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.

I used IMR 4350,4831 and RL 25 in mine. RL25 was what I was using last with 117’s in a Ruger No.1 B 26” barrel. Great combo in that rifle.

Just to add, I never found the 25-06 difficult to load for. I had two of them. The above mentioned Ruger and a Browning ABolt. Both shot very well with little difficulty in load development. In fact both liked max book loads for whatever bullet/powder combination I was working with. Made life pretty easy

Thanks all, I will check my inventory of powders and I will be going to town in a few days and can get others, if needed. I have the projectiles ordered. miles

Sounds like you got some good replies. My Weatherby S2 shoots 115 NBT the best with RL22 and H4831sc. 51. 51.5 and 52.0 grains, you will have to vary your OAL for the sweet spot probably. RL19, RL17, H4350, IMR4831 and Retumbo are great 06 powders also. If he for some reason does not get the accuracy he is looking for with the 117's, try the Barnes 100grn TTSX, Those bullets with RL22 took my rifle from a 3/4-1 inch gun down to 1/2 inch.

He has been shooting the SST's in loaded ammunition for a while so I will start with the length of those loaded bullets.

My 6mm-06 (shooting a heavy for caliber bullet) got good velocities with H4831SC and RL22 so I tried RL23. My velocities were in the same range but my ES went down to single digits and it seems to be very temp stable. I bought an 8 pound jug that was a different lot than my test lot. Velocities were near identical between the two lots.

I mostly load IMR 4831 in my 25-06 mainly because I have a surplus of it. I shoot mostly 115, 117, and 120 gr bullets. It's always given great accuracy with several brands of bullets. Reloader 19, 22, and H4831SC also work as well.

It’s my favorite too.

Ramshot Magnum seems to work pretty well with 117 or 120 grain. I expect it would be as good with 115 but haven’t tried

Saw the thread Miles and was surprised...

Glad to see your aren't giving up on your 7/08.....

I've been loading for the 25.06 for over 30yrs now and I've probably tried every powder there is for this caliber and I've had great results with many different ones. There's lots of choices when it comes to powder for the 25.06 and it's not hard to find one that will produce accurate handloads for this caliber. My powder of choice and the one that I've pretty much settled in on years ago is without a doubt RL22. I haven't owned or loaded for a 25.06 that didn't love a full house of this stuff with the 100-120gr bullets. It has been the most consistent and accurate for me and has worked well with just about any grain bullet I've used it with. I hear of others that say RL22 is temp sensitive but I personally haven't experienced that and it hasn't ever been an issue for me. When asked the question, what powder for the 25.06? I always say, pick up a can of RL22, that may be all you need. Mike

I have been shooting the .25-06 for about 35 years. Most of my loads have been with H4350, but I have shot a lot of H4831sc and just tried Ramshot Magnum last year because I was out of H4350. All of those powders gave good results. The H4350 load was from Mule Deer's Handloads That Work and the H4831sc load was from Bob Milek's data.

Just loading for a neighbor. He is also my Air Conditioner man, so got to keep Him happy. Never know when you will need Him in a hurry. miles

I checked out my powder stash and have Imr 4831, H 4350, and RL 25 plus some marginal powders like Varget on hand. Have everything else except the brass and He will bring some that was shot in His rifle. miles

Not sure if you need this or not but....This is directly from Nosler reloading manual #8 for 115grn bullet

IMR4831 48.0 starting work up to a max of 52.0

From my Lee reloading book

IMR4831 42.7 to 46.2 (115grn bullet)

H4350 44.0 to 47.7 (117grn bullet)

Varget 37.0 to 41.0 (117grn bullet)

Thanks, I have several manuals, but double checking is always good. miles

Nosler Manual #4 lists 115 grain partition with 53.5 grains RL22 @ 3197 FPS. I used same load with the 120, very accurate and chronographed 3150 FPS+ out of my Model 70. I don’t think the Nosler manual lists that load anymore.

It seems that perhaps more recent canisters of RL22 were less consistent/accurate. Still good accuracy, just not as good. I may try some RL26.

Been loading IMR 4831 in mine (2 now, once had 3), since about 1978. No reason to change.

I would try R25, 4831 and then 4350 in that order which is about the velocity order too. Anyone of them could and should pan out.

H414 is quite zippy in the 25/06. I use it with the 100gn TTSX which will take anything you would normally hunt with a .25/06.
This powder is only about $17 a pound in Big R stores so offers cheap shooting.
John

Miles- like the 270 and 30-06 many many powders work well. if you look at factory ammo Hornady- has super performance sst and the eld . very hard to beat those numbers. ask me how I know. you do not have to tell your ac man though.

I finally hit a sweet spot on my 700 Classic. 117 SST's and H4831sc. .55" group at hundred yards. I'm taking it hunting in a couple of weeks.

Not got add any loads here since the bases are covered, but I do have to say that I love my 25-06. It's a Weatherby Fibermark with a 2.5-10X B&L 4200 on it. Lite, accurate, fun to shoot. I'd think long and hard before I let it go down the road.

I used to load 25 06 for a guy who worked for me. I’ll bet if you load close to a max charge of 4831 with the same overall cartridge length, your neighbor will be happy. I loaded the 117 gr Hornady and my friend is still shooting the same load.

Retumbo has been accurate and produced excellent velocities for me with 110 - 120 grain bullets.

Neighbor brought his brass over yesterday, so we loaded up a couple of loads using middle of the load info and IMR 4831. I set up the dies to barely fit the chamber and bullet length the same as factory loads that He brought. So we took 2 of these and 2 factory loads over to my shooting area and ran them over the Chrono. First loads I tried were 10 fps lower than factory. So same bullet, same speed, same length. We loade all of his brass that way, with Him very involved in the proccess. I figure that He will we owning reloading equipment soon. Had lots of questions and was very excited about the whole thing. Thanks for all of y'alls help. I think that we could have gained quite a bit of speed, but since He will be shooting factory loads some, I would make them as close as possible until He goes full reloader. Can't believe the first load tried did that, but it did. miles

I'd like to hear some of your results. I have a batch of test loads with 100gr Sierra GKs and IMR7977 waiting to go.

No actual experience with the 25-06, but Nosler Load Data online specifies a max load of IMR 4350 as its "most accurate powder tested" for a 115gr Nosler bullet. Should be a good place to start.