Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 25.06 Rem. vs .257 Roberts...

I had a 25-06 and have loaded for several others. I traded mine off for a Ruger 77 257 Roberts and had it AI'ed. I love it. I find 25-06's finicky to load. Maybe its just me, but normal loads would blow primers. You could fire 40 rounds with no apparent pressure signs and the next round would be fierce. Anybody else have the same problem with this round?

The big advantage of the .25-06 is that the factory ammo gets the ballistics that .257 Roberts lovers have to handload to obtain.

Of course, you can also get some extra zip out of the .25-06 by handloading. And so on...

I would suggest not just a .25-06 and a .257, but a .25-35 WCF, .250 Savage and and .257 Weatherby as well. Only then is a hunter a complete .25 hunter. (Some may notice that the .25 WSSM and .257 Ackley didn't make this list. They are OK, but they do nothing the others won't do, but if you like to make extra work for yourself--either in finding or making brass--then they might be of interest).

I have a .257 Roberts and a .25-06. real world it's 200 fps. My Roberts does 3150 with 100's and my -06 does 3350. My Bob runs a 22" barrel and the -06 a 24". Neither one is a disappointment accuracy of killing power wise for any reasonable shot from p dogs to big fat northern deer. The .25-06 burns about 6.5 grains more powder to get the extra 200 fps. I tend to run the 110 Accubond or 115 partition in the .25-06 as opposed to the 100 grain bullets in the Bob.

Though the 100 BT, .25-06 and antelope are a match made in heaven.

bob - you're right of course but I couldn't find a SS/Syn in Bob plus I do like the 25-06 as a serious deer round loaded with 100 or 115 boolets. Of course a big deer in TN is 150 lbs dressed. When I go north, a 7 mm gets the nod.

I do have several 7mm's sighted and ready to go but the 7.5 lb 25-06 gets the nod alot. I'm looking to put a 7 or two on diet this spring.

Pretty much decided awhile ago the 25-06 Rem will be my next rifle.Now build or buy?

I'm still waiting for a Marlin XL7 to arrive. Paid for, cheap. If it shoots as well as the XL7 in 270 does it'll be great. If the short 22" barrel limits it to 257 Rogers speeds that won't be such a bad thing, will it?
Can't seem to find low-buck 257 Rogers out there. The warm fuzzies keep the prices up, and that's good.

For years I used only my Husqvarna 7RM for everything around here (deer, elk, pronghorn, sheep, etc). One day I realized that the big 7 was overkill (I realize you can't kill 'em too dead, but it's more than is necessary) for everything but elk, moose, and maybe bear.

My factory Tikka T3 L/SS in .25-06 does 3312fps avg. with 100gr bullets, and it's got a 22" barrel. With 53gr of IMR4350, it gets the job done. Accurate, lightweight, it's all I used on 5 deer this year, and I'm shooting our big "northern deer." Out of the 100gr TSX, 100gr Sierra GK, and 110gr AB, I didn't have a single bullet fail to exit on my deer, including some pretty large-bodied bucks. Shots ranged from 90 yards to about 290 yards. I've practiced with the rifle all the way out to 655 yards, and where I hunt (one minute in THICK brush, the next in the open prairies) the .25-06 makes more sense due to the potential of some seriously long shots. All bullets left a serious path of destruction in the chest cavity of the deer, so I really don't see any need to move up in caliber or bullet weight. Heck, with 100gr TSX's, I even carried the .25-06 chasing bull elk this year.

I've used them all over the years. For a play type rifle where I can shoot more rounds and not worry so much about barrel heat, I love the standard Bob. In a short action. Or a P64, those are never a bad choice!

For a larger cased rifle, I am really liking the 25-284. 100 grain bullets at a very comfortable 3325 fps and 75 grainers at 3625 fps, it feeds great in my M700 short action, and it seems less fussy than a 25-06. This all comes down to mental gack, but it is a very nice round.

It's funny, a couple of you guys have mentioned that the .25-06 is finicky. My Tikka puts every load I've tried in it in 1" or less at 100 yards, with most loads going into ~0.5". Methinks it's the gun more than the cartridge that determines accuracy

Jordan, when I spoke of the 25-06 being fussy, where I found that is with lighter bullets and velocity. Not accuracy. With 100 grain bullets, good loads are usually easy to find. My last 25-06 loved H4350 with 75 and 100 grain bullets.

But with 75 grain bullets, specifically the 75 V-Max which I like for "blowed up" coyotes, I find the 25-06 to be fussier. When you get up into the 3600+ fps range, consistent velocities can be hard to come by. The 25-284 "seems" to be much more predicable and stable when doing this, according to my chronograph.

P.S. "Big northern deer?" In Calgary? HAH!!! Try the Peace Country some time. (kidding.)

BTW, Remington is offering the .257 Roberts in a limited edition, Stainless Steel CDL for 2009 for anyone that wants to go that route.

I've loaded for 2, 25-06's and both were finicky. My current rifle has been "blueprinted" and will still shoot a 2-2.5" group if it ain't happy. Feed it what it like though.............

I've got a buddy shooting 75gr Vmax's out of his Parker Hale .25-06, and he gets 0.75" groups at 100 yards consistently. It's a blast to shoot gophers with. If the accuracy is good, and the velocity high, then I don't care if there's a little bit more SD or ES than I'd like

BTW, FYI I don't actually hunt IN the city of Calgary. I live here, yes, but I hunt outside of the city limits; usually in southern Alberta, central Alberta, or else, yes, I've even been up in the Peace River area...
Actually, I mentioned the "big northern deer" because a lot of these guys talk about small southern deer requiring a normal deer cartridge like the .257R, or .243, but if you go up north, all of a sudden you need a .300 Mag. One of the bucks I shot this year would have gone ~290lbs on the hoof. That's a big deer by anyone's standards.

Sounds like you need an accurate rifle, not a different cartridge. You should try a Tikka or Savage j/k

Yup, as I said..."kidding".

Nice deer.

Don

Do you know any details on the 257 for 2009? Long action or short? 22" bbl?


ben

Wanna buy a 25-06?

Ben,

Here's the product description from Zanders (a Distributor).


REM 700 CDL SF LTD 257 ROBERTS 24 STNL

The SF stands for Stainless Fluted, and it seems that its coming with a 24" pipe. I have no idea on whether it's going short or long.

I guess you'll get the same weight in the rifle as a 22" barrel with the fluting; however if you want a shorter barrel I don't think you can just cut off 2" because the fluting normally starts about 2" from the muzzle. Looks like it'd be interesting.

I decided several years ago that if I needed more than my Bob could deliver I would just use my 270. So far on deer and antelope the Bob hasn't needed any help. I also use a good 25-20 and a couple 250 Savages so I'm well on my way to 25 cal. looneydom.

b: We need to fix you up with a lighter 7mm