25-06 load info

I will be picking up my 25-06 tonight. I would like to develop 2 loads for this rifle. One for deer hunting and one for varmint/shooting. The rifle is a Ruger M77. What bullets and powder would you use?
 
I like Sierra 90 gr. HPBT bullets for most of my 25-06 use. Accurate loads with Varget, RL15, RL22, H4831 or 4350 are pretty easy to come up with.
 
I'm using Reloader 17 with Nosler 85gr B-T for varmints and Nosler 120gr Partition for hunting also with RL-17.


I have also used Sierra 100gr SPT #1620 with IMR-4350 and RL-17 for a good all around.

Enjoy!
 
Sierra 90gr BlitzKing bullets
with 53.3 of IMR-4350 powder
Fed210 Gold Medal Match primers
Regular old Remington brass
3.195" COL

This is the ground-hog load we came up with in a buddy of mine's 25-06 earlier this year. We also had a pretty good pattern going with another recipe built around Reloader 19, but in the end the one above won out. This Sierra 90BK is fairly new, but from our 'field testing' - does very well.
 
51 gn 4831 115 gn NBT for whitetail and 54gn 4831 85 NBT for everything else. Those 85's shoot like lasers and destroy whatevers in its way. The 115's are brutal on whitetail. Ive got a bullet recovered from a two for one on whitetail and it was textbook expansion.
 
I use a 85 grain Nosler BT in front of 57.0 grains RL 19 Federal 210 primer. My long range load is a 115 grain Berger in front of 49.5 grains of IMR-4350, jammed into the lands. Always work up to any internet load, and double check everything against several manuals.

I also like IMR-4831 with the 100-117 grain bullets.
 
I started using varget with 100gr for everything i possibly can, flat out tired of chasing a dozen different powders for nominal differences in performance. I found 0 poi difference in the 25-06 when i started using it compared to some of the more often recommended powders.
 
25/06's are not hard to load for. I shot out the barrels in three varmint rifles in the 80's shooting 100g Sierra's and 90g sierra BTHP with IMR 4350, from 51.5-53.0g in win cases.

With today's powders, you can get a lot more velocity with accuracy with R#19 with the 100's with win primers, my rifle loves 57g at 3400 fps and the speer 100g BTSP is a 1 1/2" group at 300 yards with a 6-24 Pentax on the rifle, win brass only.

I also had great luck with the 100g Hornady flat base with 57.0g of R#25 with a fed 215 primer in win case, and the 115g Sierra BTSP with R#25 also. R#25 gave me extremely low standard deviations in speed.

Work up to these loads in your rifle, my lot# of powder and barrel is probably very different than yours.

One technique that is great for the 25/06 is the use of a Forester neck sizing die that will bump the shoulders back after firing the case. The 25/06 loves loads that are on the warm side for the rifle and full length sizing at the best accruacy load is common. If you bump the shoulder back with this Forester neck sizer, you will not have to neck size for 8+ firings, which means that you are also not over working your brass nor trimming your brass very often.

Here is a good site that lists loads by shooters themselves in their particular rifle:

http://www.centerfirecentral.com/viewer.html

Good luck!
 
WI Teacher:

I also have a Ruger 77 in 25/06, (medium sporter barrel); I bought it new at Bill's House of Guns in Merrill,WI in 1983 [no longer in business].

Anyway, I tried lots of powders and loads w/ the 75 gr Sierra and Hornady bullets for my annual one week groundhog trip to Ohio in the summer.

One day I loaded 57 grains of Norma MRP powder and the Hornady 75 HP and got super 3/8-1/2 groups. As noted these days, RL 19 will work as well if not better.

For deer, I used the 120 gr. Nosler Partition or the Hornady 120 gr. Interlock w/ 50 grains of IMR 4831.

For the 90 gr. HPBT, I used 55 grains of IMR 4831 and/or 47 gr. IMR 4064.

All of the above loads were with Remington and Winchester cases and CCI 200 non-match primers; work up to similar loads in your rifle. The 25/06 is a great chambering.
 
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