I want to reload some 25-06 for a friend of mine to be used for Missouri Whitetail this fall. This is a new Savage and she just fired 17 rounds of 120 grain Winchester at #30 plus a box. I have some 120 grain Remington bullets and some 117 grain Sierra that I though I might use.. I have plenty of choices for powder but I want to stick with one that I have open. My open choices would be Retumbo, H-1000, Supreme 780, IMR 4350,IMR 4007SSC and R-17. I think for this year all her shots will be inside 100 yards. What do you recommend?

I can't make a serious recommendation since I don't currently load for the same cartridge but I would try IMR4350 and Supreme 780 first. I think H1000 is going to be a tad slow for the cartridge/bullet combination but I could be wrong. R-17 is going to be too fast for velocities to be as good as the other choices.
I would start with 4350 first and work it from there.

The 100 grain Sierra flat base bullet will be more accurate and produce less recoil than any of the bullets you mention.
Use about 52 grains of IMR 4350 for a slightly less than max load for excellent accuracy and long case life. Don't be fooled by the 100 grn weight. That bullet will penetrate though a white tail from any direction except head on.

H4831 + 120gr sierra sp = lots of dead dear

I use either 100gr Sierra Pro Hunters or 100gr TSX's with RL22 or 4831(either IMR or H). I never had much luck getting the heavier bullets to work in my 25-06's.

quote:

Originally posted by PaulS:
I can't make a serious recommendation since I don't currently load for the same cartridge but I would try IMR4350 and Supreme 780 first. I think H1000 is going to be a tad slow for the cartridge/bullet combination but I could be wrong. R-17 is going to be too fast for velocities to be as good as the other choices.
I would start with 4350 first and work it from there.

Thanks for replying. Actually, Hodgdon rates RL 17 slightly slower than either IMR 5350 or H-4350 and faster than AA-4350

quote:

Originally posted by army aviator:
I want to reload some 25-06 for a friend of mine to be used for Missouri Whitetail this fall. This is a new Savage and she just fired 17 rounds of 120 grain Winchester at #30 plus a box. I have some 120 grain Remington bullets and some 117 grain Sierra that I though I might use.. I have plenty of choices for powder but I want to stick with one that I have open. My open choices would be Retumbo, H-1000, Supreme 780, IMR 4350,IMR 4007SSC and R-17. I think for this year all her shots will be inside 100 yards. What do you recommend?

I just discovered this rifle has a 22" barrel. You guys think I should stick with the appropriate powders that are on the faster side for a 25-06. Powders that can reach 2900 or more with a 24" barrel. With Hodgdon powders that would be IMR 4007 or IMR 4350?

under a 100yrds or under 300yrds at 2600 2700 2800 2900. that deer can not tell the diffrence

"Dead dear"???
Using a 25-06 under 100 yards is like driving a Ferrari to the post office. Anything will kill a deer at 100 yards. Mostly. Point is that any load you find in any book from starting to max, will work fine for that purpose.

You are right about that. It just that I want to get as much accuracy as possible with a minimum effort as I do not have the rile to shoot. They brought it by today and I measured the bore with a stony point gauge using a 120 grain Remington PSP. I also found some 120 grain Hollow point Hornady which were originally made for the 25-06 I also have an open box of Sierra 117 grains I could use and I have some open boxes of some 100 grain bullets I could use. I do not feel I need to furnish Barnes TSXs or Nosler Partitions to kill a deer. Killed one in my yard last year(with MO Conservation permission) with a 17 HMR.

H1000 and 120 gr. bullets in your .25-06 will make it behave like a .257 Weatherby. My Ruger No. 1 really likes this combo.
C.G.B.

quote:

I just discovered this rifle has a 22" barrel.

Barrel length has no direct impact on anything but muzzle velocity. The chamber pressure will peak somewhere from about 2 to 4 inches of bullet travel no matter the powder burn rate.

With 120 grain bullets in the 25-06 I've had good results (accuracy & velocity) with H-4821 and RL-22.

I have been shooting a Savage 25/06 since December and either H4831 or H4831SC is very accurate in my rifle. The SC type produces quite a bit less velocity if loaded the same as H4831 however.

Regards, Keith

Hodgdon recommends H4831 while Nosler states they got the most accurate results with one of the 4350 powders at least in my old manual. As one poster states it does not really matter which bullet and powder I used for shooting at 100 yards or less for a whitetail deer.

G'Day Fella's,

Army Aviator, I've been reloading and shooting the .25-06 for 30+ years.
I have only ever used IMR 4831 but when it became "unobtainium", I switched to ADI AR-2213!

