Dad's 25 .

[RBHarter]

I told him that when I got here we would work out some cast loads for everything even if all we got was 50 yd squirrel slayers for the 500 yd elk cannon . Unfortunately his time ran out before mine freed up . Yesterday was the day .

Dad's rifle of choice was a 1972 built Rem 700 BDL made in May and by it's lifetime performance all Wednesday parts that came together on a Wednesday . It's original name I guess was probably a varmint master , it also aside from the optic and walnut / ebony tipped stock matches the description of a 25-06 chambered M40 . It has the factory target trigger and the 1.1-.890 barrel taper and has always been MOA or less as long as 120s were avoided and in truth it was much happier with a 100 gr Game King than the 115 Nos Part .
Dad shot H4831 with everything at 3100+- fps , I think it was probably a little faster with the 26" barrel .

I had a few Herters 25-80s aka 257388 and a bunch of 257312s taking up space . So I slapped some checks on them and ..... My available sizers are .258 and .265 Buckshot editions of push throughs . No biggie the 25-80s touched the .265 and moved the check a little , the checks were tight and scuffed on the 257312s so it's a win . Right ?


Appearently I don't have a set of 25-06' dies , I have them but they're not in hand and the bag of brand new WW brass is with them and both of the good trimmers .
Not to be detoured from this (I don't know why it was so important to do this but it was) I sorted some RP 270 cases from the 1x bags of there's not enough of these to mess with file . I ran them in and 06' sizer for the body and the 6.5-257 AI sizer for the neck . I used a Lyman quick trim type 270 stop to get them down to 2.248/9 before necking them down . A good chamfer and the necks were perfect for the bullets .

I loaded 5 of the 25-80s with jacketed data start loads of 4831 ..... Because I guess . I'm pretty sure this rifle has the 1-10" . As 1 would expect the bullets didn't find the paper . However I wasn't unhappy with their groups from 9.0 Unique . Seen in blue .

The green were the 10 rounds of 9.0 Unique , 257312s and were fired first , 5 on the bull X and 5 at the X by 6:00 .
Disclaimer here . No solid rest , bipod etc just me and a rolled up hoodie . I haven't fired this rifle in most of 40 years and I was a dedicated southpaw then . Also from a clean , dry , never cast fired barrel with no prep .

I think I have the lube about right , there's no star but no fouling , just a little antimony wash on the crown .


Plenty of room to play with this and for 50 yd , first rounds it's not bad . I'm going to load a few 260-120 NOEs today . I'll root around and see if there's any 4895 left in the stash . 9.0 Unique worked well for the 80/85 gr so it's a place to start .

I was pleased at how quickly I was able to settle down to just the sideways pulse bump and mostly clear it long enough to squeeze the shot . It didn't help the groups but it did help with my follow through and recoil response . The guy with the 7RM BAR wasn't helping any either .........

 

[CZ93X62]

1-10" was the boiler-plate twist of the 25-06. I wonder if the caliber's popularity would have been enhanced by use of a 1-9" twist to make those javelin-shaped 120 grain BTSPs behave themselves.

 

[Spindrift]

Nice rifle, results and story- thanks for sharing, and good luck!

 

[RBHarter]

I haven't marked a rod yet but I suspect this one is right on the 1-10 , Dad's best friend had the next or previous rifle off the line and it never shot as well as this one . Bing was a Marine Rifleman so I believe his assessment was correct .

 

[RBHarter]

Table for energy etc from the Strelok app . It's very close to making a legal big game load if I can get 2150 fps out of it with a suitable alloy .

Has anyone actually run a strain gauge ? Does Unique really stay predictably stable to 40+kpsi ? That book data is really scary in the 4 th Ed Lyman CBH . It's just not where I would go I guess . Max load at 17 gr and 42kpsi ? I have no doubt about the 3 rings of steel .......

4198 ? Anyone ?

 

[Ian]

The '06 case size tends to prefer 13-14 grains if Unique. There will be a sweet spot or two in a .2-grain workup if you have everything else squared-away.

 

[RBHarter]

Ok Ian I worked up in half gr steps from 10-12 . The x group was 10 round at 10 gr with 5 ea PB and GC .

