Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 25-06 ?

Say what's the deal? Have the manufacturers stopped making 25-06 ammo? I can't find any on the shelves or on the Internet. I've been looking for months.

Grafs has some in stock.

I’ve seen some on the shelves at a few of the smaller LGS’s around here.

I’ll try to remember to keep my eyes open and I’ll send you a pm if I find any.

Good luck. I know that it’s difficult for guys that have something other than 308, 223 or 30-06….not including the new fangled Creedmoors and PRC’s…

Another thing that I notice is less firearms companies offering the 25-06 as a chambering.

I think the .25-06’s popularity (as much as it ever had) is fading.

It was touted as a high speed long range killer yet in 2023, bullet BC is king when it comes to long range. The .25-06’s traditional 1:10” twist kicks it’s ability to handle BC’s much above a .4 G1 right in the balls.

Lots of guys will whine that BC doesn’t matter at normal hunting ranges, but you bought a .25-06 to hunt at long range, right?

Hate to say it, I’ve had an A-Bolt II .25-06 since ‘96. Love the round! But in 2023, a 6mm Creed will do more with less, provided you’re actually hunting “long range”…..

Dammit.....now I want a late 60s early 70s Remington 700 in 25-06

The .257 Roberts seems to be in trouble as well. Is it because of the 6.5 Creedmore ??

kwg

There was a good bit of 25-06 in Academy last week.

I've continued to try and find Federal Fusion loaded ammo ( 120 grains ). They really shot well for me but..............................I've yet to find any anywhere. Oh well I'll just load some others but dang those shot spectacular!

It's hard to be the 25-06 when there's the 270win and field of new 6.5's above you and 243win on the low side. There's light 270 and 6.5 bullets and heavy for caliber 243 so 25cal is a weird place to hangout.

There are already way too many cartridges with too much overlap. I propose we immediately end production on everything ending in an odd number and only keep even numbered cartridges. 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, etc.

There are quite a few shops around here with 25.06 ammo, the local Walmart even has some in stock. The 25.06 is no doubt my favorite caliber and I've been shooting one for around 35yrs. The .260 is my second favorite and that's the two I use 99.9% of the time, i have no need for anything else for what i hunt. I do have a Rem LTR .308 that i punch paper with and an older model 700 ADL 30.06 that sits in the safe which was my very first rifle and hardly ever gets shot. I have a 22mag and 22LR for small game that i shoot quite a bit. I don't see myself ever owning any other caliber as the 25 and 260 covers all my hunting.

Thanks guys. There seems to be several options available.

The .257 Roberts has been in short supply for years. Federal dropped production a couple of years ago and Remington is just Remington. Hornady dropped several popular .257 bullets and not sure if they are producing ammo either. The .257 Roberts for all its virtues is a handloading affair. Not likely to change.

Reloading makes the 25-06 very avaliable! I reload for mine and have never had a problem finding ammo for it.

Yeah maybe but back when the 25-06 was brought out 4-500 yds was considered long range and 300 was getting out there. The definition of what long range in the hunting field is what changed. The 25-06 still does a fine job at what it was made to do. You want to shoot 500 + there is no arguing that high bc for bucking the wind and flattening the trajectory is the way to go. Around here the stores get a supply of 25-06 ammo when the ammo manufactures make a run of it and announce its availibility to distributors. People learn slowly but they do eventually change. Guys who buy 25-06 ammo 1 or 2 boxes at a time haven't learned yet that fellow buyers of 25-06 ammo no longer play by those rules and buy the whole case or what's left of it when they see it. OP KC you been on here long enough to know this. Load your own or buy by the case because that 1 or 2 boxes at a time shid don"t work no more no matter how many people piss about it. Lots a times the truth is painfull if you don't learn from it..mb

I think most people lack the skill in shooting long range to take advantage of the 25-06 in the first place! You can't overcome wind drift or trajectory simply by going to a different cartridge, that takes a lot of improved skill in shooting! Few seem to understand that!

