Howdy;
I hunted in the 80�s with a Browning Lightning Bolt, bolt action, in 25-06. Had it full length glass bedded and pillar bedded and the trigger worked and that sucker would flat shoot, I�d get cloverleaf like groups at 100 yards all day, so long as I let the barrel cool between shots. My load for everything was, as I remember, IMR 4350 and 120 grain Speer Hotcore bullets. I shot 9 deer in 5 states with that rifle and it was like magic, every time it went boom something dropped dead. The longest shot was on a Georgia Whitetail at 416 yards, right through the heart and he dropped like a rock. I know the distance because my partner had a surveyors tape with him and we measured it. That rifle was stolen in 92 and I never replaced it. Instead, I went to larger and larger calibers which I shot less and less well.
A couple weeks ago I saw a 25-06 stainless A Bolt at Bass Pro and picked it up. My first trip to the range I had a box of 120 grain Federal Fusions, 120 grain Core-Lokt and a box of the Federal 100 grain Ballistic Tips. The 120 grain bullets shot like crap but I was able to get some fairly tight groups, about 1 inch, out of the 100 grain Ballistic Tips. I looked up the twist rate and found that the Browning is a one in ten which is, according to Shilen, only fast enough to stabilize the 100 grain bullets. That seems to be born out so far by my first trip to the range. If I am able to get this new rifle to shoot the kind of groups like my old Lightning Bolt would shoot will the 100 grain bullet have the poop to work out to 400 yard on deer size game like those 120 grain Hotcore bullets, I use to use, and will they buck the wind as well?
Questions:
1. Is the 25 caliber 100 grain bullet a reasonable candidate to hunt 300lb Mule Deer and 200lb Whitetails at ranges up to 400 yards?
2. Which bullet would you use in a rifle of this caliber with this twist rate?
Thanks for any help on this.
