Test firing with my Stevens 44 in 25-20SS has continued over the past week. The bullet that I'm using is the RCBS 25-85-CB. Why, because that is the mold that I have. I know that the design of this RCBS bullet was for the 25-20 Winchester and tube magazinerifles, but this is what I have to work with at present. 
   Early in my testing I used IMR4227 as suggested by nearly all who use 25-20SS. I used Remington #6 1/2 primers and had very little luck getting anything to look like was group from the same gun. They were all over the palce. I since switched to Federal 205M primers and tested again with IMR4227 at charges of 7.0, 7.5, and 8.0 grains. It shot some nice little groups at 50 yards with the 7.5 and 8.0 grain charges. However, at 100 yards the bullet were leaving holes in the target that show a tip or yaw. Also the recorded chronograph speeds for all three loads were very eratic! There were shot to shot changes as much as 200 fps. Moved the chronograph out to 20 feet adn tested again to see if the shock wave of the muzzle blast may have cause the wide spread in the velocities recorded and that prove not to be the problem at all. I'm very inclined to look for another design in a bullet mold that will work in my rifle with it's 1 in13" twist rate.
   Any one else had the same experince with IMR4227 and the wide spread in velocite andnburned powder in the barrel? There is a noteable amount of unburned crumbs in the bore with IMR4227.

                                        Sendaro

I settled on the 7.5 grains of 2400 with the Lyman 257420 GC bullet. (The heavier plain base bullet leaded, this one doesn't.) I took it to the 100 meter silhouette match and after some hurried shooting to try to get beginning sight settings managed to take single shot match winner. Really enjoyed shooting it.

Leon, I happen to have a large supply of H108. Could you suggest a starting load for a fixed 85 grain?

For those of you that may have interest in the 25-20SS loading. I have cast some bullets from an old Ideal bullet mold that is ajustable for bullet length, and test fired them. The first batch was cast to produce a bullet that has three grease grooves, and weighed 66.8 grains when case at 1 to 25 ratio. When testfired with IMR4227 and a Federal 205M primer there was a very wide spread in velocity, and much burned crumbs left in the rifle's bore. Powder charges of 6.8 - 8.0 grains were tested with the Federal Primer, and It was the same with all . Testing with Remington #6 1/2 primers proved even worse and use of Remington sm pistol primers were was abandon after about 15% blew through with the 7.5 grain charge. Accuracy was poor at around 4" at 100 yards, but the holes left in the target were round and showed no signs of a yaw or tipping. Next it was on to testing with AA #9 powder and the Federal 205M primer and the Ideal bullet at 66.8 grains. This powder was buring very clean and accuracy was improving but there would be about 12% of the test rounds that were fliers out of the groups 3" or so at 100 yards,but fewer powder crumbs in the bore. All cast bullets used were inspected by eye and weighed to assure quality. With the hint of the test loads nearing a reasonable amount of accuracy it appeared to me that I was heading in the right direction. Powder charges from 6.5-8.0 grains were tested and at 7.0 to 7.2 grains there seemed to be a sweet spot. However the velocities recorded were again wide spread. This suggested to me that the weight of the bullet being increased may help the powder burn more uniform. So the Ideal bullet mold was adjust to increase the weight of the bullet. As cast now it has 4 grease grooves and weighs 77.5 grains. When test fired it was very apparent that the powder was burning more throughly and accuracy improved. The bullet bullets were hitting the paper without any signs of a yaw. To be continued as the testresults come in. Sendaro

Sounds like an interesting powder choice. Keep us posted.