If you're a 25-06 guy, there's no better time than now to start loading your own. And this applies to a lot of great cartridges that are overlooked in this time of low production availability and highly marketed newer cartridges.

A good, basic setup is all you need.

Good shootin' -Al

Hey Al, iffin I had to pay 15-16 cents for a primer, 38 cents for powder and 30-50 cents for a bullet minus the case is roughly 90 cents per + time, I wouldn’t say that’s the time to start, and I have been loading 25.06 since 86.

I reload so I have ammo, just picked up 2000 more bullets to add to my supplies.

I just finished knocking the gay out of some 270 WIN brass and made some fine upstanding 25-06 out of it. Ya ought to try it. It's a most satisfying hobby within a hobby.

And then you get to chamber cartridges stamped 270 into a 25cal chamber!

More fun than 270 is 280 and 30.06.

I just looked @ Midway for a baseline. 23 offerings for 25-06 (only a couple available). Least expensive is $1.32/shot Prvi Partizan, next is Hornady Whitetail @ $1.50/shot, then everything is $2+ per shot.

Yes, there is a cost for your time, and the equipment and components to get up and running.

There is IMO, a much larger cost to not having what you want, when you want it.

I tell those who ask me about the economics of reloading:

"No, you won't save any $$, you'll spend the same amount you do now, but, you'll get more shots for that $$."

The days of $9.99/box of blue-box Federal, green and yellow Rem, or grey-box Winchesters for a week or two preceding deer opener are very unlikely to be seen again.

I’m still shooting ammo that uses this priced primers.
I think factory ammo is a source of brass.

Sh*t, you might as well go to Scheels as a baseline as Midway is just as bad for wanting full retail and then some. Potterfield hasn’t had any deals in years.

OK, $1.20/shot is still $.30/shot more than your hand loading example. Still a 25% savings, and the chance @ better availability if a person nabs a few things when they're available.
Where did you find 25-06 brass that uses small rifle primers?

No I said minus brass if you saved it. If not add 75-80 cents per.

I always wanted both the 25-06 and .257 Roberts but just didn't have a real need for either one. I understand the 25-06 can shoot the light weight bullets approaching 4000 fps. That sounds fun.

kwg

Bingo.

I once had the misguided itch for all things 25 caliber, hence my moniker 257 Bob. I bought and chambered rifles in 250-3000, 257R (3), 257R Improved, 25-06 and 257 Wby. My sons used the 250-3000 on about ten deer, all one shot kills and I used the 25-06 for a few years with good results (the only failure was with Ballistic Tips, deer was recovered but took multiple shots to put it down, no more BTs for me after that). These days, my safe is void of all things 25, they were useful and entertaining but I concluded that if you had a 270 Win, you didn't need a 25 or a 6.5 for that matter. I do have one 6.5 but I admit it's nothing special, just amusement.

I have Remington 9 1/2 and 9 1/2 M that was purchased at the same time, but boxes didn't have a price on them. I did buy some primers that were for an AR 308 that had thicker cups and I paid and outrageous price of a little over $.02 each - almost $.03 each.

Hey Al just when in the last 3 years have you been able buy what you want when you wanted it?

Bugger, I just used the last brick of my SRP that had a price on the box of 9.99. Now working on 14.99 per.

In 1977 I had been reading P.O. Ackley's books and decided that I needed a .257 Roberts Ackley Improved for my deer and antelope hunting. I had a FFL at the time, so I bought a Mauser Mark X barreled action in .25-06 and had a local gunsmith re-chamber it to .257 Ackley. I stocked in a piece of fancy walnut from Fajen and for about 45 years it has been one of my favorite rifles. It's ballistics are just slightly less than those of a .25-06, but the .257 AI case looks a whole lot cooler.

It's put a Mule or Whitetail deer and a Pronghorn antelope into my freezer most of those years. And it has put the mounts of 4 of those antelope, 3 Bighorn rams, a Dall ram, a Mountain Caribou, a Wolverine, and my 2nd best 6x6 bull Elk on the walls of my Trophy Room.

