Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles 25.06 and 115 BT

Whats the max load for reloader 22? Thanks Esox357.

This is typical of my Retumbo load. This target was at 150 yards with my Ruger #1V shooting off the hood of my pickup.

It is always interesting to read a thread like this, involving a long list of powders that have produced tiny groups in a bunch of different rifles.

My experience with the .25-06 isn't as great as with some other rounds (though I own two at the moment), but the experience I have indicates that that the .25-06 may just be one of those inherently accurate cartridges that, according to some people, aren't supposed to exist.

I would add Ramshot Magnum to the long list of slow-burning powders that work extremely well in the .25-06 with 115-120 grain bullets.

Man those groups with Reloader 22 and Retumbo make me want to start all over my load development. ;0) With retumbo what was you starting and max load for the 115 grains?

I'm going to be making the powder companies very happy with all these powders. ;0)

Thanks

Retumbo and 115 gr Berger VLD's or 115 gr Nosler Partitions has worked real well from my .25-06, with a 24" Remington factory barrel. Haven't tried the 115 Ballistic Tip yet. The .25-06 is terrific on mule deer!

I use Hodgdon's recommended 117 gr load data for Retumbo. Hodgdon recommends 56 - 60.5 grains.

One of these days I'll get around to the RL-22 and 115 B-Tip combo.

Guy

Alliant lists 52 grs as max. with 120, and 115 gr.
Sierra lists 50.5 with their 117s
Hodgdon is 52.5 with 117 and 120s
Speer is 52 with 120s

Start at 50.5 and work it up. but 51.5 is 97% case fill, and works well.
Good luck

Swifty

Lots of very good loads here for the 25-06, so I'll include mine:
120gr Hornady hp[very stout bullet!],
51.0gr H-4831sc,
Win cases,
Fed 210 primers. Perfection!
At least in my rifle.

Oh,BTW, rifle is a Ruger MkII S/S, very accurate load in that rifle.
MV over the screens avg. is 2925-2950. Which is plenty for its intended use. Mainly antelope and muledeer.

Hunting mule deer and coyotes steered me to the .25-06 several years ago. It's been GREAT. Hope to use it on pronghorn one of these years too.

Excellent combination of low recoil, good accuracy, flat trajectory and lethal impact.

There are of course other good rifle cartridges, but the .25-06 is one of my favorites. Sad that I overlooked it for so many years. Just yesterday I was handloading more 115 gr Nosler Partitions over Retumbo. They look mule deer ready!

Gave up that bullet in the 25 about 95, 96. Had this buck out about 175-190 yrds according to measured landmarks. Perfect shot, saw a fur puff right in the shoulder. Critter dropped and kicked. Surprise, he got up and ran, Second shot got him. This is only 1 of the 2 times I have had to shoot twice with my 25s.
Reason for him running i.e 120 gr Hornady HP, rem brass, CCI primer, MV 2970. Recovered bullet from first shot.







Never hit bone, blew up on impact. You can still see a couple of hairs in the first pic, used to be filled with hide. Stopped just inside the shoulder to chest skin area. The other time was a Nosler 115BT, but thats another story.
Good that they work for you, but I will still use the Sierra 117 pro-hunter. Good bullet on goats and whitetails.

Swifty

Hot damn a 5 shot group! Well done, especially out of a #1. I own one, and they can be finicky, too say the least.

For the giggles of it gonna post a couple of pics of 117 Sierras, but I backed off 1/2gr of RL22. Same seating depth 3.165 Tip to base,these were shot yesterday.





2 diffrent bullets same load,same seating depth, same cases. Both put 5 in an honest 3/4" group (-.257)outside to outside. Both put 4 into an honest 1/2", and 3 into a 1/4". What more could ya ask from a factory barrel. 700 BDL, 100 yrds.

Next up 110 Accubonds.


Swifty

Very nice, I love it when it comes together like that.

Retumbo likes Federal 215's!!!

After not getting consistent results with the H4831sc as hoped, I purchased Retumbo and Reloader 22. See what kind of loads I can make up. I'm using winchester large primers at the moment but may try the Federals.

Esox,

Winchester, Federal, or CCI will work just fine. The main reason I used the federals is that when primers were scarce its all I could find when the cupboard was bare. But I have used all of the ones mentioned, and got really good results.
When I first developed this load for my first 25.06, Winchester was all that I used as my dealer was a Winchester and Ruger distributer. Plus I only paid 7 bucks a thou. Cheap and works well was fine with me.
For the most part, all my chrony readings are pretty much the same with all 3 brands, but for consistency my ranking are as follows in the 25. Federal,Winchester then CCI.
Consistency between the 3 are 25 to 50 FPS high or low on average velocity for 10 shots. Which taken into context aint much.
Good luck

Swifty

Thanks Swifty, I'm heading to the range wednesday, hope to post back good results like you fellas have. Esox357.

I use the largest Lee Dipper Cup (4.3cc), one tap on the side of the powder canister to settle the powder then scrape it flat with a toothpick before dumping it into the case. I played with the seating depth a bit, my Ruger likes about .005" off the lands. I made a dummy round with a bullet seated at the optimum depth so setting up my seating die takes about 10 seconds. It was not difficult to get this Ruger to get to shoot well. Same with my 45-70, 221 Fireball and 7mm Rem Mag, not difficult to get them to shoot well, but my Kimber 223 was a real challenge.

I like Reloader #22 too (Reloader #25 better) but found #22 to be a bit temperature sensitive.

Made it to the range today. I didn't have quite the luck I had hoped. My gun seemed to like the R-22 better. Retumbo had one or two groups to try and see if I can't improve on them? Back to the bench. I'm starting to wonder if the scope or action screws need to be tightened? I also need to adjust the trigger. Well can't say I will be bored. Thanks

What kind of a rest are you using? When I do load development I use a heavy butterfly rest and a rear bag to try and make it as steady and repeatable as possible. I pay a lot of attention to placing the gun in the same position each time I pull the trigger. This is my bag.

My 25-06 loves Rel 22 with the Nosler 100 gr BT and the 110 gr Accubond.