225 Winchester showing some good signs...

[Broom_jm]

This past summer I bought a beautiful 1965 Model 70 in 225 Winchester. I shot up a bunch of factory ammo and did some case prep work on the empty brass. (Had to anneal them because I was getting a lot of neck splits.)

I tried a recipe of H4895 with 52gr Sierra HPBT bullets, but didn't find anything real encouraging. A guy from another forum sent me a copy of an old article on reloading for the 225 that included very good results with IMR4320. This past weekend I finally had the time and weather to put a few loads together and do some testing. I only shot the first two strings, but I'm encouraged.

 

[Sniper 79]

This past summer I bought a beautiful 1965 Model 70 in 225 Winchester. I shot up a bunch of factory ammo and did some case prep work on the empty brass. (Had to anneal them because I was getting a lot of neck splits.)

I tried a recipe of H4895 with 52gr Sierra HPBT bullets, but didn't find anything real encouraging. A guy from another forum sent me a copy of an old article on reloading for the 225 that included very good results with IMR4320. This past weekend I finally had the time and weather to put a few loads together and do some testing. I only shot the first two strings, but I'm encouraged.

Looks good. I love hand loading and enjoy write ups like this. I need to start doing some of my own.

 

[Yeah]

I finally had the time and weather to put a few loads together and do some testing.

In what way does weather impinge upon loading or shooting?

I've never done a 225 Win, who made the brass?

 

[Broom_jm]

In what way does weather impinge upon loading or shooting?

I've never done a 225 Win, who made the brass?

I'm not a big fan of shooting in below freezing weather, so I guess you could say I had the time to put together the loads and the weather was nice enough to enjoy being outdoors shooting.

I bought a bunch of factory 225 ammo at Profire after I got the rifle, plus I have a 6.5JDJ, which uses 225 Win parent brass, so I bought hundreds of pieces of it, years ago. Winchester produces a run every few years, to meet the demand from the various wildcats and to feed the remaining 225 rifles still in service.

You can make 225 Win cases from 30/30, but I haven't had to go that route, yet.

 

[tallend]

Clear your private messages-------you have exceded your quota,and cannot receive anymore

 

[Broom_jm]

Clear your private messages-------you have exceded your quota,and cannot receive anymore

I cleaned up my Inbox.

 

[Broom_jm]

The weather was once again very nice today, so I sent six more groups of test loads down my hundred yard range. I went up in three tenths of a grain increments, so 30.4 was the next charge weight. It shot under an inch, but 30.7 was just over and 31.0 was closer to 2". Things didn't get better again until 31.9 and then 32.2 was once again under an inch. That's pretty much as far as I want to go with this powder, and I would be happy enough with the groups I got right around 32 grains, especially since this is a sporter weight barrel.

The next step is to try some hotter primers, based on an article I read about loading for the 225. I'll drop back down to 31 grains and work up carefully with Remington 9-1/2 or CCI magnum rifle primers. Apparently this works well on the slower IMR4320. Time and targets will hopefully tell.