Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Does a 25-06 need a 25” to 26” barrel?

I have a Weatherby Vanguard (Howa) in 30.06. I want to re-barrel it to 25-06. Reading forums leaves me with a bunch of questions on barrel length and twist, etc. I have read that the round prefers longer barrels due to the slow burning powder.? However, I cannot find a manufacturer that uses a longer than 24” barrel. Remington USED to catalog a 26” Sendero model. These are now super expensive on GB. I also have read that the round likes faster twist rates when shooting heavier rounds, like 1-7. Most of the manufacturers are using 1-10 twist barrels. Will a faster twist negatively affect lighter bullets? Is there a tradeoff here concerning the twist rate?
I have not yet figured out whose barrel I am going to use. Local qualified gunsmiths are non-existent in Chicagoland. I will likely send the barreled action out to have the barrel installed by the barrel maker. I am interested in a 25” to 26” stainless barrel with 1-7 twist in a #3 heavy sporter contour. If anyone has done something similar, I would welcome you posting about your experience. If anyone can expand on my questions on the 25-06 round, and the length, twist preferences it has, that would be much appreciated. Please recommend a barrel maker if applicable. This is going to be a rifle to shoot at the range, and to possibly varmint hunt prairie dogs or coyotes. I have zero need for a 30-06, so this build is to have something different.

Bought my first 2506 in 81 and another in 2000 both have 24” barrel 1 in 10 twist. Never wanted/needed anything longer. The twist rate was just fine for 75-120 grain bullets with 120 being the heaviest at the time. A 120 leaving at ~3000 kills just fine. RL22, Norma MRP and 4831 were the powders I found worked best and still use in both rifles.

Need? Probably not, but I’d decide based on the use I planned to put it to. With some new long bullets available, a feller looking to go long might want to squeeze out as much speed as possible. Carbon fiber barrels can help keep a long one light. I hunt mostly woods and edges, but have never found a long barrel to be a hindrance, except maybe when crawling around in the puckerbrush, and I don’t do much of that anymore.

Do you have a projectile in mind for your project? Bartlein barrels is ~2hrs from Chicago and per their website does installs on customer actions. Hart in NY, Douglas in WV, and Pac-Nor in OR are 3 other barrel makers that will also do installs.

Both of my 25-06 rifles are factory 22" barrels (700 SS Mt Rifle, M70 Fwt) and will shoot 100gn TSX @ 3300fps.

I like 24 inch barrels , seems 26 inch barrels are just that much too long to easily get out of the truck with. That said I always felt the 25-06 kinda sucked. Too much gun for most varmint hunting and doesn't come up to the larger game capabilities of the 270 in a rifle of the same weight. To add barrel life can be short depending on how much it's shot. Makes a pretty good antelope, whitetail and muley rifle.

Rickt300 I’ve got a Remington 7mm Mag. for anything larger, thus the reason I don’t need a 30-06. Dad won the Weatherby rifle in a raffle, and gave it to me. It is in a really pretty Boyds laminated stock. Kind of a little sentimental about it, just would like to have a use for it.

I’ve had my 2506 since 1963. In my opinion it’s about perfect for deer where I hunt. It sends a 120 at about the same velocity as the 270 130. Deer can’t tell the difference and recoil is just enough less that I can watch the impact . 24 inch barrel is fine as is a 10 inch twist, unless you are into long range hunting or shooting and need the super BC projectiles.

One might need a 27 or 8 inch barrel to obtain the most velocity available. But have had a 22" out speed two different 24" barrels I've had since, so ya never know. A barrel length that gives the rifle a good balance point may be of more benefit than another 30 or 40 fps.

Unless very cold temps at low altitude an 8 twist will stabilize most of the longest 25 cal. bullets there are. And light bullets don't usually mind faster twist.

Talked myself out of building a 25-06 several times, as I have several 270's. I did pick up a 257 Roberts though. It isn't so blasty with lighter projectiles, seems to kill deer nicely and barrel length isn't an issue. Feeds fine through a long action. I have a friend who has done all his hunting with a 25-06 using factory loads for years. His rifle has a 22 inch barrel. He is happy with it and you just might be also.

Maker .. IMHO the best .25 caliber barrel out there is Lilja. I haven't used them all by any means, but the barrel he made me a few years back for a .257 Roberts build was pretty incredible. Basically I was having a Remington 700 LVSF in .22-250 that I'd shot to death rebarreled to .257 Roberts. It would shoot 100 grain ballistic tips into the low 0.2" range for 5 shots.

For .25 caliber, I'm not on board with the heavy, long, high BC bullets. If that is your goal, go with 6mm or 6.5mm. You'll have a lot more choices. With .25 caliber 1-10" twist is fine. I've owned 8 .25 caliber rifles that I can remember, all with 1-10" twists, and all handled the 120 grain partition just fine. I don't need a bullet heavier / longer than that in .25 caliber. I might hedge my bet just a little by going with 1-9" but probably not. I definitely would not do 1-7 or 1-8.

