Follow along for my 25 PRC build

As Sako said.
That and 6.5 PRC is a standardized cartridge.
25 PRC is a wildcat.
Same with 25 WSM, 25 SAUM, 25-284, 25-350 Rem Mag, 257 Roberts AI, 25 Souper, 250 Savage AI, and a host of others.
 
25 PRC is a wildcat.
Same with 25 WSM, 25 SAUM, 25-284, 25-350 Rem Mag, 257 Roberts AI, 25 Souper, 250 Savage AI, and a host of others.
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Which sort of begs the question to the astute reader--why is that?:D Probably a combination of things, the traditional role of the .257 bullet was generally limited to lighter weight bullets in slower twist barrels, but recently folks like Miles Johnson at Blackjack and Brian Litz at Berger have pushed the boundaries of the .257 projectile and discovered that it can be made into a very high BC that flies with remarkable efficiency. But it comes at a cost, they need to be driven quite fast in a faster twist barrel. The 257 Weatherby, along with the 25-06 right behind it, was the main SAAMI-speced cartridge that was "out there" pushing the .257 at extreme velocities, but at the time the very high BC and heavier projectiles did not exist, and twist rates are not up to the task of stabilizing the newer projectiles. There's also the overbore issue when taking a big volume case and necking it down to push small diameter bullets--there's no free lunch, as they say--so these newer 25 cartridges are probably going to appeal to a "select audience" (or curious nut cases like me).;) Miles in particular seems determined to find the ultimate balanced high performance 25 cartridge--so maybe one of his cats will eventually be mainstreamed into SAAMI-speced stardom.
 
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Thanks for that old roper--gives me more information to work with. What strikes me right off the bat is how well that cartridge gets em out to 1000 yds--and it's quite a bit lower capacity than the PRC case. Couple of other factors strike me, the PRC case, which I believe was initially designed to handle pressures in the short action AR 10 platform, is rated up to around 64/65K psi whereas this SAW is down around 51K. Looking at the list of powders he used, they look similar to what I've seen people use in the 6.5/25 PRC; they sort of stray between a range of medium/slow powders like you might find in creedmoor/284/280 cartridges all the way up to slow powders for Saturn booster sized big magnum cases. I get a little nervous about unused case capacity depending upon the nature of the powder and case.
 
The story of Savage going with the 87gr bullet & slow twist to get that first magic number of 3,000 fps is as old as the cartridge. Would things have been different had Charles Newton not caved to Savage & used the 100gr projectile as he recommended, who knows?

I thought the PRC case was the answer to the 6.5 Needmore. As in needed more velocity. :D

Actually, Gunwerks got the people at Hornady thinking about it with the colaboration between them on the 7LRM. Gunwerks was looking for a velocity improovement over the 7mm Rem Mag, with inexpensive, readily available brass. Enter the 375 Ruger case necked down.

I don't know much about the SAW, other than the military acronym for Squad Automatic Weapon.

I wonder where proprietary cartridges fit into the mix?
Names & cartridges of Dakota and Lazzeroni can get ones creative juices flowing.
Something like a 6.53- 7.21Tomahawk.

Figure out a way to get Peregrine bullets from South Africa and i'm all ears!
 
I have a 375 ruger--there's really nothing in common between it and the PRC other than maybe it was a convenient starting point for the convolutions that ended up being the PRC. But that does give it presumably extra strength; though I've found hornady brass to be generally a bit softer than that of premium brass makers. I'm using it because it's the only stuff I can find--and only in loaded factory ammo at that.

It seems the 120 gr on up 25 caliber bullets are really the threshold break-throughs for the "new generation" of 25 caliber rifles. The results are startling with high BC heavier bullets, they also have the advantage of modest recoil, probably of more interest to the comp crowd.
 
deadcoyote said:
Okay, really ignorant question: isn’t 6.5 mm already .25? How is the .25 prc different from the 6.5 prc?
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6.5 x 0.03937” = .2559” technically yes, its darn close to quarter bore. Even a thousandth under it. But for some reason, gunmakers (and toolmakers for that matter) are odd ducks.

Take 303 British…. Its .311 or ~7.7mm.

The standard “go to” conversion for metric to Yankee is 1mm = ~0.040”, so 6.5 x 0.040” would get you to .260. But I won’t beat a dead horse. I don’t mean to insult. I just learned this over my years of working on guns as a hobby. The Chamber marking sometimes is misleading.

Stag panther, did I mention to you about 25 Creedmore to you at all?? Read about it in a magazine, it is a fat, stubby cartridge with a .257 long for caliber bullet.

Only concern I have with a lot of wildcats, and even magnum cartridges to a point, is being over bore an burning tubes out. On other side of same coin, I am not shooting nearly enough rounds through a barrel to warrant worrying about it being an issue for me. If I put five boxes of shells a year through it, its a lot.
 
did I mention to you about 25 Creedmore to you at all?? Read about it in a magazine, it is a fat, stubby cartridge with a .257 long for caliber bullet.
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The 25 creed has been around for a while--and is a good one. If you go to Blackjack's website you can find all the "usual suspects" that he is using to find the optimum 25 high BC rifle. He mentions his current favorite is the 25-284, which, like the creedmoor, would not only be an easy neck down--but equally easy to find brass and dies for--unlike the PRC.
 
Good question Sako (BTW, I'm working on a Sako 75 in 7mm RUM at the moment--excellently crafted gun though the cartridge is generally over-powered for the bullet IMO). I'm expecting somewhere between 3100 and 3200 fps with the Berger 135's and 3200+ fps with 120's on down.
 
also showing it in bulk of 500. Sorry forgot your's is a prc. My bad.
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No worries--that really confirms the common sense of choosing the creedmoor or 6.5-284 as a base case for the new hiper 25's based on brass availability.
 
Personally, i would build a 25 Souper before i built a 25 Creedmoor.
For the same reason i'd go with 260 Rem over the 6.5 Creedmoor.
That being i don't shoot an MSR platform. I use bolt actions.
I also don't use detachable magazines.

I'm not sure how the new Berger's shoot. But heard about & seen the Blackjack Ace at some matches. They seem to perform very well from medium to ELR ranges.
But not so well at short range (400 yards & under). At least by bench rest standards.
From a hunting standard they are fine at almost any range.
 
Your gonna have to define "true short action"!
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A cartridge designed to be shot across multiple non single feed platforms near or under an OAL of 2.81. Yes., it's a moving target, but it's pretty common knowledge that the creedmoor does a better job of accommodating higher BC bullets by knocking the shoulder back as compared to the 308, case in point the .260 rem vs 6.5 creedmoor (I load and shoot both).
 
"Near or under 2.81" would dictate to me, use in a detachable magazine.
Of which i couldn't give 2 hoots about.

For the constraints of a detachable magazine, i'll agree the Creedmoor line shines.
It's what they were designed for.

Bolt rifle with "box or hidden" magazine, i'll seat the bullets out and make use of the extra powder volume.

Another reason for me to like my Savage's also. They have generous magazine lengths.

Heck, even my Stevens 200 with the factory barrel in 7mm-08 was seating 140gr Ballistic Tips at 2.895" for 0.020" off the lands.
140gr Berger VLD were 2.905" for .005" off the lands.
 
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