R-17 or R-25 for .25-06?

[curtis]

Since powder is hard to find in most stores, I picked up a pound of Reloader 17 and Reloader 25. I will be using IMR-4350 as my primary powder but out of the two Reloader brands, does anyone have any experience loading either one, R-17 or R-25 for the .25-06?

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[lloydsmale]

re25 is a bit slow for the 2506. re17 is a better match but what ive found with it is it can be a finiky powder. Some guns love it and some hate it and there isnt much inbetween with it.

 

[curtis]

If the R-25 is too slow, is that dangerous or it just won't be as efficient?

 

[lever-hed]

The burning rate of RL-25 (RE-25) is slightly slower than Retumbo. Moving up the chart from there is approximately IMR-7828, RL-22, H-4831, then RL-19 being the fastest of these.. RL-25 should not be dangerous but it is at the slower extreme for the 25-06. You may find filling the cases enough for acceptable velocities to be a challenge depending on bullet seating depth. I'v used Retumbo with 120-gr Sierra HPBT's and will get close to fully compressed loads with a 2.705 oal to ogive. Depends on if the cases are full-length sized or just neck-sized too. RL-17 may just be tooo fast .. always check your handloading manuals and adhere to the guidelines…have fun and be safe!

Lever

 

[lloydsmale]

what he said

The burning rate of RL-25 (RE-25) is slightly slower than Retumbo. Moving up the chart from there is approximately IMR-7828, RL-22, H-4831, then RL-19 being the fastest of these.. RL-25 should not be dangerous but it is at the slower extreme for the 25-06. You may find filling the cases enough for acceptable velocities to be a challenge depending on bullet seating depth. I'v used Retumbo with 120-gr Sierra HPBT's and will get close to fully compressed loads with a 2.705 oal to ogive. Depends on if the cases are full-length sized or just neck-sized too. RL-17 may just be tooo fast .. always check your handloading manuals and adhere to the guidelines…have fun and be safe!

Lever

 

[Lefty7mmstw]

Since powder is hard to find in most stores, I picked up a pound of Reloader 17 and Reloader 25. I will be using IMR-4350 as my primary powder but out of the two Reloader brands, does anyone have any experience loading either one, R-17 or R-25 for the .25-06?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Hi LLoyd,
rl17 would probably be a good choice in the 25-06 with up to 100 grain pills. My pops is using I 4831 in his 25-06 with 100's and it's been great.

Remington 3.224 CCI 200 Reloder 25 58 3,071

the above is a load from the alliant web site for the 25-06.

I don't have a 25-06 but I've played with both rl22 and rl25 in my 25 wssm. It burns just fine and pushes well, but I couldn't get accuracy with either powder. I was getting speeds I won't publish with rl22 in my wssm; all I'll say is easy extraction and Roy would have been ****ed. rl25 was compressed and made 3K fps easily with 120's; this barrel likes light loads though so she was pitching about 2moa with rl25.
I finally settled on 4895(or v550) with 100's and h4350 with 120's. I've recently begun using Superformance, and while a bit finickey, it'll haul well with 3300 fps on tap out of the little wssm with 100's.

 

[Nomosendero]

I always heard that Retumbo was slower than RL25. I do know that Hodgdon shows Retumbo to be slower, their chart shows RL25 at # 133 & Retumbo at 138.

RL 25 does great in the 3 25-06's I load for, one of the best with heavy bullets (now 2 of those are AI'ed). In the std 25-06 Sendero I get 3,225 with 115gr BT and the Ackley's easily get 3250 plus with the 120 Part. & with great accuracy. I am going to try Retumbo in the Ackley's this spring, I figure on 3275-3300, but we shall see.

 

[lloydsmale]

you are correct. Re17 is simular to 4350 in burn rate and would work fine for 100s. I even have some loaded up to try when the snow is gone in my 2506. I dont know if its ideal or not but i wanted to try anyway. Personaly i think that re22 and 4831 are about ideal in the 2506. they have given me my best results through the years. 7828 is about as slow as I would go. Ideal is the key word here. You can make about any powder work if needed but ive never seen a need to force overly slow powders to work in a gun.

Hi LLoyd,
rl17 would probably be a good choice in the 25-06 with up to 100 grain pills. My pops is using I 4831 in his 25-06 with 100's and it's been great.

Remington 3.224 CCI 200 Reloder 25 58 3,071

the above is a load from the alliant web site for the 25-06.

I don't have a 25-06 but I've played with both rl22 and rl25 in my 25 wssm. It burns just fine and pushes well, but I couldn't get accuracy with either powder. I was getting speeds I won't publish with rl22 in my wssm; all I'll say is easy extraction and Roy would have been ****ed. rl25 was compressed and made 3K fps easily with 120's; this barrel likes light loads though so she was pitching about 2moa with rl25.
I finally settled on 4895(or v550) with 100's and h4350 with 120's. I've recently begun using Superformance, and while a bit finickey, it'll haul well with 3300 fps on tap out of the little wssm with 100's.

 

[Nomosendero]

you are correct. Re17 is simular to 4350 in burn rate and would work fine for 100s. I even have some loaded up to try when the snow is gone in my 2506. I dont know if its ideal or not but i wanted to try anyway. Personaly i think that re22 and 4831 are about ideal in the 2506. they have given me my best results through the years. 7828 is about as slow as I would go. Ideal is the key word here. You can make about any powder work if needed but ive never seen a need to force overly slow powders to work in a gun.

Yea, I would think RL25 is a bit slow for the WSSM, sure is fine in 25-06 with heavier bullets thou.

 

[Lefty7mmstw]

Yea, I would think RL25 is a bit slow for the WSSM, sure is fine in 25-06 with heavier bullets thou.

Back when I did that testing, there was no data for the 25 wssm other than Hodgdon. I set out to find other ideas and the only one that did well was v550 with the 100 gr. hdy.. It pretty much dup.s a 243 in the wssm.

 

[wallypedal]

I had better results with R-25 with both 100 and 120 gr. bullets in terms of accuracy, pressure and velocity. I did have to work up, and am close to several of the book max listings.

The 100 gr. Hornadys will get over 3,300 fps out of my 28 inch barrel.
The 120's are @3,150 fps right now.


I think it's about ideal in my rifle with these bullets. Have experimented with R-17, H4831sc, R-22. R-22 came in second for me.
Wallypedal

 

[tim jurczak]

In my experience 7828 is quite good in this chambering. also H1000, IMR7828, and RL25 are close in burn rate, about 3% faster than Retumbo then huge gap to US869 and WC872.



Tim

 

[Heath74]

The load I am shooting in my 25-06 right now is. RL-17 51.5 gr, Noster Ballistic Tip 115 gr. Win brass and Fed #215 primers. Avg. fps is 3212 and a 3 shot group @ 100 yds. is .325. That is using a Nikon Coyote Special reticle. I believe the group will tighten up when I change out the scope to one with a more precise reticle.

 

[curtis]

Thanks to everyone for the info! This is encouraging. I'll just trying out a few different loads and see what I come up with.