Length .. depends on the purpose of the rifle. If it's a sporter for hunting medium game and maybe coyotes, duplicate the factory contour and stick with 24". If you're changing stocks, etc, and planning to shoot colony varmints, then 26" is fine. I hunted deer a couple seasons with .25-'06 varmint rifles .. because it's what I had. Both had 26" heavy barrels and 6.5-20X scopes. I was hunting thick brush. It can be done, it's just not ideal.

do as you like ,but i have 1- 257 Creedmoor , 2 -257 Roberts with new Brux barrels on them 8 twist and yes just cause i could i made them all 25 inches , but on my new 257 Weatherby mag. Brux barrel 8 twist because that has a lot of powder to burn in this cartridge i went 28 inches its more of a longer range open deer and antelope rifle. i average 3680 FPS with a 100 gr. bullet and i could push it a lot faster but the recipe shoots so well out of all my 257 Weatherby mags. why change for more velocity. > back to the barrel length i feel because most 25 caliber cartridges don`t use as much powder as the magnum does 25 inch barrel with 25 caliber is just kinda neat , if your ordering a new barrel 8 twist really makes the 25 caliber /cartridges shoot well. good luck,Pete53

One thing to keep in mind is it's not a big deal to shorten and recrown if you go with a 26" barrel and find you don't like it but if you go to short your stuck with it .

A really good way to "visualize" the effect of a shorter barrel is to use a ballistic program and input both expected velocities.

Come up with some comparison criteria such as; MPBR, energy, drop, and the max range that you'll get guaranteed expansion ( I use 1800 FPS).

Then check out the effect of the delta in MV due to barrel length. A general school of thought is an inch of barrel usually equals about 30 FPS all things being equal (but they never are.) Once you realize that the 2-3" shorter barrel equals something like 30 yds in MPBR and expansion distance, it makes the decision easier.

I happened to run a sort of test on this a decade ago, using the two .25-06s I had at the time, a Ruger No. 1 AB, one of a limited run with a 24" barrel, and a custom 98 Mauser with a 26" P.O. Ackley barrel. Both barrels had 1-10 twists, and were in very good condition.

I tried 10 different handloads in each rifle, using bullets from 75 to 120 grains, with everything identical in each load--brass, primer, powder and seating depth. (The rifles had very similar throat lengths.) The tests were shot on the same day, using the same chronograph.

Every load chronographed faster in the 26" barrel, but the least difference came with the pair of 75-grain loads, at 6 and 15 fps. The most difference came the single 115-grain load, at 168 fps.
Overall the loads with 110-117 grain bullets showed the most difference in velocity, ranging from 78 to 168 fps. The single 120-grain load only gained 42 fps in the 26" barrel.

The powders included Accurate 4350, H4350, Hunter, Magnum, Magpro, Reloder 17, Reloder 25 and Retumbo. The complete results, and other details, appeared in Chapter 23 of the first Big Book of Gun Gack, which is available from www.riflesandrecipes.com.

I'll also comment that I've played around considerably with various computer ballistic programs, and in general their number don't match real-world tests nearly as often as some rifle loonies believe. There are various reasons for this, including variations in individual barrels and manufacturing lots of powders.

Also, while I've hunted with the .25-06 quite a bit, including some deer culls, I eventually concluded that at "modern" pressures the .257 Roberts comes pretty close to .25-06 in 24" barrels--and if somebody wants to really gain noticeably different field performance the .257 Weatherby is the way to go, even in 24" barrels.

Curious about the bolded, do you mean ballistic programs like "Quick Load" or something along the lines of Strelok?

QuickLOAD.

I love the .25-06. For what it is worth, I have an old .25-06 built on an FN Mauser action. I bought it from an old man who had built it sometime in the 1960s and who sold it to me as at the "kid's price" of $275. He said he had taken many antelope and deer with it, but his kids didn't hunt and he was too old. It has a nice heavy 26" barrel. I cannot tell you scientifically that this is the optimal length for the barrel, but it works beautifully for me. And it makes sense to me with an overbored cartridge like the .25-06 that a long barrel would be more efficient. I also like the long barrel, even shooting offhand or at a moving target, because it balances so well. I've had nearly as many snap shot "lead him by aiming at his nose" kills with it as I have had "long range" kills. In the Virginia woods, an average shot is often under 100 yards, but I have killed many deer out in the pastures, hayfields, and clearings at further ranges. I'd love to test it out at ranges that really stretch its legs, but the opportunity hasn't appeared yet.

I never bothered to check the twist rate, but it loves 117/120 grain bullets and 75 grain bullets propelled by H4831. It shoots cloverleaves at 100 yards with those two weights. It was nothing special with 100-grain factory ammunition (like, 1.5"), so I never bothered to tinker with that bullet weight. The wannabe ballistician in me drools over the BC for the 120-grain bullets.

I'm also a big fan of the .257 Roberts. One of the sweetest shooting cartridges I have ever handled.

That's what I thought when you mentioned powder lot variance etc.

Strelok for me has been very good, as long as the entry data is valid, the standard "garbage in, garbage out" applies.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/19130506/1

Dave

Makes a good case for a modern single shot - a long barrel on it equals overall length of a bolt gun with a 22-24" barrel.