Hi all,

I'm playing with a little .25 cartridge called .25 Schuetzen. It's a .32 H&R Mag case, tapered down to .25. I'm using bullets in the traditional .25-20 weight range (mostly 85 grain) in a weak action. I started with some BP loads so I could get a velocity baseline for doing later development of smokeless loads. I like the bp loads and have been putting together a bunch more of them as my first trip out was all fun except the chronograph failure.

As I load these, it crosses my mind that my only objection to BP is fouling in this little bore. I have no experience with duplex loads, but they seem like they are worth trying for this. I'd very much appreciate your advice on the smokeless portion of the loads.

Current BP loads are 11 grains of fff, moderately compressed. Smokeless powders on hand that seem possibly relevant are Bullseye, Unique, 2400, 4227, 4198, and 3031.

Thanks for being such a generous bunch with your experience and insights.

I have a Ballard No.3 in .25-25 Stevens.  Because this is a cast action, I use only black..Swiss 3 FG.  As I was getting everything ready for it's first range outing..I too was concerned about fouling in this small bore..as well as having read all the horror stories of case sticking in this chambering.  So I loaded some duplex loads.  I never went heaver than 3grs. smokeless.  I first tried SR4759, but that powder really didn't clean things up much.  I then tried PB..this left bore looking like a straight smokeless load had been fired.  However, accuracy wasn't any better than with straight black.  If I blowtubed between shots groups were around 1" at 50yds.  Running 1 barely damp patch thru leaving bore wet & drying chamber groups shrunk to 3/8" at 50yds.  Bullets were Ideal 25730 lubed with SPG.  Best results so far have been with a .010" beeswax wad on top of drop tubed charge..1/16" grease cookie (SPG) rest of case filled to brim with Puff-Lon & bullet seated to only base band.  Running 1 barely damp patch thru reveals a soft greasy fouling on patch.  I have since dropped all duplex loading and never once experienced any problems with case extraction.  Best of luck!

frnkeore wrote on Feb 13^th, 2016 at 12:27pm:

Frank - which BP did you use in your 32-40 loads? 
Was your 15% smokeless by weight or volume? 
Does anyone sell Emmert's lube commercially? 
I'm not into making lube. If I cook it I want to eat it and lube just doesn't appeal.

When using duplex loads when muzzle loading bullets, make sure you push the bullet all the way down to the chamber. That's real important.

         Joe.