Loading 117 gr in 25-06 Ruger 1 questions

[Bullseye]

I have two distinct bullets here.
A. is a jacketed flat base flat nose soft point. diameter is .258
B. is a jacketed flat base round nose soft point. diameter is .256 1/2

I trimmed my brass and tested it in the chamber without powder and bullet. Smooth easy drop in and eject.
So I make my first cartridge with the wider bullet A.
Lyman Book says COL is 3.155
Hodgdon site says COL is 3.165

I settle on 3.158 for no other reason than my die got set there. First loaded cartridge and NO WAY is this going to fit in my rifle. Sticks out about 1/8 to 3/16 from chambering.

So I think, the bullet is too wide maybe. I try one with bullet B. The narrower one.
Same issue.
So they are too long. I change my die until they will seat in the chamber which takes the COL all the way down to 3.102. To keep off the lands, I bump them down to 3.097.

They fit fine now. My question is just plain why?
Why is my cannelure still far from the brass? Are these for .257 Roberts or something? Nawwwww

The powder load I am using is IMR 4350 and I am starting at minimum powder for two reasons.
First because I am supposed to and don't want to get hollared at by Walkalong anymore LOL and second because of the deep seated bullet, I suspect an increase in pressure.

I stopped to post before I load up any more.
People do load 117 gr bullets in 25-06 Ruger 1 rifles, are these bullets OK? Maybe I need ballistic tip bullets if I want to load 117 gr. Heck I dunno? I had no trouble with 87 gr or 100 gr bullets.

So I am standing by ... I need some direction here.
Thank you!

 

[sage5907]

sigsmoker, you fell into an interesting trap. What you're not seeing is that the overall length listed in the loading manuals applies to pointed spitzer shaped bullets that have a long tapered front. You should be able to load a pointed bullet out to an overall length of 3.2 or further without touching the lands. So if you are loading those round nose bullets with a short nose to a length of 3.155 or 3.165 the rounded front of the bullets is much shorter and the short rounded front of the bullet is sticking out so far that it is hitting the lands in the barrel. The grouve in the bullet was put on those bullets for a purpose and you need to use it as a reference point when seating a round nose bullet. Just as a common seating point reference you could have seated the bullet for your first loaded cartridge so that the grouve was even or flush with the front of the case neck and the cartridge would have chambered easily. Another way to solve your problem is to take a cartridge that you have loaded with the grouve seated even with the case neck and adjust the seating rod on the seating die out .020 each time making each subsequent cartridge longer and longer until the longest cartridge won't chamber in the rifle. This will tell you the maximum overall length that your can use for a cartridge. This is basically what you did when you kept making the cartridge shorter until it would fit into the chamber. Usually a good seating depth will be about .020 shorter than the point where the cartridge won't chamber. When trying the loads you can try different overall length until you see which one shoots the best group.

 

[GooseGestapo]

I don't know about the Flat nose, but the round nose is definitely a 117gr Remington Corlokt. The cannelure on it is set for the .25/35win. I recently disassembled some badly corroded Remington factory loaded .25/35win that had the same bullets loaded.
Likewise, the Hornady 117gr round nose has the cannelure set for the .25/35win.
I load the Hornady's in .257Roberts and .257Wby, ignoring the cannelures. You should too.

If you want some more appropriate bullets for your .25/06, MidwayUSA has some Hornady "blems" 117gr BTSPT's listed. I bought some to add to some I picked up several years ago.
About 33yrs ago I spent a couple of months shooting and working up some loads for a gunsmith friends Ruger #1 in .257Roberts. It had a 26" barrel and was impressively accurate. I think you'll enjoy your #1.
Perhaps the two best all-around bullets for your #1 are the Sierra 117gr BtSpt GameKing as well as the 120gr GameKing BTHPT. I also am rather fond of the Speer 120gr PtSpt (not boat tail). It's a "Hot Core" the boat-tail 120 isn't. The Hot Cor holds together and penetrates very well.
Also, RMR has some Federal "Fusion" plated soft points at a good price.

Added, sage, besides his terrible grammar is somewhat correct. Consult Hornady's older manuals for some approximate seating depths. Those you listed "smell" about right based on my experience with similar bullets in various .25cal rifles.

 

[Bullseye]

So I don't want to seat to the cannelure but stick with 3.097 that "smells" about right to me as well. Seating to the cannelure would leave me too much freebore.
It's the shape along the length of these bullets that won't allow the COL that the spire point would because of the lands.
These look like a cross between a round nose and spire point but there it is, just too fat too far up to use the COL in the book.

I am thinking my COL was a good calculation at 3.097 just being 0.005 off the lands. Perhaps I could even go a tad deeper as sage5907 says to 0.020?
So I am breathing a little easier now. It's not like the bullets are seated below the neck all that much if any.
I don't have a Hornady manual, just a Lyman 49 and a Nosler 7.
I have way too many of these to justify buying more bullets, if they work great! If not, I have lighter and/or more appropriate shaped 115 gr Nosler ballistic blue tip here.
I think I am going to be OK with these after all.
Thank you guys.

 

[sage5907]

goose, I didn't realize that you are a retired school teacher. Old habits are hard to break.

 

[witchhunter]

Like the Goose has already noted, those bullets are for a 25/35, that is why the cannelure is there. They are probably too thin jacketed for 25/06 velocities anyway. They are made to expand at 2200 fps and below. Now, an easy way to set depth is to color a long seated bullet with a sharpie, close the action and keep adjusting the die down until the lands mark on the bullet goes away. and the action closes easily. Bullets with different ogives will have different seating depths, nothing to worry about just keep records. If you are looking for a hunting bullet, try a 115 Nosler Partition. For targets, the Sierra 117 or a Nosler 115 BT seem to shoot well in mine.