Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles why the 25-06 is a great HUNTING cartridge

great posts. beautiful rifles.

I love mine. I've got the various 6.5 and 7mm caliber rifles that just beat up the 25 on BC, etc. However, I seem to always reach for the 25-06 when its hunting time as it has never failed me.

I've had the 257 Roberts, 257 Roberts AI, several 25-06s, and a couple of .257 Weatherby's. My favorite was the Weatherby, but now we have these new powders a 25-06 is a far simpler and equal killer, at least to me. Once you get past "Warp 8" going to "Warp 9" doesn't make much, if any, difference. I personally would want more rifle for an "all around" elk rifle, but it works for guys out here every year, especially on cow elk. Back in Texas I met several 25-06 users who were big on the 87gr Hornady for everything. I just recently was looking for another nice Mod 700 classic, and I was open to any caliber from 25-06 to 30-06. I found a .270 ( which I've owned/shot a lot but never hunted with much) and I'm not complaining. I'm just "OCD" enough that a .270 is my own personal minimum on elk, even cows. But that's just me, no flies on the 25-06 meant.

If it's half as good as 25 WSSM, it really must be great.

MRC x2 with 26" tube. Shoots factory barnes 100gr ttsx into nice, little groups. Hunt deer and black bear here in PA. I'd be comfortable pointing it at just about anything inside 300 yds, which is my limit anyway. Has made hunting very simple :-)

I've two in the house right now. One is a 77 tanger bought back in the early '90s for the princely sum of $300, including the leupie 3-9 it still wears. It kills things as well as a bunch of other cartridges inside 400 yds or so. Since it is the first genuine commercial made centerfire rifle I ever bought, there's no chance I'll be selling it.

The other 25-06 is an Interarms Mk X bought just a few months ago. The price was right for a fast-twist 7x57 project I've been pondering for a while now.

Currently the only 25-06 I have is a 7600 but it throws 115 gr. Partitions into .75 inch groups and carries damned well

My M70 FW gets carried almost exclusively the last couple of seasons. It shoots 100 TTSXs into tiny clusters with H4350.

Short action 70 FW in 25 Creed would kick ass.

I own a factory B78 in 25-06 and chambered a 1953 M70 in 25-06 and shot a deer.

I handload ~ 65 different cartridges, but my prefered series is
22LR
223
6mmBR
250 Sav
6.5-06
280AI
7mnRM
12 ga
380

One accolade I'd give to the 25-06 AI that I ran on a Ruger No.1 custom barrel is that when launching 100 grain NPT's I often got 2 exit holes on Whitetails.....

...which really didn't matter much because they went down quick like

I have a Sako A7 25-06 in a McEdge remy Varmint stock that I’ve shot 5 shot single hole groups with 8 or so times on different days.

That things is crazy accurate

380?!! Clark, say it ain't so!

700 CDL I picked up not long after that model was introduced. It does a fine job on mule deer, antelope and coyotes. Low recoil, lots of accuracy & speed. Topped it with a 6x Leupold and just enjoy the heck out of hunting with it in Washington & Wyoming. I often load for it with Wilson dies, usually with the 115 gr Nosler Ballistic Tips & Retumbo:



This one fell to a 115 gr Berger VLD:

3 25-06's my self ,the 1 st is a mid 70's pre XTR that shoots ok but not great. Still shot a pile of antelope, deer and coyotes though. The 2 nd a FIE FN actioned sporter it shoots well but needs a Monte Carlo modification on the stock and shorten to 14" pull. Thought I had enough 25-06's to get by until I stumbled into a deal on a Marlin XL_& for $200 + tax couldn't walk away from that. It shoots great ,better than the other 2 but only has a 22" barrel and lots of muzzle blast. It's a good cartridge with the right bullet in the right place for most of what we shoot. MB

This 25-06 probably killed more deer and antelope in Montana than most rifles have been aimed at...

That is not SAAMI 21.5kpsi SAAMI, my handloads are higher. 1100 fps 90 gr Gold Dot.
The 6 ounce pistol is 10 ounces loaded with a laser.
It fits in my shirt pocket.

I am in the lowest crime quadrant of a very low crime suburban city. 20,000 people, 1 murder in 100 years.
When I go to downtown Seattle at night, I carry a 45.

Only jeers. I witnessed a hunting partner shoot an Axis 5 times with a 25-06, chased it all over the Texas Hill Country & never recovered it. I was disgusted.

Sounds more like a shooter problem than the cartridge...

I made a ton of one shot kills with that 25-06, this one is a goat and you rarely see a goat killed with a single shot...

Love the .25-06. It was my first deer rifle my dad gave me, a pushfeed M70 XTR. Shoots great groups with Sierra 120gr HPBT over a healthy dose of 4350. Several years ago, I slipped and fell on some wet rock and cracked the stock on that rifle right at the wrist. I about cried. I fixed it with some brass pins and beaded the action and it still shoots great to this day. When my son was old enough to hunt with his own rifle, my dad gave him a .25-06 Remington 700. He has killed many deer, pigs, turkeys, goats, and coyotes with that gun.It looks like it has been to hell and back, but it still shoots great. My dad still hunts with one also, either his standby Remington or occasionally his Ruger #1.