Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Tikka 25-06 Bullet Search

I've got a question for any of you who have a Tikka in 25-06.

I've been working with a friend to get his to shoot, and when he had some trouble getting factory loads to work I suggested we load for the rifle. We went through the first round of reloads with 100 NBT's, and they didn't really shoot all that well. It made me start thinking maybe the twist was to slow for the bullets he'd tried, so I looked up the twist rate, and it's 1-10. I then looked on Bergers web site at their stability calculator, and found that almost everything we'd tried so far came back as marginally stable, so the first part of the mystery to why this gun only shoots ok is solved.

What my friend is looking for is a good deer hunting load, and I ordered some 25 cal Nosler Partitions. This shows good stability on the Berger site. The 110 Accubond, and the 100 grain Barnes don't look like they have much of a shot. So my question is what have you found to work in the Tikka 25-06 in hunting style bullets. He'd prefer heavier than light.

We're in Portland, Oregon, so only 500-700' above sea level. Average temps around 60 degrees or less during times we'd be hunting. Seldom below 30 degrees.

Any experiences that might cut our trial and error down would be appreciated, although I'm pretty sure the 100 Nosler Partitions are going to be our huckleberry...

1-10 has been the standard rifling twist in .25-06's (and most other .25's) for a long time. Just about ALL .25-caliber bullets are designed to stabilize in a 1-10, and will.

One thing Berger's version of Don Miller's twist-rate formula doesn't mention is that plastic tips don't count toward overall length. Which is why so many of today's bullets appear to be "marginally stable" when using the formula, when they're not.

My 25-06 likes hornady sst 117, give them a try

Mine shoots everything good. Including the Berger 115 vld. 2300' of elevation. Wouldn't think twist rate would be your problem. I have used the 117 SST at sea level on CA coast and it shot well with those factory hornady's as well. In fact looking through my rifle log it shoots every load well with no exceptions. My go to load in that rifle is a 115 B-Tip. It's a T3 lite SS. Factory 1-10" barrel

Best of luck. Maybe I got lucky with mine being one the least picky factory rifles I own.

MD, thanks for the info. I remember hearing you write about the plastic tips not adding into the length part of the formula, but forgot that when I was looking at the stability calculator.

That brings up a further question, if it's not the bullet length vs twist rate causing our issues.

I own a couple of Tikka's as well as newer Sako's, and they all shoot very accurately, often without much urging. My Tikka 6.5x55 and 223 are among the most accurate rifles I own, often achieving close to or slightly better than 1/2" with 5 shot groups. Most of the Tikka's/Sako's I've shot achieved moa without a lot of urging. This 25-06 has been anything but easy to get to shoot, and hasn't been sub moa with any loads.

Any ideas on what we might try to achieve moa in this rifle? The loads we've tried with the Ballistic Tips were loaded to mag length which still gave a bit of a jump to the lands. Concentricity was less than .003" of runout. I would've thought we'd at least see them shoot close to moa.

JC, I feel your pain. I have a Tikka stainless 25-06 and have tried bullets from 75 to 117grain from Barnes, Speer, Sierra, Hornady, and Nosler.

Factory 115 CT's shot good but once I had went through the box I never shot anymore of them. Barnes TSX showed pretty well also in handloads. I have noticed a shorter COL seems to work well compared to how I load for my other 25-06's. H4831 was also shooting decent groups but slow on the Chrony.

Mine was bought for coyote hunting and 75 to 85 grain bullets have been the focus. RL19, IMR 4350, Varget & 760 show the best groups. I'm shooting 75 hp Hornadys with 53.5 grains of 760 right now and 55 grains of IMR4350 with 75 grain V-max.

Its in a Boyds stock at this moment but have also shot it with my hunter stock and the original plastic one too. The Boyds for what ever reason has been more consistant off the bench.

All I can say is that if this was my first Tikka it would have been my last, but considering how good my others have been I keep giving it the benefit of the doubt, but not sure how much longer that is going to keep it in the safe.

Sanchez, I've read a few stories about the 25-06's not being as dependable as the other calibers in the Tikka's. Not sure why, because every Tikka I've played with has shot pretty much right from the word go. Appreciate your info.

Sierra 117 Prohunter bullets and H4831 shoot very well in both of my 25-06 rifles. Neither is a Tilka but you may want to give it a try.

I have two 25-06s one Browning and one Remington. Both like 7828 with 100. 115, 117, 120 grain. I can almost stick any brand bullet in them with the same powder weight load and be quite happy. Maybe poke around in the stock and see if something is amiss??

JC, I heard the same stories about the Tikka 25-06 and waited a long time before I bought this one. I already had Tikkas in 223 Varmint, 22-250 and 243 and have nothing but good to say about them so that experience got me off the fence to buy the Tikka 25-06. It is the only stainless Tikka I have had whether that makes a difference, I don't know.

Its not my first 25-05 as I have had a Sendero, 700 Stainless and a Ruger Mark II and it is my favorite caliber. I just wanted a light weight one. If it ever shoots as good as my Tikka 22-250 I'll be a happy camper.

Good Luck and let us know if you find the magic load.

A 25-06 that doesn't shoot either has something loose or needs to go down the road.




Travis

My stainless Tikka T3 likes a 110NAB and RL22.

117 Sierra Prohunters and IMR 4831 works well in my Tikka.

Working up to 53gr of IMR4350 with a 100TTSX or MK should show you something. If not, I'd send it down the road or back for warranty work.

80gr and 100gr TTSX shoot well in mine

I've had good success the 110 grain AB in the 257, 257AI, 25-284, and 25WSSM, so I would expect them to work equally well in the 25-06.

I don't shoot the 25-06 enough to motivate myself to load for it, but I have found that the 90 grain PP hp and 117 grain Hornady American Whitetail factory loads both shoot MOA+/- groups from my Marlin XL7 and Remington 700 SPS.

I loaned the XL7 to a friend and both he and his son punched multiple tags with the 90 grain PP hps. Not my first choice in medium game bullets, but they did the job for both of them.

Federal Fusion.Not fancy but shoots very well in Tikka 25-06.

My 25-06 likes

52.5 H4350 with 100 Partitions and 100 TTSXs
54 H4831 with 110 Accubonds
54 H4831 with 115 Bergers

My rifle is a bad example, though. Not much it doesn't like to shoot well.

I am using magnum primers, even with these "modest" amount of non-ball powder. I can't argue with the results, so I keep using them.

Tikka T3 Hunter using a 115 BT with Reloder 22, shoots great. The 2 Tikkas I have, seems to like the heavier bullets.

I have a T3 lite and when I bought it, I purchased several boxes of federal 100 grain ballistic tips with great expectations. I was disappointed with the groups I got from them. I switched to the 117 grain hornady SST load and they shoot excellent from my gun. I have since started reloading for it and have settled on the 115 grain nosler partition for this gun. It shoots well with a load of RL22 and I remember reading an article written by Russel Thornberry a few years ago where he also recommended this combo (115 partitions in a 25-06) as one of his favorites and he noted it kills far better than he thought it should. I believe he called it the "Hammer of Thor".