Anyone have any favorite loads?

have you looked at the "schuetzen loads" sticky at the top of the page?   I know there is .25-20-ss data there

An update. I scoured all the usual sources and some vintage sources and decided to go with conservative charges of traditional powders. For bullets I had the only generally available Lyman mould 257420 (a light GC) and a vintage Ideal #6 combo tool marked 25-20 M (a heavier plain base similar to the old Lyman 25720). The new Lyman mould cast nice bullets in 1 to 20 from the get go. The old Ideal tool is a bit rough and man do those metal handles get hot. So off to the range today with 50 rounds of each bullet with 5 rounds of each of 3 loads for each powder, 2400, 4227, and 4759. The tenth load was of Unique which I used as a fouler and get on the target load. The first thing I learned was that I should have blacked the round brass front sight and I should have opened up the pinhole in the 102 sight on my old Stevens 44. I'm sure at least some of you know the feelings of hope and trepidation that we approach the first shooting of a new old rifle. Hope that it will shoot well in spite of a less than stellar bore and trepidation that it won't. I'm happy to report that the hope won out. With the 257420 all the 2400 loads, 7.0, 7.5, and 8.0 grains, shot well in spite of the poor sight picture with the 7.5 grains going into a .5x.8 inch vertical group at 50 yards. The 4227 didn't tighten up until the 8.5 grain load was reached where it did a .85 inch group. The 4759 is going to need some more work around 8 grains. The heavier Ideal bullet tended to tip slightly with the lighter loads but 7.5 grains of 2400 put 4 out of 5 into .71 inches with the 5th, a flyer, opening to 1.5 inches. The 4759 did better with the heavier bullet with 7.5 grains making a .7 by .95 inch horizontal group. The Unique loads are best forgotten. Now that the brass is fire formed I can get more serious with 10 shot groups at 100 yards.

Oneatatime,

      What are you using for a primer? I also have a Stevens 44 in 25-20SS. The bullet mold that I have is a RCBS 25-85 plain base. I tried 7.0 and 7.4 grains of IMR4227 with a Remington #6 1/2 primer. It threw the shots all over the place! Let me add to this that my Stevens 44 is in a condition that appears it was locked away in a closet for most of it's life. I have bore scoped the barrel and it is in outstanding condition. For all intensive appearince of the rifle it looks like it saw little to nearly no use. 
    Would like to hear more from you as your experince my help put me on the right path to getting a load that shoots well.

  Have been off the site for a while and at present recovering from surgery. I can't remember where the hell the spell checker is on this?*%##@$# Got any idea where?
                                    Thanks, Sendaro

Oneatatime,

   Thanks for getting back to me with the suggestions. I have some small pistol primers and will give them a try. 
    Have been thinking about maybe trying a 2.5 frain charge of Bulls Eye powder for a plinker load and see what that would do. 

    I remember using a spell checker on this form but don't seem to find it anymore. What am I missing? Got any idea?

                                       Sendaro

Schuetzendave,

   I believe that I have a very tight bore on my Stevens 44 in 25-20SS. The twist rate is 1 in 13"and it has been suggested to me that the bore of this barrel may indacate that it was a barrel ment for the 25 Stevens rimfire and not the 25-20SS. Would like to hear comments about this from anyone in the know about this. 
   The rifle is in such good condition I hate to have it's bore relined. I'm sure that would distract from the collectors value of it and then there would be one less Stevens 44 in 25-20SS of factory condition.

                                   Sendaro

I received my Shaver Lyman 17 style front sight from Buffalo Arms yesterday and installed it. A much slicker looking sight than a 17 and has a bubble level to boot not to mention the excellent Shaver apertures that it uses. Sights for .450 dovetails are scarce and I got the lowest one at .500. This worked out fine as it only added about 15 points of elevation to the original peep giving me plenty of elevation left and a better head position on the stock. The sight was .450 but the barrel dovetail was a little generous and some careful peening took care of that. I usually snip the side arms off the aperture insert so as to not hide the animals for silhouette. Now to anneal the brass and reload so I can try it out.

Details for my Stevens 44 .25-20 S.S - twist 1:14, grooves .254" - 85gr bullets key-holed but Lyman's 65gr do just fine with 9.2gr of IMR 4227. You may want bore out the lowest band of the mould to get rid of the gas check.
Pete