Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting 25-06 bullet for deer

firstcoues-is the 100gr TTSX out yet? I've been waiting!

Don't look like it.

http://www.barnesbullets.com/products/rifle/tipped-tsx-bullet/

100 grain Sierra and IMR 4831 has worked very well for me.

I can only speak from the experience of one deer being shot with a 25-06 and it was with the Hornady 117 BTSP from a Light Magnum load. Thirty yard shot. Hit square on the shoulder of a 150 lb deer. Bullet found in offside ribcage skin mushroomed perfectly and weighs 70 gr. Core still firmly in place. Great performance from a non-premium bullet.

I vote for the 120gr Speer Hot cor.

If I had to shoot factory loads in the .25-06 (God forbid)... that's without a doubt the load I'd shoot. ~josh

i second that for the speer 120. thats what i use .

I've got a load worked up for 100TSX out of my Bob, but am working up loads for the 110 AB and the 100 NBT. What has the performance of the 100 NBT at 257 Bob velocitys been on deer?

Another vote for the 115NBT.

The last buck I shot with my 25-06 was an 8pt through both shoulders at 60 yards. Busted both shoulder bones and had a nickel sized exit, bang flop. I believe the load was 53grn R22. I get more velocity from 55grn 7828 and about the same accuracy as R22.

Good Luck

Reloader7RM

the Hornady 117gr over H4831SC has worked well for me for many years. Hornady and Nosler have 110gr 25cal bonded bullets out and they should work very well also.

Deer arent all that tough.

Remington cor lokt in factory loads work fine.

IMO - if you load bullets heavier than 100 grains in a 25-06 you may as well be shooting a 270. Not that that's a bad thing, but the 25-06 can be so much more.....

A few years back I ran into some Federal Blue Box 120'S on sale they are loaded with 120 Speer Hot Core's. (2980 FPS) I bought them just to play with and see (they were cheap), they are not the best shooter out of my 700 Classic but will still run right at 1 -1 1/4" at 100 YDS. While they are not the 1/2" shooter's that this rifle is capable of, they do hammer the critters, in 2 Whitetails, 3 Muledeer, 2 Antelope. I do not know what they look like after the shot, as I have not recovered one bullet, they all passed through. I can say the inside of said animals were a mess, they seem to work. DD

Deer arent all that tough.

Remington cor lokt in factory loads work fine.

Thank you!

I get really good accuracy with 50.5 gr Reloader 22 and 117 gr Sierra Gamekings out of my T/C Encore 26 inch barrel.

Shot a doe through both shoulders at 40 yards and the deer just dropped in her tracks.

Over 30 years of hunting deer with the 25-06 for me. Some of it in parts of B.C. that had very liberal limits, and so a lot of animals.

I've never fired a bullet weighing less than 100 grains out of a 25-06 at deer, and I have no desire to do that.

The only reason I've ever fired non-premium bullets at deer was when I was using factory ammo to check out how their loads performed, or to obtain brass to eventually re-load, or when I was in too much of a hurry to re-load. With the 100 grain or greater, bullets I used, I never encountered a single bullet that really dissappointed me - at least not on a regular basis.

Ironically, one of the best deer bullets ever made - on one occassion, dissappointed me the most. A young Mule Deer buck was quartering towards me from across a big clear cut. It was late in the year, and I wasn't sure I didn't want to see if I might get a chance at a bigger one. Finally I decided to take him as he turned broadside at about 75 yards away.

I put the first shot into his lungs just behind the shoulder, and he started to really sprint across the clear-cut. I fired again, nothing. I fired again, nothing. I was chambering a fourth round when he piled up in a heap. After gutting him, I found that the three Nolser partition 100 grain bullets could be covered up with my hand. The deer had no lungs, no heart, and huge exit wounds from the three bullets, and yet he ran, ran, and ran some more.

Did the bullets fail?

No - the reason he ran with no effect about almost one hundred yards with three perfectly placed premium bullets having gone through his chest, and with no lungs or heart left - is just - "one of those things".

I agree with VaNimrod. Why not use premium bullets? Even when they aren't "needed"? A years worth of bullets, shot into big game, might cost you, what? - the cost of a McDonalds meal? What if a cheap bullet you are using costs you the buck of a lifetime, due to distance, a poor shot, a poor angle, or lack of penetration?

In B.C. it's certainly not worth doing, because here, you might be "hunting deer" only to have a caribou, elk, moose, black or grizzly bear show up - and then, believe me, you WILL wish (especially if you are packing a 25-06) that you had spent the extra 25 cents.

I've never had a problem with big bears, elk or moose with my 25-06 and its premium bullets.

Because a guy in Texas, or Kansas, or Ohio, or ? isn't likely to run into a grizz... or an elk... or a moose. I know weird critters can show up in Texas... but come on now. There isn't a bullet made for the .25-06 that I would feel uncomfortable shooting into/through a 150lb whitetail... deer aren't tough to kill. That's the question here... deer bullet for the .25-06. Guys are killing the crap out of deer with .223s and .243s... but all of a sudden you need a bullet capable of going stem to stern through a bull elk to cleanly harvest deer?

The 'cup & core' type bullets have been killing the snot out of deer for 100 years, what's changed? Oh yeah... they've just gotten better. If the possibility of shooting a bear or elk were present... I'd shoot the 100 TSX (and I have) but if it's deer on the menu the TSX is over-kill to the point where they sometimes under perform. Ballistic tips, core-locts, pro-hunters, interlocks, silvertips... blah frickin' blah, they all kill deer deader than yesterday's lunch in the .25-06. Shoot what shoots best in your stick... run it through the lungs (or the head if you're VA!) and the critter goes down post haste. ~josh

More or less, I agree with you.

But, what if its the buck-of-a-lifetime, trotting away, at last light, with a lot of thick cover nearby, and he's long long way off, and the angle you've got, is the pits.

Then you might end wishing you'd spent the extra 25 cents.

Besides, to me, it's a lot like frequently putting the finest premium synthetic motor oil into my truck's crankcase - just knowing that I'm using the best product available makes me FEEL better.

But then, I've always been a "better safe than sorry" kind of guy.

Then he wins, whatever rifle/bullet combo I'm using, and he's not my buck of a lifetime.