Reloader 15 and 115Gr bullet Load for 25-06

[Superblackrifle]

Alright looked through my manuals and cant find a good load using Reloader 15 and a moly coat ballistic tip 115 Gr bullet. Please postem if you know some. Thanks

 

[Maj Dad]

Alliant recommends R 22 & 25, nothing listed for 15. I use R 19 in my 6mm Rem with stupendous accuracy, but it's not listed either. I usually take that to mean it isn't effecient for that bullet & caliber, but if it's feasible, you should get a response. Nice caliber, too - it's always been on my "to acquire" list & it'll pop up on the "acquired" list before long.

 

[Kernel]

cant find a good load using Reloader 15

Because there aren’t any. Reloader 15 is too fast for the .25-06 with 115 gr bullets. A safe pressure load with RL15 could be developed, but it will have low, and possibly erratic, velocity - relative to a proper slower powder, like RL19 or H450.

Perhaps RL15 could be used for a reduced recoil/velocity load. Was that your intention?

 

[Superblackrifle]

well I found 44.9Gr for 100 Gr bullet and 47.2 for a 87 Gr bullet. So I guess 43.5 Grains of RL15 behind a 115 bullet should be a good starting point for my work up???

 

[Rokman]

You should have good results with RL19 or RL22.

 

[JimKirk]

After loading for the 25/06 for 40 yrs. now, trust me slower powders are your friends.
Reloader 17 is about as fast as you will want to load, that only with 100 gr and down.

I'm getting 3090 with 115gr Bt with IMR 7828
Reloder 19, 22 and 25 works well too.
IMR 4831, H4831 does too.

Jimmy K

 

[Kernel]

The difference between the 100 gr and 115 gr bullet is 15%. So, I'd reduce the 100's starting load by 20% and work up. That's a starting load of 35.9 gr of RL-15.

 

[dubbleA]

I think it has already been stated but while R15 is a good powder,it's a tad fast and running it with the 115gr range bullet in the 25-06 you are going to run into excessive pressures before you find decent velocites. Load density is going to suffer too. Again there are better suited powders. I switched to R25 for my 120gr Sierra load and it gets a little over 3100fps out of my 24 inch barreled Cooper.

 

[Superblackrifle]

I know that there are other powders but help me develop this one. Dare to be different. It can be done.

 

[JimKirk]

I'll sit back while you blow your rifle to pieces!

You don't really think that the powder companies don't recommend a powder just so they don't sell it do you. Why don't you try Bullseye to probably work too if you can find the right load.

Your beginning to sound like the 8x57 1000 yard bench rest guy.

Jimmy K

 

[GooseGestapo]

I'm not going to be such a nay-sayer not having any actual experience with RL15 in your intended application.

I will say that a friend has for many years used the very similar IMR 4320 in his .25/06 and would rather fight than switch!

He uses the long published max load of 43.0gr with a Sierra 120gr. BTHP Gameking. He gets a chrono'd (my chrono) 2,900 fps and ONE-HOLE groups. I mean 5-shot one hole groups (~0.4-0.5") for 5 shots from a box-stock Interarms MkX (circa early '80's) on demand, not just once when the moon and planets aligned....

A previous poster listed a start load of ~36.0gr and 43.0 as max. This sounds reasonable to me. Use normal caution in working up a new load.
Let us know how it works out. Also, there are loads listed with IMR4064, Compare these to what you're considering. (38.8 start-43.5max-2,885fps. Also Varget @ 38.0 start-41.0max-2,755fps -LEE #2nd edition). These are 120gr loads. In my experience, substituting a different bullet of equal wt. will make more difference than the 5gr difference wt. due to differences in bullet bearing surface.

To be truthful though, the slower powders will give better velocities, but, 100fps dosen't trump accuracy.

 

[Rokman]

JimKirk has a good list of usable powders for the .25-06. RL 17 is the fastest that I have used and that was with 100gr. Btips. Good luck.