We have left the topic of my original post, which would have been very boring. I have thoroughly read and heeded some of the advise which has been posted since. Some very interesting remarks have been made.
I have been a home builder as a profession for 28 years, but my wife thinks that shooting and reloading have become my other job over the years due to my time spent on my range and in my reloading room. I have a very good set up where as my bench is set up on my back porch and I have a 100 yd range to shoot, all carefully done with safety in mind. She particularly loves the looks of the board sticking out past my porch that my chronograph gets mounted to. It has the potential for giving one a headache when mowing the lawn.
My self employment back in those days allowed me to have a bit extra cash to start buying guns and the gun shop owner became my mentor when I decided to start reloading. Little did he know that he would be creating a monster. shortly after, I applied for and got an FFL license to be able to buy rifles and reloading components and tools at wholesale prices. I still have the license and actually do quite a lot of business to this day even though it is just nights and weekends.
My reloading knowledge after getting started has been self taught through experience and a ton of reading. Even though I am a relatively new member in THR, I have been reading posts here and in other forums for a long , long time. Much info has been gained form reading various magazines, websites, and anywhere it was available, as well as from fellow reloaders.
My dealer status has allowed me some good opportunites to save some $ over the years. I have become a direct Redding dealer as my personal needs met the criteria to do so. I should have been smart enough to do the same with Dillon.
Sorry to have bored you with the story of my life. I don't know where that came from.
During the process of learning reloading, safety has been on the top of my list. I have received, as well as I'm sure you guys have, many emails showing pics of blown up rifles and personal injuries affiliated whith them. I was never blessed with the prettiest face in the world, but have survived with it and always figured that there was no since in making it look uglier. I have only had one incident that scared me. I loaded up some 30-06 cases a good many years ago in the dead of winter which were very accurate and fast. The first one I shot on a hot day in July split the case. It didn't toatally separate, and no damage was done, but it was a learning experience which I will never forget.
The deviations of reloading data out there, even with the powder company manuals, dictates that care be taken while working up loads, not to mention the internet data. The data available for the 25-06 Ackley is particularly limited. I have many reloading manuals and only the Sierra lists this caliber. There are some posts in forums, some data on the Reloaders Nest site, and a lot of untrustworthy, irresponsible info posted here and there all over the internet. I have received some info from 41Mag, a member of THR, which has been tested and I am using as a guideline, but still I take care in working up my loads due to the fact that works good in someone elses rifle may not be safe nor work in mine. What I feel is the biggest problem with loading for this caliber is the fact that there is no definative max load. The Sierra manual is a bit outdated and lacks extensiveness, although I think it is the current manual. Rule of thumb says 5-6% over the parent cartridge. My rule of thumb is use caution every step of the way. If I get to the point where I am satisfied, I will stop there, and hopefully will not have to stop sooner. I always have felt that lawyers and liability issues, as well as old rifles define the max loads listed in manuals. Most of the time I will abide by them, but there are instances where I have went slightly over max loads. It is nice to know what that max load is though.
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I have done a sampling of different powder/ bullet combinations for this rifle. Some promising groups have been shot, but I think that I may have wasted some time by doing this. I traditionally will select a bullet that I would like to use and try different powders and seating depths to attain accuracy first and foremost and than get the desied accuracy. When I get close I will try different primers. If it won't shoot good, I will move on to anther bullet. This is the avenue of pursuit I am going to start today. I have always used the 100 gr Nosler Ballistic tips in my std 25-06s which were very accurate and fairly high velocity, not to mention that they were devastating on deer as well as varmints. I like them due to the fact that they have very good expansion and I worry less about the ricochet effect. My goal is to use that bullet or a similar one in 115 or 120 gr at the same velocity. Accuracy is the most important factor that I will consider.
Shooter 5907, as you have mentioned all along, overbore is a slight problem, but I have tried a couple of slow burning powders, H-1000 and IMR 7828, just to mention a couple, which do a good job with case capacity. In all the loads I have messed with so far, there is absolutely no sign of pressure. One thing that does concern me a bit is that I am a firm believer that on some occasions, excessive pressure can be acheived without showing any of the normal signs.
I have had a few very disappointing loads during this work up. Reloader 22 is supposed to be Gods gift for this caliber. I didn't get any where near the advertised velocities with it along with a few others.
The rifle itself shoots very well in general. Very few loads, I have tried shoot inaccurately. The craftsmenship that went into making this rifle deserves the time and effort involved to find the perfect load. My ultimate goal is to find the load which will shoot consistantly 5/8" or under. It seems like I may be asking for a bit too much, but I will do my best to get there. I do believe the potential is there. I guess time will tell. I am having a 6mm BR made (not for benchrest shooting). I should have that within a month. My obsession for accuracy scares me somtimes.
I'll keep plugging away and keep you advised as to my progress. There is a multitude of options available that are yet to be tried.
Hey shooter5907, I am not a competition target shooter either, although I might consider doing it if my eye sight was a bit better. We can all kill a deer with our worst shooting rifles, but I believe the one thing that we all have in common is the desire for those one hole groups. The work involved getting there is a labor of love. When a consistantly accurate load is found, the personal satisfaction is very rewarding. We may not share the same thoughts on this particular cartridge, but it sounds to me that our efforts and goals are the same.
Old Dog Man. I agree to take it down in steps, but I don't feel my options are there for this situation. going from .284 to .277 and then down from there doesn't seem like it is worth the effort due to the .007 gain. I don't have a 6.5-06 die and if i did. it would be going from .264 to .257 again, which is also a small gain. I will have to experiment a bit. I totally agree with your thoughts. I just won't know until I try it. My experimentation so far, dictates that the shorter case may not be as detrimental to accuracy as I originally thought. I will consider going another route for my next batch of brass when time comes to do some fire forming. If all those steps in sizing down are deemed necessary to do, it sounds like some annealing may be required as you mentioned. I have never done any sizing from one caliber to another before. That will be another good learning experience. It sounds to me like fguffey will be a guy to ask questions to for that process.
Again guys, thanks for your thoughts and comments. Sorry for the long post.
