Remington Model 14 in 25 Remington

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wachtelhund
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Nov 22, 2013 10:36 am

Remington Model 14 in 25 Remington

Post by wachtelhund »

Recently picked up a Remington 14 in 25 Remington with an old vintage Weaver K4 scope. The gun is in good condition with an excellent bore. The scope is a very old Weaver K4, probably 40's or 50's. The scope is clear and useable, but windage and elevation adjustments are exposed. The rings are different. The bottoms are solid while the tops are split. There is one mounting screw on each side of the mounts. The rings look like they can be loosened to move the scope but not remove the scope from the rings.

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I love getting new and old guns and working up loads for them. I have some load data for the .25 Rem taken from online and old reloading books, some of it is specificaly for the Remington 14. I have a set of Lyman dies. I picked up 500 Hornady or Remington 117 grain bulk round nose bullets, for $100.00 at a gunshow. Brass was a hold up, but not for long. I purchased 60 pieces of 30 remington on GB.com.

I have a 7mm Mauser case from/trim die. I used it to start the neck down process of the .30 Remington. As for load data, I was checking Hodgons web site and .25-35 Win load data. Hodgon has a a published load using CFE 223 powder. I've been using CFE for several calibers and have 8 pounds plus. So I started with CFE first in my load development.

Hogdon list 28.5 grains of CFE 223 as max for the .25-35 Win. Why CFE? I used it for several calibers and had two Lyman powder measures set up on my bench with CFE in them. I was loading 117 grain round nose bullets. Loadings were with powder charge increments in .5 grains starting at 25 to 27.5, five rounds each at 100 yards. Powder charges were weighed on a Sartorius electronic scale which measures to .002 of a grain. Bullets were seated to the canular groove, COL 2.525 inches. All groups were pretty dismal, 6 to 8 inches. The gun has an excellent bore and I expected better. Back to the reloading bench!

First thing, I examine the round nose bullets. I started weighing the bullets and notice extreme variations in the weight of each bullet. Never had I weighed bullets before. Weights varied from 117.1 to 117.7 grains.

To get the bullet weights more uniform, I decided to make them into hollow points. With my foster case trimmer I put one bullet point first into the case collet. Then another bullet base first into the collet. This allowed the collet to hold the bullets in the same position. For the point reamer, I used a drill bit which miked .193 inches. I sharpened the drill bit with a greater angle than normal. This fit into cutter side of my foster trimmer. Bullets noses were reamed to approximately 115.50 grains. They all didn’t ream to exactly the same weight, but I was able to group them in groups of 115.40, 115.45, 115.50 and 115.56; plus or minus .01 grains.

I again loaded five rounds each with CFE powder charge increments in .5 grains starting at 25 to 27.5. Fired groups were much better. The worst fired group being 3.5 inches. The best group was 1.5 inches with 27.5 grains of CFE 223. Subsequent loadings could not dupilcate the grouping.

So I decided to try some Speer GS 120 grain bullets. I loaded 3 rounds with 27.5 grains and 3 rounds at 27.9 grains of CFE 223 powder, seated to 2.525 inches. The 27.5 load fired a 2.5 inch group. The 27.9 grain load fired a 1.75 inch group. Clearly good enough for hunting, but more testing was to be done.

The Speer GS bullet is a spire bullet but the point is blunt enough that it will load and feed from the magazine. The GS bullet is longer than the 117 grain bullets, with the canular set .030" more forward than the 117 grain bullet. Using 27.5 grains of CFE 223, I loaded the 120 grain GS bullets past the canular to keep the overall cartridge lenght to 2.525 so they would feed from the tube magazine.

These grouped much better. Several loadings working up to 27.9 grain all stayed under 2.5" at 100 yard using the vintage Weaver scope. The 25 Remington, like the 25-35 Win have long case necks. I wanted to seat the GS 120 grain bullet with a light crimp in the canular groves. So next step was to trim back the 25 Remington case so I could crimp in the Speer 120 grain GS canular. After trial and error, I trimmed the case necks back .100", to utilze the canular and seat the bullets to the 2.525 COL. Loading 28.0 grains of CFE produce groups under 1.5". Not bad for a vintage rifle and scope.

To top this off, I was visiting with my gunsmith several days ago, I spend a lot of time there. While BS'ing I noticed he had two boxes of 25 Remington shells on a bottom shelve. They had been there for years covered with dust. George had no idea they were even there. Another bargin.
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Phyrbird
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Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2013 10:53 pm

Re: Remington Model 14 in 25 Remington

Post by Phyrbird »

There's a great 25Rem article in Ken Waters "Pet Loads" book from Wolfe publishing. Honestly the old Handloader issues are an stellar resource. If you can't find them at the used book stores, they can be bought on CD from the Publisher.
WalyWorld and Barnes and Noble carry the latest issues.
Phyrbird
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wachtelhund
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Nov 22, 2013 10:36 am

Re: Remington Model 14 in 25 Remington

Post by wachtelhund »

Phyrbird wrote:There's a great 25Rem article in Ken Waters "Pet Loads" book from Wolfe publishing. Honestly the old Handloader issues are an stellar resource. If you can't find them at the used book stores, they can be bought on CD from the Publisher.
WalyWorld and Barnes and Noble carry the latest issues.
Phyrbird, I'll look for that article. I've read a number of articles on the 25 Remington and loading for the model 14. Honestly though, I'm satisfied with my Speer 120 grain GS load. Anything under 1.5" with this gun and vintage Weaver scope is absolutely great. I'm going to short trim 54 cases, and load them with the 120 gr GS's for hunting. The two purchased boxes of 25 Remington loaded by Old West Scourge will be saved as collector items along with the gun. Hope this post help other 25 Rem, model 14 owners. Time to move on to the next gun - Marlin 27-S, 25-20 restoration.
Lorenzo
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Re: Remington Model 14 in 25 Remington

Post by Lorenzo »

Wow really nice photos of that Remington, it looks this weapons are really in good conditions i figure it by the quality of that weapons..thumbs up for that weapons sir.


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