diff --git a/R-package/R/utils.R b/R-package/R/utils.R
index 3c1ffdd20..7336ed213 100644
--- a/R-package/R/utils.R
+++ b/R-package/R/utils.R
@@ -77,9 +77,9 @@ xgb.Booster <- function(params = list(), cachelist = list(), modelfile = NULL) {
 }
 
 # convert xgb.Booster.handle to xgb.Booster
-xgb.handleToBooster <- function(handle)
+xgb.handleToBooster <- function(handle, raw = NULL)
 {
-  bst <- list(handle = handle, raw = NULL)
+  bst <- list(handle = handle, raw = raw)
   class(bst) <- "xgb.Booster"
   return(bst)
 }
diff --git a/R-package/R/xgb.load.R b/R-package/R/xgb.load.R
index b19345b60..b69a719cf 100644
--- a/R-package/R/xgb.load.R
+++ b/R-package/R/xgb.load.R
@@ -21,7 +21,12 @@ xgb.load <- function(modelfile) {
     stop("xgb.load: modelfile cannot be NULL")
   
   handle <- xgb.Booster(modelfile = modelfile)
-  bst <- xgb.handleToBooster(handle)
+  # re-use modelfile if it is raw so we donot need to serialize
+  if (typeof(modelfile) == "raw") {
+    bst <- xgb.handleToBooster(handle, modelfile)
+  } else {
+    bst <- xgb.handleToBooster(handle, NULL)
+  }
   bst <- xgb.Booster.check(bst)
   return(bst)
 }