I hopefully have another 10 or so more years of hunting, and my .257 Ackley easily fills the gap between my .22-250 and my 7mm Rem mag or my .300 Weatherby so I see no reason to waste my money on a 6.5 manbun or any other new wiz bang cartridge that the rifle and ammunition manufacture's come up with just to increase their sales.

The 25 through 7mm calibers all handle the same critters with pretty much equal aplomb. Deer-sized game on down. The .25s do it with less recoil.

The older I get, the more I appreciate the .25-06 Rem and .260 Rem. They'll easily handle anything I want to hunt at ranges I'm willing to shoot at, with low recoil and economical loading costs.

On my way to a dental appointment, I swung by one of my local gun shops. I could have walked out with every component needed to load 25-06....brass, primers, three different bullets, powder and dies.

Not much of a hill for even a poor climber.

Are you concerned that someone is going to buy the very last bits of 25-06 components left in the world? Totally freaked out that the OP will drive from CO to NE and nab them just before you have a chance?

get some one on here that loads 25-06 to load you a couple of boxes or a friend load a couple of boxes for you ?

no I bought a 25-06 because it was a light recoiling round in a light rifle.

If i am anticipating long range i Have a 28 nosler

nothing wrong with any 25 Caliber cartridge they work fine all of them .

I am a fan, since 1970.
With Nosler Partitions I have taken Bull Moose and Elk many times.
30/06 brass used to be very available, all my handloads have a 30/06 headstamp.
Hunter's don't know how effective this round is, imo
If they try it, they stay with it.

I have plenty of .25-06 components, including factory ammo and brass. I blow it out to .25-06 AI these days.

A Ruger 77V in .25-06 was the first CF rifle I bought when I got back from SEA, early '70's. It was to be my be-all/end-all woodchuck rifle. It was, for a time. I had a fixed, 12X Redfield on it. I was disappointed at first that I could just barely get 1" accuracy with Sierra 100 grain boattail spitzers or the 90 grain Sierra BTHP's. It was still minute of woodchuck, but I thought a heavy barrel varmint rifle should do better. Finally I tried some 75 grain Sierra flat based HP's. Over healthy loads of 3031 or 4064 they shot the kind of groups I'd been looking for: around 5/8 to 3/4 all the time and (according to published data) at warp speed. Eventually it went down the road, leaving me only a 77V in .220 Swift with a 16X Leupold that was more accurate and a more rational varmint rifle. I still have that today. I've often wondered since if Ruger might have put a slower than 10" twist in those early 77V's and that's why the longer bullets didn't work as well for me.

I recently dug out my .25-06Ai after a long dormant spell. Something I've always liked about the quarter-bores. May take it to Missouri or up north this fall it I end up making those trips for some deer hunting.

I had a nice 25/06 built on a 1909 Argentine Mauser action. A very nice rifle and accurate but a might heavy to tote around. I rationalized that I have 250 Savage (2), 257 R, 257 Wby, 270 (2), 280 , 7X57 (3) so there was no logical reason to keep the 25/06.
Now two years after selling the rifle, dies, and brass I'm thinking of getting one again. If I do it will be a single shot however just because I like single shot rifles. There is no method to the madness and no cure......than God

That’s because 77V had a 12 twist where standard was 10. 22 cals were 14.

I have a “before the bowling pin finish” 700 ADL 25-06 that has been hunted a bit. Mostly pronghorns but also whitetail. It is accurate with most loads I’ve tried. I have a like new 700 Classic in 25-06. It’s a little more choosy on bullets and loads but with the correct recipe it’s accurate too. It could be it isn’t broke in yet and I don’t believe I’ve glass bedded it yet.
When I was young, one of my brother’s shot his 25-06’s every year for whatever he could get tags for. He had a boat paddle 77 and a 700. He complained a bit regarding bullet selection, but dropped quite a few deer, pronghorns, crows, coyotes, and other varmints with his. Much later he bought a 700 35 Whelen and that became his go to elk and deer rifle.

