25-06' early on but questions arise .

[Harter66]

Preface ;
If it's weird , peculiar, or a production "opps let's ship it anyway" it's probably been in my hands . I had a .025 over 383 factory sealed Chrysler once and 1-8.5" Savage 110 06' .........
I mastered paper patch to A avoid gas checks and B make assorted fat 30s fit a .318 7.62 ......
I've been through the awe of high speed slow twist and the fast twist poof .
I've seen groups grow and shrink and pick up the shrink stepping to the next slower powders primer changes etc .
I've had the rifle that tosses 12" over there for case volume changes within a single box of factory ammo .

What I have is Dad's 1972 700 BDL Varmint Master 25-06' 26" 1-9" twist .250×.257 . A 258 front drive band markes at .08 above the case mouth at 2.5-.002 " . It's had less than 800 rounds through it , before I started, most of them handloads of Sierra 100 gr Game Kings or Pro Hunters at about 3100 fps by the book . It never shot the 115,117, or 120s well although I did get a partial box and 17 loaded with the plain base Pro Hunter 115 he took on a 3 tag hunt in Montana circa 1987 for deer , elk , and bear . The load must have delivered under under 1.5 at 100 or he wouldn't have taken it .

So I have the NOE 260-120@124 gr and 257312 @.259-100 . Sizing is good , the throat is tight enough that the NOE nose kisses the lands even seated covering the crimp groove .

Both bullets as I work up do the usual group shrink in matched cases as the charges increase until they get down to about 1.5" at 50 yd then it's just flat . It hits at about 12.5 gr and on up to 14.5 it just hovers it doesn't strip , lead , tip , tilt or any of the normal or weirdness I've encountered. I've used 3 cases and will try the 2003 vintage new Winchester when I find it . I've used new unprimed virgin 1972 RP , EW42 formed , WW , and Super X in weigh matched , trimmed , and annealed . Loads have been sent in work ups from 9.5 to14.5 gr Unique in each case @5 each with Aluminum Sages , Hornady new copper and 195?-1965ish Lyman copper checks and Win LRP, CCI 300 and a load set pending with FC 210s . I even had another user involved to ensure it wasn't me . Same results. I've been from nominal seating to hard jamb with the NOE literally finishing the seating with the bolt to half the top band in the case .

The max loads should be upwards of 2100 fps MV.

I've had lots of arms do lots of things but I've never had one just go flat ......"that's it that's all you're getting beat the mule all you want" this would really great if it were at a 100 and I could just push up to the desired speed for desired energy and terminal performance but it's not there yet.

Last item it's about the hunt so the alloy is what it is at this stage , which is handling the pressure, not running out of lube , and going straight .

I'm open to suggestions the next step is to move to full cases of too slow powder and see if 3" holds 24- 2700 fps . That is kind of the start point with the next step so .......

[Mk42gunner]

I never tried cast in my .25-06's, but I think I would go with a slower powder.

Just a guess on my part, take it for what it is worth.

Robert

[sigep1764]

Isn’t the parent case for 270Win and 25/06 the 30/06? Try W748. It’s a ball powder so it feeds nice. It has low flame temp to help the barrel burners. You can start low with it. My AR’s in 223 function from as low as 15 grains up to 25 grains. The 270 likes 30 grains but data goes all the way to 49 grains. Lots of room in there

[Harter66]

I have H322 , 4198 ,a taste of 3031 and 4895 , 4350 , 4831 , and H1000(actually W857) probably a taste or 2 of something else but it's mostly Mag Shotgun powders and H110 .

[Shopdog]

4831 and "revisit" seating depth even if it meant altering front drive band.

[Shawlerbrook]

Also never used cast in my 25-06 but 4350 is a good powder for me.

[Harter66]

4831 and "revisit" seating depth even if it meant altering front drive band.

The front band isn't the issue it's the nose of the 260-120 and the very low round count , aka little to no throat erosion .

Seating deeper isn't a problem except that places the base and/or check and the bottom lube groove well inside the case .

3000 fps MV is neither needed or desired for the immediate applications but I guess if that's where I end up I have enough Pro Hunters and 87 gr HP Sierras to out live me . Unless I make it a mission to burn out the barrel .

[Harter66]

Progress .

I guess the brass grew more than anticipated , the 20 work up loads ranged from just short of 2.485 to 2.510 in the new 1972 Rem unprimed brass after firing . The groups ran from "ok that I can work with to why do I have oval holes so far apart??????" I suspect the grass being in seed and possibly upset for the tipped holes . Case length being out into the ball seat within a group that gave me 2 touching 5" apart and a rogue that coincided with the case lengths in that load step . Groups were incrementally larger as the charges increased .

At least in this rifle seating in the groove and walking the wire with minimum charges of jacketed powders is looking like a place to hunt .

As an exploration of case changes I loaded the "apex" 12 gr of Unique under the plain base version, gas checked in the others , in WW , Super X, EW 43 formed and reamed and FC . Naturally the long gone , out of print Super X delivered the best group , I have like 8 of those.

[Texas by God]

I did play with cast in my 25-06 for a short time. It shot well with the 90 gr Lyman bullet( I don’t remember the mould #) over Red Dot- but I wasn’t pushing for high velocity.
The 87 gr Speer Hot Cor at 3300 fps drop deer and hogs like lightning so that’s what it gets nowadays.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Harter66]

As above if I just can't make it work , I have the 257312 100 gr FP too , I have a pile of 100 gr Pro Hunters .