I still have my 25-06 I had built in 1976, by a friend at the Colo School of Trades. He was broke, and needed someone to finance a project for school credit, so me being the Big Spender bought the parts and he whittled it together. She started as a Santa Barbara action in the white, to which he fitted a Shilen barrel and carved out a Quilted Maple stock from a blank. As I recall, there was a lot of metal work and treating before the blueing process. I had to finish the stock myself, as he ran out of time.
I started loading using a Lee Loader, and settled on 48 gr IMR 4831 behind a Sierra 117 gr boattail spirepoint. For 45 years she had a Leupold M8 6x mounted, and after I learned how, I could reliably shoot groups with all holes touching. She accounted for 3 Elk, and a couple dozen Antelope and Mule Deer, with only two performance issues I can recall. One was a spike Elk that took three rounds to go down (all sub-optimal hits) and an antelope that took awhile to tip over after the bullet grenaded on the near side right inside the skin. Couple years back I fitted a Ziess Terra with the ballistic reticle and the groups opened up to 3/4 inch. I may put the old purple Leupold back and leave it be.
Last edited by Plumdog; 02/28/23.