When I was a reckless young pecker head, I used to only shoot 87 and 90grn bullets thru my Rem 700 at 3590fps, this decked some animals but didn't do the barrel a lot of good! For the last 10 years or so, I've settled on (depending on the game), either 100grn Nosler B/Tips or 100grn Barnes X bullets. I should have been using these slightly heavier bullets all along!!!

Hope that helps

Doh!
Homer

It has been a long time since I heard the term pecker head. You must have been in the army. I like 100 grain bullets also and I have had some really instant kills using 100 grain bullets. Nothing could be any more instant than a Gams I shot in Southern Germany using a standard 100 grain Remington. One quarter inch hole going in 1/2 inch hole coming out with an instant kill. I thought since they started with 120 grain factory loads I would keep it simple and stick with 120 .bullets. I also have a lot of them.

If you can find some try RL-19.

It has done well in several rifles,i just had to tweak the load for each one.

I really like my 25-06 but the only bullet's I use in it are 117gd Hornady's. Used 100gr Hornadys in the beginning and boy did they kill things. Pretty much over kill for me. They scrambled whet I hit with them. Ok on a chest shot broadside but facing head on or having to go thru a shoulder to get there, wow what a mess I think it would make. I do have some 120gr Sierra's I got somewhere, don't remember where. Never tried them, don't like HP bullet's on anything other than target loads. I think IMR4350 was the powder I used to use but since turning over to RL22, I've never looked back.

RL22 if shooting 117's or 120's. I tried a bunch of different ones but this is it.

If you drop to 115's I had my best with H4831sc.
Have not shot the 110's yet, and may not out of the .25-06, may keep them for the Roberts, but have had good results with RL19 in the Roberts and with 100's in the .25-06.

I have tried H4831sc, H4350, H1000, RE19, RE22 and RE25 with bullets heavier than 100gr in my 25-06. Of all those tried, only 2 were standouts, RE22 and RE25.
My loads are as follows:
Nosler 100gr BT, Rem brass, Fed215 primer, 56gr's of RE22, COL @ 3.250".
Nosler 110gr AB, " , " , 55gr's of RE22, "
Sierra 117gr SPBT, " , " , 54gr's of RE22, "
Speer 120gr SP, " , " , 52gr of RE22, COL unknown.
Nosler 115gr PT, " , " , 57.5gr of RE25, COL @ 3.240".

Hope this gives you an idea of what to use.

Please work up from below with any of this data!
Good luck with it.

Cheers.

For optimal velocities (even with a relatively short 22" barrel), the slower powders are best. I use IMR 7828 SSC with 115 gr Nosler BTips, but RL 22 and RL 25 would also be good choices. Faster powders will work okay, but velocities will be somewhat less when loaded to the same pressures.

It looks like you've got plenty of suggestions but I'll add my 2 cents anyway. I shoot a factory Rem 700V and for accuracy with a 117 Sierra SBT IMR 4831 is tops closely followed by RE17. Coincidentally both of these loads showed the highest MV of all powders tried. Other powders experimented with (including IMR 4350) were much slower with accuracy that was not as good (but still more than adequate for 100 yards). All loads were worked up using WLR primers in RP brass.

I have tried a bunch of powders in my 25-06 and have always come back to Hodgdon HC4831SC. It is very consistent. I load with Barnes X bullet in 100 grains. I still have the X bullets around because I haven't shot them all up yet. I've never had a deer take more than a step once I've poked a hole through it with that combination.

quote:

Originally posted by SR4759:
The 100 grain Sierra flat base bullet will be more accurate and produce less recoil than any of the bullets you mention.
Use about 52 grains of IMR 4350 for a slightly less than max load for excellent accuracy and long case life. Don't be fooled by the 100 grn weight. That bullet will penetrate though a white tail from any direction except head on.

I use the same load in my 25/06 except it's XMR4350. I've used H4831, A3100 also with good results. I am working with the Nosler 110 Accubond right now using IMR4831 and XMR 4350.

I loaded some TSX bullets in 25-06 for a friend, these were the 115gr bullets and I got a beautiful groups with 50gr of Reloder 22. FS

I know this is unrelated but i just loaded some 85 gr Ballistic tip varmint with RL 19 per Nosler specs to max load, shot a few out of my Rem 700 and they touch @ 100 yards, got lucky there

I would like to try some 120 gr for more punch, maybe some retumbo, Rl 22 or one of the 4831's is in order

For those who have tried both, which do you like, 110 gr accubond or 100 gr ttsx, or 120 gr partion or A frame

I really like the knock down of the 120 gr Corelokt, shot some of the old ballistic tip 100 gr and while they kill a deer was not that happy with those

getting ready to kill a Mule Deer this year and will probally use the 25-06

I load 51.0 grs of IMR 4831 witH a 117 SIERRA SPBT