Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles X BOLT composite 2506

Have a chance to buy an xbolt stalker in 2506 What can you tell me about the xbolt and the 2506 for deer? recoil? Thanx DWG

The 25.06 is a great choice for deer and the like - and recoil extremely moderate. Choice of the gun leaves me a wee frigid.

Whats up with the browning then ?

Beware! not much love on this site for Browning rifles, though I kind of like em Myself, I've owned several and all were great shooters with no problems.................547.

The 25-06 is flat, accurate and cheap to load. More than enough for deer, I've seen a Tule elk taken down with one and several big Siskiyou black bears. I'd look for another rifle. I've seen too much issues with Browning A and X bolts, even browning took care of the problem without any hassle, they should get it right the first time. My cousin's 270 WSM X-bolt, broken extractor with factory ammo and slow barrel, friend's x-bolt will not feed properly and my co-worker's x-bolt shoots all over the place. They are shooting winnies and remmies now.

I've never seen an XBolt, but I have owned a couple of .25-06s. The .25-06 is my favorite deer rifle. The recoil is low, but the bark is loud. My 24 inch barrel shoots 100 grain Ballistic Tips at 3350 fps. I sight 2 inches high at 100 yds and I am dead on at 250 yds. About 3 inches low at 300, so there is an easy 300 + yds dead on aim. With a good bullet it is good for about anything in the deer/elk category. It makes a fine long range varminter too. I would use it for rock chucks and ground hogs in open country. But it is loud and much more expensive to load that the .22s.

Great round for deer and black bear! And with the right bullet, throw in some elk too.

As far as the Browning X bolts is concerned, my thoughts are like a mixed bag. Their looks are very good either in the satin (dull) wood or black composite. Not a big fan of shiny hi-gloss wood stocks like the Medallions and prefer matte barrels over the gloss blued. Like `em a little more rugged looking!

Even though the X Bolt has an "S" type curvature feeding cartridge system, I am not a real big detachable magazine fan and prefer the `ol fashioned way of loading up a bolt action from the top. Detachable magazines with an extra loaded one handy, I suppose is a faster re-loading system, assuming you are going to fire more than the first 5 round combo (one in the chamber and four from the magazine) for deer?? Loose and empty detachable magazines can be dropped, misplaced or lost too. For a hunting bolt rifle, I see no real stand out advantage using detachable magazines.

The X Bolt`s action is very smooth, as I have handled them. The 60 degree bolt lift I suppose is a good feature, especially if your scope has a fatter ocular bell and the extra clearance is needed.

Such as on this thread, I have read reports of feeding problems along with some extractor issues, some of which may be related to the X Bolt`s detachable magazine "S" curve feeding system. I have also read of accuracy issues, which I take somewhat with a grain of salt, because maybe the owner didn`t try enough re-loading combos and seating depths to achieve the best accuracy?

To be honest, if I had the choice between a Browning X Bolt and say a rifle like a wood/matte Ruger M77 Hawkeye, I`d take the new Hawkeye, opt for a Remy 700 or even a Weatherby Vanguard, which are all within about the same price range, give or take maybe a Benny Franklin or two.

I think Browning in their effort to be different and come up with a different magazine feeding system, may have complicated things a little too much. In certain cases, sometimes the good `ol "KISS" principle is a good rule of thumb and shouldn`t be tampered with.

Thanx Guys DWG

I have a stainless X-bolt in 325 WSM, and have no complaints. It's hard to beat it for an out of the box, dead on accurate rifle. I've worked up four loads for it, and all four go sub MOA. It feeds the short fats perfectly, and I can't imagine why it would have problems with other cartridges. The trigger is excellent. Combined with the 25.06 round, you should have an excellent, lightweight rifle.

Don't know anything about X-bolts, but my Ruger Mk2 in .25-06 is a great rifle to shoot at the bench or in the field with[pronghorns come to mind!]. Very mild on recoil, and accurate as heck. Go with a .25-06, but maybe look at some other rifles. One of the many pluses for the Rugers is they come with scope rings to go with the best mounting system around. Love those Rugers. Tom