A Kimber Montana in 25-06 is a sweet little package that packs quite a sting. It is perfect for all types of deer, especially in the mountains.

I’m a Kimber fan and there are only a couple I can think of at this point that I would add to my collection that I don’t already have. A 257 Robert’s MT is one of them.

Yep, got plenty, like the 115 ballistic tip. This is a 25 Niedner, made by Iver Henriksen, Husqvarna action. It’s a perfect deer rifle. We shoot every Aoudad we see. They rate right up there with feral pigs.

I've always wished for a faster twisted 25-.06 , that's easily enough built. but like a 135 137 grain match King bullet or something I think would be a pretty decent combo

If you can find it, the Hornady American Whitetail 117 grain factory load shoots good groups in both of my rifles. The 90 grain PP HP load is also accurate and while a friend thinks that it is a great bullet for shooting whitetails, I think that it is a little too fragile for my peace of mind. I have loaded a few hundred rounds of 25-06 ammo, but I don't shoot it very often and could get by just fine with the American Whitetail load.

I was a dyed in the wool 257 Roberts guy before I bought my first 25-06, the Marlin XL7 that I bought from member Moses on this site in 04/12. Despite having no direct experience with the 25-06, I had read that the 25-06 needed at least a 24" barrel to work, but after shooting the Marlin a bit, I found that a 22" barrel works quite well too.

Actually, thats not at least completely true.

Have a XTR FWT 25-06.Going to shoot it soon.

i have a 257 Creedmoor ,2 - 257 Roberts , 1- 257 Weatherby mag all with 8 twist Brux barrels all shoot very good , but i prefer 103 gr. Hammer bullet to hunt with.

I agree! My 257 Ackley went on a Rocky Mountain Bighorn hunt here in Arizona and downed a beautiful 178 B&C ram that completed my Grand Slam.
The rifle was built on a pre-war model 70 action, stocked in nice but not a fancy piece of English by a friend and puts the 117 Hornady into small groups.The rifle is as accurate as the shooter can fire it!
For some reason it has put on some weight as I have aged, and will be making a trip to the gunsmith gym for some trimming. After that it will continue hunting anything I can draw a tag for here in Arizona.

NICE RIFLE

KC, if you decide to start loading for your 25:06 I have some brand new brass to send you and maybe a nice set of dies as well. Just let me know.

Having used the cartridge happily for about 50 years on all the same game animals many others here have noted, and having more than one, I had never thought about someone's earlier comment that it is "fading" in popularity. I can't figure how more or less popularity could change such a fine shooter.

As for the comments about "long range" deficiencies with a 120 grain .257 bullet at a normal top velocity, it always has appeared that such effectiveness in the field will vary much more with the shooter than with the diameter/weight of a bullet between .25 and .28.

The idea of taking a particular long range shot is calculated differently by different hunters, and some exercise limits for themselves - for good reasons. There are many excellent mid-weight cartridges.

My wife and I own (5) 25-06s: one Dakota Classic Deluxe, and four Ruger Express rifles, built in the early 90s, which were never catalogued by Ruger, but 6-8 were none-the-less made.

We have hunted Colorado & Wyoming for Pronghorn for many years, and have taken a bit over 60 Antelope between us. We used to get (6) tags a year, a buck and two doe tags each, but those days are sadly over. One is lucky to get one tag every 2 or 3 years now. We have used a 25-06 for about 80% of those, and a 280 Rem. for the rest. We have found the 25-06 to be ideal for this animal, and I have taken deer with it as well. We have two lady friends in Colorado who have taken Elk with their 25-06s. It is a great cartridge! My cartridge choice for Elk however, is a bit bigger, but I cannot argue with their success. My wife and I have both used only Winchester 115 gr. Ballistic Silvertips.

