Re: 25 WSSM
Sgt_Jamez,
I use a .290 bushing for those. They have a pretty thick neck.
I've I've owned two and got a chance to see the results of one AR loaded for, I'll tell you what I think:
In a good AR it's an awesome varmint round. With the right bullets a good deer gun as well. But you have to go with short ogive bullets. The big thing in an AR15 platform is you run out of room to feed them from a magazine. So what I'm saying is it's a great improvement in power over the .223/5.56 in the -15 platform, but it has limitations. No long/high BC stuff that you can in a bolt gun. In fact you can just barely stuff a 100 gr Sierra GK/FB bullet in there and get it to feed from a magazine. The good news is you can still make it go fast. The case builds pressure fast enough that you don't usually load it full and pushing a bullet down in the case on these is just taking up airspace, not powder room.
Overall with the case, I found the ratio of length/dia. to bullet size a little too much. I could get 25-06 velocities from .257 Rob loads in this. But, I couldn't let the barrel get hot then let a case sit in it. That causes hot rounds even when loaded relatively light. Re-17 which works quite nicely in my .308, 30-06, and Mauser based cases, didn't do so well in this case. Again, the high ratio acts like a pressure dam and pressures spike when the load gets warm.
I also had a couple lots of Winchester brass that sucked. Seems like when Winchester knew this round was headed downhill they quit giving a damn about it. Since it's kind of caught back up a little they've put out some quality brass since the last lots I bought. My first indicator was a new lot of brass that had a load 1.5 gr. under max and known to be good in that rifle (several cycles of box rounds using that load) showed cracks in the neck after the first resizing. I'm kind of thinking that problem has been addressed for now. Too bad you can't get Lapua brass for these.
Anyhow, my opinion is it's a good round overal with the exception I wouldn't use it for a comp gun again. I certainly plan on using it for varmints and deer.
As far as accuracy goes these are outstanding. Both in a bolt gun and an AR platform.