KAG
New member
Ok, months ago I ordered a 25x45 20" barrel from BlackHole. After quite few months of production delay it arrived Monday.....WooHoo...........I thought it was beautiful to look at and it felt fairly light.
The barrel is a light Varmint contour, pretty much what the other 6x45 barrel contours are from BH. I opted to NOT thread this one as my last barrel a 18" Shilen barrel in 25/223 was threaded and I just did not like it. With the 25x45 its a straight forward up sizing of the 223 case where as the 25/223 cartridge must be trimmed back some....PITA. As I like simplicity I went with this and it makes the most sense for me.
I had several months ago bought one of those upper kits from Scott at SD that he ran a special on.....Thank you Scott.
Crappy photo from my camera.....
The upper build was very straight forward and took maybe 20 minutes tops. The longest part as always for me is punching the pin. From then on I just put it together. The barrel nut I just hand tightened and then gave it a little more twist to line the gas tube hole up....I did not torgue it as I think once the hole is lined up after snugging it up the point of would be what??? Or so I believe....people can do as they see fit on theirs but the AR is simplistic in form and I like to try to keep it that way. No thread lock on any of it.
Once it was all together I ran a very wet bore snake down it and sprayed lots of Rem oil in the upper. I put a lower on it and loaded a 20rd mag of 25x45 cartridges into it and let the bolt go home. It chambered very smoothly and felt locked up solid.....I squeezed the trigger and fired and functioned as it should. I then proceeded to burn the entire clip through it. Perfect feed, fire, and function....yes I know others do it differently but this one is mine.
As I have been shooting the 25/223 for a while now I have lots of load data compiled to start with and plan to begin working up loads for this very soon. More than likely I will be shooting 70gr Sierra Blitz Kings, 85gr Noslers BT, and 90gr Sierra Blitz Kings also. I have quite a bit of data on these already.
Its been a long road on this and plan to make it my main predator round this winter and also plan to take a deer with it also to just see how it performs, which I have little doubt it will excel in.
Up next is a another couple of Wildcats, one based off of the 6.8spc case and a one off of a 308 case I plan to play with but that is later in the year....still waiting for reamers on those.
The barrel is a light Varmint contour, pretty much what the other 6x45 barrel contours are from BH. I opted to NOT thread this one as my last barrel a 18" Shilen barrel in 25/223 was threaded and I just did not like it. With the 25x45 its a straight forward up sizing of the 223 case where as the 25/223 cartridge must be trimmed back some....PITA. As I like simplicity I went with this and it makes the most sense for me.
I had several months ago bought one of those upper kits from Scott at SD that he ran a special on.....Thank you Scott.
Crappy photo from my camera.....
![25x45.jpg](http://i769.photobucket.com/albums/xx331/davemhughes/25x45.jpg)
![25x45a.jpg](http://i769.photobucket.com/albums/xx331/davemhughes/25x45a.jpg)
The upper build was very straight forward and took maybe 20 minutes tops. The longest part as always for me is punching the pin. From then on I just put it together. The barrel nut I just hand tightened and then gave it a little more twist to line the gas tube hole up....I did not torgue it as I think once the hole is lined up after snugging it up the point of would be what??? Or so I believe....people can do as they see fit on theirs but the AR is simplistic in form and I like to try to keep it that way. No thread lock on any of it.
![25x45b.jpg](http://i769.photobucket.com/albums/xx331/davemhughes/25x45b.jpg)
Once it was all together I ran a very wet bore snake down it and sprayed lots of Rem oil in the upper. I put a lower on it and loaded a 20rd mag of 25x45 cartridges into it and let the bolt go home. It chambered very smoothly and felt locked up solid.....I squeezed the trigger and fired and functioned as it should. I then proceeded to burn the entire clip through it. Perfect feed, fire, and function....yes I know others do it differently but this one is mine.
![25x45c.jpg](http://i769.photobucket.com/albums/xx331/davemhughes/25x45c.jpg)
As I have been shooting the 25/223 for a while now I have lots of load data compiled to start with and plan to begin working up loads for this very soon. More than likely I will be shooting 70gr Sierra Blitz Kings, 85gr Noslers BT, and 90gr Sierra Blitz Kings also. I have quite a bit of data on these already.
![25x45d.jpg](http://i769.photobucket.com/albums/xx331/davemhughes/25x45d.jpg)
Its been a long road on this and plan to make it my main predator round this winter and also plan to take a deer with it also to just see how it performs, which I have little doubt it will excel in.
Up next is a another couple of Wildcats, one based off of the 6.8spc case and a one off of a 308 case I plan to play with but that is later in the year....still waiting for reamers on those.
Last edited: