Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Handloading for the 25-06

I have a friend that wants me to load some 25 cal, 117 grain SST's for him in 25-06. What would be the powder of choice for Y'all? I have several different powders but have never loaded the 25-06. I can get a different powder if needed. Thanks for your help. miles

I went with H4831 with mine for 115 and 120gr bullets.

IMR4350, RL16, and RL26 have done well for me with 110 grain Accubonds and 120 grain Partitions.

I'm another big, big fan of H4831 in the 25-06. I'm sure there are others, just can't go wrong though with Hodgdons 4831!

I have been using IMR7977 recently with great luck in two 25-06 rifles.

Most 25-06 shooters seem to still be using the tried and true H-4831sc.....

Nosler book max of IMR4350 for me. Sends 115 NBTs or 117 SGKs out at around 3050 FPS at of a 22" barrel. Sub-3/4 MOA out of a couple of rifles.

Used H-4831, IMR 4831, IMR 4350, and H450 with great results in the .25/06 with 100 - 120 grain bullets.

Have not tried newer powders because the the old ones did the job.

IMR 4350 works well in mine. I like Nosler Ballistic tips.

I really like RE25 in mine, but H1000 and Retumbo work really well too with the heavies above 100gr.
For the 100gr pills I found RE22 or H4350 the bees knees for velocity and accuracy.

Cheers.

For my whitetails, I'm shooting H4831SC under a 117 Hornady RN.

My only problem with this load is that H4831 and 43831SC has a hard time getting through my RCBS powder measure. I made a scoop out of an old 270 case that gets me close and then I top off with a powder trickler. That does the trick.

I loaded H4831sc with Hornady 117gn SPBT, but then went even slower with H1000. Even better. Same accuracy but more speed. I'm usually not a speed freak but the .25-06 is one cartridge I want to push a bit. Within safe pressures of course.

4350 and RL 22 are the schizzle in the .25/06.

I have some Reloader 22, I need to try it in my 25-06.

I use RL26 in my 25-06 for the most part. Flings 100 grain Scirocco's pretty quick and the accuracy is real good as well.

H4350 for me in all weights. I’ve played a little with retumbo but didn’t have the results I wanted. Am intrigued by 7977 but I have about 10 lbs of the 4350 so no changes soon I load 117 gr game kings for my son using a mild load. Works well to 250 or so.

I have used IMR 7828 with the 120 Nosler Partition. So,you could try it with the 117 grain SST.

Max load of R26 and 117 Hornaday SBT for me this year. The added velocity of R26 is a good match for bullets of over 100 grains. Also going to try Leheigh CC 85s with R16, this load is smoking along at about 3,600 fps.

I've used H4831 for all bullet weights in the .25-06 since 1965. One of the 4350s may be a close second, but H4831 has done so well, I've seen no need to do much experimenting.

I like RL17 with 100's, and would be looking at RL26 if shooting something 115-120gr.