I was thinking today about something I ran into about 7-8 years ago when trying to work up a load for a 25-06 and have saw a similar thing happen with a 300 win mag. I was trying to get 1/2 moa three shot from a sporter rem 700 25-06 with 110 accubonds. Bedded & floated in a fiberglass stock. I never could do much better than 1.25 moa with those bullets in one setting or in one day. I now shoot 80gr Barnes into consistent sub .5 moa but don't really use the rifle much any more. I believe a combination of heat & not enough twist (factory 10 twist barrel) was contributing factors for lack luster performance with heavier bullets. What really bewildered me about the 110 accubonds & also 115 partitions in that rifle is that they would print near half moa on cold bore shots if I would make three separate cold bore shots over a course of three separate days, one shot per day. I repeated that @ 100 and also at 500 yds. And that was on an uncleaned overnight cold bore. Any thing more than one shot per day at I got 1.25 moa. I eventually went to the Barnes 80gr, shot great I and moved on. Have any of you fellows saw anything like that?
Can someone explain this?
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codyadams
Well-Known Member
I have not seen that but am very interested. Were you using different powders with the 110's and the 115's than you were the 80 grain barnes? If so, did you try different powders when working up loads with the 110's and 115's? If you didn't, it may be worth it to try the same powder used with the 80 grainers with the 110's or 115's, even if you loose velocity, to see if the issue repeats itself. Not that you need to if the 80's work, mainly just out of pure curiosity.
This happened using retumbo with 110-115 grain bullets. I did try rl17 with those same bullets and if memory serves me right I managed around 1 moa with those bullets & rl17 but I did not go as far as doing the one cold bore shot per day to see what poi would be. I really think more twist would have done those heavier bullets justice. Seem strange though how if more twist would have helped, why did the group of overnight cold bore shots do so well. I did notice that the barrel heated more with the 110-115gr than my current 80gr Barnes. Three shots with the Barnes & 53.5 grains of rl17 generates very little heat on my barrel. So I'm sure heat had something to do with it also. I often wondered it there was some Micro dialation of the bore with those 110-115 that didn't quite settle back until overnight.
I think 90~100 grain bullets is a real sweat spot for the 25-06. Mine shoots the 110 Accubonds and even 120 grain bullets pretty well. But it can put Sierra 100 grain prohunters and boattails under 1/2 MOA more often than not. Lots of 25-06 shooters find the sweat spot with 100 grain and a little under bullets.
Curious I read in your OP where you stated that the rifle is bedded and floated. How much bedding do you have in front of the recoil lug? How much clearance do you have on the floated portion of the barrel. When I bed a rifle I always measure 4 inches in front of the recoil lug and float the rest of the barrel from there. I am not familiar with the contour of the Remington Sporter barrel, but....if the barrel is bedded too far ahead of the recoil lug and on the taper of the barrel, and the barrel heats up it will expand, the barrel expansion can lift the barrel out of the bedding and change the harmonics of the barrel. Something that you might want to check out. Also keeping the recoil lug screw and trigger guard screw torqued properly could help as well. I play with Rugers and changing the torque on the rear screw can sometimes make a difference about how it shoots.
It has good barrel clearance, cause I actually opened the barrel channel a little to much. I don't have any bedding in front of the recoil lug. All of what you said makes good sense. I just think it didn't like heavier bullets and for some strange reason they would do ok from a cold bore.
I have two other friends with 25-06 rifles and both of those rifles like 80-90gr bullets better than 100gr & up
Canhunter35
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Using imr 7828 and 115gr vlds I made an excellent .5moa load in like 9 shots. It was super easy, I believe we seated off the lands, but can no longer remember the distance.
just country
Well-Known Member
morning, u did not mention the 4831 powders.
25's can b finicky about powders and bullet
weights. justme gbot tum
25's can b finicky about powders and bullet
weights. justme gbot tum
MagnumManiac
Well-Known Member
Interesting thread.
I have 3 25-06 rifles, a Ruger M77MKII Blued/Wood stock, a Kimber 8400 Select and a Rem Sendero II.
All have preferred only a few powders, like RE22, H4350, RE19, H1000, RETUMBO and RE25. None like the same powder with the same bullet, however H1000 is accurate in the same rifles and bullets, but other powders have worked out to be opitmum performers.
RE25 has been the standout, H1000 a close second and RETUMBO is becoming the same as RE25.
The 2 best performing bullets in my 1:10" twists are 110gr Accubonds and 115gr Partitions. Speer's 100gr HotCor is also extremely accurate in the Ruger.
The 115gr Berger is also a great performer, but hard to get in Australia and I have none left.
H4831 was the worst powder I ever tried in the 25-06, it worked well in my 6.5x55 Swede really well though.
Cheers.
I have 3 25-06 rifles, a Ruger M77MKII Blued/Wood stock, a Kimber 8400 Select and a Rem Sendero II.
All have preferred only a few powders, like RE22, H4350, RE19, H1000, RETUMBO and RE25. None like the same powder with the same bullet, however H1000 is accurate in the same rifles and bullets, but other powders have worked out to be opitmum performers.
RE25 has been the standout, H1000 a close second and RETUMBO is becoming the same as RE25.
The 2 best performing bullets in my 1:10" twists are 110gr Accubonds and 115gr Partitions. Speer's 100gr HotCor is also extremely accurate in the Ruger.
The 115gr Berger is also a great performer, but hard to get in Australia and I have none left.
H4831 was the worst powder I ever tried in the 25-06, it worked well in my 6.5x55 Swede really well though.
Cheers.
I'm shooting a Cooper Jackson Game Rifle in .25-06. My go-to bullet is a 115 Nosler ballistic tip on 51.5 grains of IMR 4831. 1/2 MOA all day long. I also load the 90 grain Sierra Blitzking and the 87 grain Hornady Sp for varmints. Does the OPs rifle have a 24" barrel? I think this (along with the 1:10 twist) are standard for the .25-06, and I have read that the cartridge needs that 24" inch bore to get a good uniform burn out of slow/ medium powders and if barrels are too short, things can get squirrely with heavier bullets.
codyadams
Well-Known Member
On a different note, there is a guy that I know here in the states that uses H1000 in his 6.5x55, and is getting 3155 fps with 140 Bergers. He does have a 31" barrel on his rifle though, that helps things I'm sure
