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

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.