Just got my newly built rifle back from the gunsmith. It is Chambered in 25/06 Ackley improved on a remington 700 action with a 27"shilen barrel. I am relatively new to reloading and would appreciate some advice on loads for whitetails. Have heard a lot of good stuff about 115 gr. Nosler partitions and IMR 4831, reloader 22, and other powders.Could someone help me out PLEASE!?

Having never done a 25-06 Ack. Imp. before I cannot directly comment on a specific load, but on the 40 degree shoulder Ack. Imp. rounds in general you can use the max. listed load for the parent case as a starting point and then work up from there. The max load for 120 grain bullets is listed in the Alliant pamphlet as being 52.5 grains of Reloader 22, and personally I would start off with 50 grains and work up a grain at a time until the primers start getting flattened to the same degree as factory loads. The only thing to be careful when watching primers is if you get some soft primers which will show flattening at much lower pressures. My favorite primers are the Federal Match primers. If you think the flattened primers are giving bogus results, you can always try several brands to see if they all show the same degree of flattening.
If the rifle likes Reloader 22 for accuracy, it has been the best I have ever used for consistency. In my 22-250 Ack. Imp. I can get 1" groups at 600 yards using reloader 22, and everything else I have tried does worse. Of course, I haven't tried every powder on the market, but with the results I don't feel the need to.

The other method that some people use for determining pressure limits is to measure the case diameter just in front of the rim and verify there is less than 0.0005" (half a thousanth) expansion. For some reason I have not been able to get this method to work for me, but that may just be the guy behind the measuring instrument. Even with really flattened primers, I am not measuring nearly this much case expansion. My personal opinion is that if the factory magnum rounds do not flatten the primers excessively, then my handloads do not have any business doing so.

Bruce......one-inch groups at 600 yards? WOW! I must say I did shoot a screaming zero at 200 yards once but it was only for one shot:rolleyes

Yes Sir, I love it. Last commonwealth competition I shot in, the first 8 shots at 600 went into the 3" dia. scoring disk, and actually shot out the center pin twice. The guy doing my scoring saved it for me as a souviner after the second time I shot the pin.

I just had a 25=06 AI built----27 " barrel also------1 in 10 twist-----I have spent some time trying to find decent loads------1st off it will not shoot boat tails--or light bullets--the only bullet lighter than 110 gr is the Barnes blue 100 gr---

110 gr Bergers---53 gr. IMR 4350 seated .05 off lands

100 gr Barnes blue---52 gr. IMR 4831 seated .05 off lands----

115 & 120 Partitions same as Berger

The Barnes if measured from bullet tip is 3.108 " All fireformed Winch. brass CCI magnum primers----all brass carefully prepped------

I just received my new box of 115 gr Barnes X------I will be trying them on Monday-------I haven't chrono-ed any yet as I am after accuracy rather than speed.
If you need any more info just E-mail me---I'll be happy to share. RL

I was looking at a couple of internet blogs on loads for the 25/06 AI so I searched AR and found this old posting. I had a 25/06 in a Win 70 years ago that just would not shoot so I had it rebarreled to 25/06AI. I took it out Sunday and shot a few groups with the rounds that I loaded about 10 years ago. I shot three 3-shot groups with two different loads and all were .5" or less. After reading the other internet postings and a couple on AR, I starting going thru a few of my current loading manuals and realized the load I had used for about 12 years was way over what was currently listed in the manuals. I did find one load listing 59gr of RL22 with a 117gr SP. The load I have used for more than a decade is 61.5gr of RL22 with a 100gr Sierra Pro Hunter and 62gr of RL22 with 100gr Sierra HP. These loads chrono at 3550mv. The Fed210M primers are flat but with rounded edges and shell extraction is easy.

What loads are others using now for this caliber?

quote:

I starting going thru a few of my current loading manuals and realized the load I had used for about 12 years was way over what was currently listed in the manuals.

I think just about everyone of my std cartridges loads exceed my current books. But looked great in my 40 year old ones.

As to the 115Part I never cared for them. I shoot only the 110Accubond. I happen to prefer MRP but Rl22 and 7828 loads in the 58-61 range always worked for me.

No longer have the AI version but still use the 110s and same powders in my 25-06 just a couple grs less.

I don't think I have any of the manuals that I started with 41 years ago. I was thinking about switching to the Barnes TSX and started looking at data and a couple of blogs and thought whew I'm way over on these loads. They have worked just fine for the past 12 years and I got the data from the gunsmith that did the barrel. He built mostly benchrest rifles but ocassionaly a varmit rifle. I think I might just dig thru my loading room and see what old manuals I might still have.