We have never had to shoot long range at any of the Pronghorns we have taken, unless one considers under 400 yards long range. Of those Antelope, only six have been shot over 300 yards, with the longest shot at 361 yards. I don’t even know how far out my 25-06’s effective range is, but I suspect it is much farther than I have used it for. I therefore don’t need a cartridge that can shoot out to 1,000 yards, and I suspect no one else does either, but it seems many want to attempt that feat these days. Just a modicum of hunting skills will get you within decent shooting range of Pronghorns and Deer, and you may find that the 25-06 is your huckleberry, as we have. YMMV.

The only deer I've killed with a 25/06 was shot with a Nosler Ballistic tip, in the front shoulder. That has a tendency to cure a lad of wanting to shoot deer with a 25/06. Nowadays I shoot Barnes tsx and ttsx and should be more confident. But old ideas die hard.

Al;
Top of the morning to you sir, I hope your section of the Dakotas is having a decent spring and this finds you well.

Since life placed me on the north side of the medicine line and in a bit of a rural backwater on top of that, there are some realities of ammunition acquisition which we either adapt to fairly early on or we don't get to make noise.

If I'm not wrong, we went through an absolute drought of components after 9-11, when Obama was elected and then the recent beer flu mess.

We've ended up being able to purchase a rifle or two for a reasonable number because it's chambering wasn't available in the ammo racks at the local Canadian Tire too. A .250AI built by a well respected smith a few hours north of us on a 722 action and a stainless match grade sporter barrel was one that comes to mind. Nobody wanted it even though buddy had dies!

Our youngest shot a nice double handful of local mulie and whitetail bucks with that rifle.

We've run the obsolete .308 Norma for years as well as another AI, so handloading is the only way with those chamberings.

A longtime friend and hunting partner used to have a B78 in .25-06 and honestly we couldn't tell any difference in reaction to being hit or performance on deer sized animals between it and a .270 which we both ran for years.

He sold it during a restructure in his life and then later picked up a fairly heavy barreled H&R with the laminated stock in .25-06 that we're just getting around to fooling with this spring in fact. Early on, it looks like it'll hit anything as far away as we want to go retrieve it.

All that to say, here's another vote for getting into handloading just to avoid the uncertain vagaries of life and all that.

Best to you out east Al.

Dwayne

Hi Dwayne,

I too have used the .25-06 considerably on big game, and eventually came to the same basic opinion. In fact, as I've mentioned before here, after hunting for a while now, and eventually using 46 different cartridges to take some form of big game, I haven't seen as much difference as many hunters seem to think occurs between 'em. The rifle cartridges have ranged from the .22 Hornet to .416 Rigby, and have also used slugs in both 20 and 12 gauge.

At one time had five rifles chambered for different .25-caliber cartridges, the .25-35 WCF, .250 Savage, .257 Roberts, .25-06 and .257 Weatherby. Within each cartridges "range" I never could tell much difference in how they killed, as long as the bullet landed where it was supposed to, and penetrated and expanded sufficiently. Am now down to one .25 caliber rifle, the Remington 722 .257 Roberts inherited from my paternal grandmother--which several other family members aside from me and Eileen have taken pronghorns, deer and elk with over the years. It still does the job, and in fact I used it for backup work when guiding antelope and mule deer hunters in the late 1980s, finishing off one wounded "goat" at around 550 yards.

But my one .25 could just as easily be a .25-06! Actually it would be a little easier than the .257, since brass is more readily found....

Anyway, it is very green in southwestern Montana this year, and the lakes and rivers are full of water. I am guessing your part of BC doesn't have the big fires that are afflicting some parts of Canada further east--and hope you don't later on this summer!

Good hunting,
John

I'm just in from a session at the bench. I compared 117 grain Hornady RN and SP vs. 100 grain Speer Hot Cor and 100 grain Prvi Partisan.

The Speer Hot Core ended up providing the best group I've ever had with this 25-06-- under an inch in a 5 shot group. This rifle is definitely getting put back on the active list for this coming deer season.

