as Doc says, I have shot lots of game with it in a 25-35. I think it is plenty lethal, here is the picture of what it will do to the liver of a deer and a skull of a 7 foot Grizzly Bear...

My 250 Savage shoots the Hornady 117 gr round nose under 1/2 inch, just have never used the bullet for anything but shooting paper. I got the load from Steelhead using H-4831sc figuring Scott had given the bullet its rightful field test as he always does.

I have killed quite a few deer and antelope with that bullet from a 25-06. Some were as close as 20-30 yards, but I have killed a few at 300 to 450 yards. My Muzzle Velocity from my rifle is about 2900 FPS, so I would have to look and see what the impact velocity is at 400, but I can tell you they all preformed very well at longer ranges.

If someone else doesn't have a formula for the retained velocity of this bullet handy I'll go look it up. I'll come back in a few hours and if someone has not beat me to it, I'll show what the 400 and 500 yard velocities would be. Maybe that will help you.

Remington 141? 14? Envious. Love those old pump Remington’s. But the semi-autos were nice too.

I think I’d go for a bullet that expands more easily. If you’re a shoulder shooter then perhaps.

An aquaintence, who I knew fairly well, shot a nice bull with a 25-35 94 Winchester with buckhorn sights. It was with a factory round and the guy was more into shooting than worrying about the cartridge/rifle. I’d bet he pick up a box of “bullets” (AKA cartridges) and went hunting not thinking twice about such things as performance.