Weird that the same groups show up aren't growing or shrinking . 2 over lapped , 2 close , and one out in the woods . I'm left with 3 options .
Back the seater out a half turn to stick the nose in the lands solid , presuming that the chamber is square .
Lube purge .......I haven't had an issue with my tweeked Darrs other than enough to get to the muzzle in a 24" 222 . I'm only lubing the bottom 2 grooves . Sizing is working , even the 55 gr of 4831 under the 80 gr didn't lead any and if a load were going to it should have been that one .
Last the brass just doesn't agree with the load/bullet/gun .
I haven't as of yet located the bag of 02' new Win but I do have 20 brand new 1972-3 RP unprimed brass in the red box .

I guess if nothing else the groups are getting more consistent , not smaller but closer together .....
.
1 group of 4 . 1 group of 10 that was actually 5 each at 10 gr Unique PB and GC .

 

[Ian]

With gas checks, keep going up.

 

[RBHarter]

As a point of interest the target is an NRA pistol 25 yd slow fire target ...... As if the 1/4" holes offer no scale ......

So what should I make of 2 over lapped and 2 tossed ?

I have to remember the chronograph next time .
I only need 2150 but I'm not sure I'm over 1100 yet . When it's only 50 yd and you hear bang , pop , thoop , it's not as fast as you'd hoped .

 

[RBHarter]

I've worked this some on out to14.0 Unique. Same 1.5" groups all the way up . Kudos for consistency.

I still can't find the bag of Winchester new brass.
I did find 30 EW 42s that were apparently weigh lotted at some point .
So I have the option of a brass discontentment exploration.

I actually measured the twist . 5 goes with 3 different land riders confirmed an honest 1-9 hedging toward 8.75" . So now there's more wonder about why it wouldn't shoot 120s ........
I found a partial boxes of jacketed 100s ,Nosler Partition , Sierra Spitzer , and a 117 gr Spire Point BT seen here with the 260-120 , 257412 and 25-80 Herters .

SPBT , 260-120 , Nos , Spitzer , 412 , 25-80.

After a little contemplating, data comparing, and reminding myself that even with a compressed load as long as I'm over 90% it's pretty hard to get hurt with the old skool stick powders . So I proceeded with a 3/4# can of 1972 IMR 4831 . I have 20 rounds ready in RP and the EW brass waiting in the wings . The 260-120 comes out of the mould at 123.5 and 124.8 dressed . 120 jacketed Speer says 44.5-50 gr starting at 2750ish , I have an almost 125 that is both short of suggested OAL heavier and about the same intrusion as 100s but likely to run faster with short , land jamb , and a fear of poofing the bullets , they're softish for hoped expansion and retension , i started at 42.5 of the old IMR from Dads stash .

My experience with sub 10" twists in 30/31 cal has put a useful to me cap at 1800 fps MV for the Russo 1-8.5 and Donna . 22s have reached 2100 before group failures . Soft alloys for expansion though . So 2500 might be a thing in a 1-9 25 cal . I don't have a slower powder so this might be the end of the line for the 120 unless the Winchester brass falls on my foot .

I do have some FC 210 s to try , but only 2 full pounds of the IMR and only one of those is DuPont. 5# of the new H version of this works though .

 

[Ian]

This is the reason I wanted a x57 in .30. There just isn't a powder that works well by itself (without filler of some sort) in that long case with cast bullets in the lightweight class in the 2k-2200 fps range. I did experiment a lot with 4831 in the .270 Win with cast and it behaves strangely. Unique IS stable at 40K. So is Red Dot.

Powder coat those little devils and have at it.

 

[shuz]

RBHarter-- I have had excellent results in my 1:10 twist Rem 700 in .25-06 with powder coated RCBS 25-120 and 12g( yes12g) of2400!
One group of 5 shots at 100 yards measured .595"! Several were at 1 inch or a little over or less.
That 12g charge was listed with that bullet in the Lyman #4 Cast Bullet handbook IIRC.
I wonder if anyone else has ever tried that combination.
.

 

[RBHarter]

I got EW 42 ready and a few odd probably 1950s superx and WW .
Found 22 more RP also . Still didn't find the 50 nib Winchester.

I looked back in Dad's books , only the 100 gr bullets were marked up for data . He must have had access to a chrony somewhere as there were a couple load steps marked up 3010 & 3070 .

If I get groups I'll be there ....... I have made it happen but this isn't a 222 , 6.8 , or 358 . Yeah the gross capacity may be the killer here . I don't know yet I loaded the flat line peak Unique in the WW , Super X and a few EW 42 with the PB bullets . Hopefully I'll see a change in the case change.