Second best group was with the 117 grain Hornady RN. I've used the SPs before, but did not like the terminal performance. Everything I shot with it ran a considerable distance.

I'm beginning to think I need a 25-06 again However I have two 250 Savages, 257 Roberts, 25 WSSM (although this is a single shot Cooper varmint rig) and a 257 WBY

Just so happens I was out today testing a new keg of H4350 in the .257 Roberts. 5 rounds with the almost gone keg and 5 rounds with the new.

The new was 16 fps slower than the old and with an S-D of 7.2.

Me still like.

I’ve been a fan of the 25-06 for many years. My first rifle I bought was a Ruger M77 MKII, and I loved it. Over the years I’ve had a M70 Classic Sporter and a Ruger tang-safety that had such a short throat that factory ammo was well into the lands. It shot horribly and explained it’s truly “like new” condition. I hand loaded some 115 for BT’s seated deeply over IMR7828ssc and found a real gem. Those rifles have all gone to family now, but my lone 25 is a first-year Remington 700ADL with a 24” stainless Shilen barrel. It shoots the 117gr Hornady American Whitetail ammo so well there’s no need to seek elsewhere. What I like about the 25-06:
It certainly works on deer-size game
A flat trajectory allowing minimal hold over(turret twisting exemption used here)
Most of all is the low recoil.

It also works on much larger game. One of my local buddies, a few years younger than me, started out hunting elk when "everybody" said you needed a 7mm or .300 magnum. Eventually he grew weary of the recoil, and stepped down to the .257 Weatherby Magnum, which worked just fine on quite a few elk, including some big bulls.

Eventually it occurred to him that the .25-06 might work as well, so he tried it--and it did, even without "premium" bullets. He took his latest 6-point bull a couple seasons ago, and yep, the .25-06 worked....

Bought my 25-06 about 20 years ago as a deer, pronghorn & coyote rifle. It's done just fine at that, but I was surprised when others told me about all the elk and bear hunting they'd done with theirs.

Sure is a sweet shooter with mild recoil, great accuracy and a flat trajectory. I've been handloading for it almost from the beginning. Only shot a couple of boxes of factory ammo through it, long ago.





Regards, Guy

I'm on the hunt for the right 25-06. It has to be a single shot with nice wood. I had a nice custom bolt gun but it was heavy and sold it to a friend's son. I think the 25-06 is a good go between my 257 Roberts and 257 Wby.

Just a quick reminder: if you can't find your "dream gun" in 25-06, take a look at a 7mm-08.

With factory ammo they both make a 120gr bullet fly at about 3000 fps, B.C is very similar and out to 500 yards, they are near-twins in velocity, energy, trajectory and recoil.

A small plus for the 7mm-08 is that factory ammo is available with up to 150gr bullets, if that is important to you.

A 100 grain 25-06 will fly at 3400 fps. I have both calibers, never use the 7mm-08 for much anymore. Bought it for hunting in the eastern states when I retired. I no longer do that, so it just sits and collects dust.

I have two 7MM/08's a custom build on a #1 action and a Weatherby Ultra Light. I just think I want another 25/06

There are currently two .25-06s in my safe. One a lightweight Winchester 70 and the other a heavier Ruger 77. The Winchester packs better and shoots ok…the Ruger with its magnum contour barrel shoots better and packs ok. I love them for antelope and my son has killed a fair number of deer and some coyotes with the Ruger.




I suspect next year they will still be killing game with simple cup and core Speers even though there are a lot of “better” options in bullets and cartridges these days.

Truth be told I think the best thing a person could do to .25/06 brass is neck it down to 6mm

I'm almost the opposite. I have lot's of different cartridge choices in different rifles but have probably done more hunting packing either a 25-06 or 257 Roberts than all the others combined. The only other one that's close is a .338 WM. I've found that with the right bullet there's so little difference between cartridges that light carrying, familiar, accurate rifles are where it's at.