Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Which 24" SS rifle in .25-06? Ruger, Remington or Browning?

Take a look at the Vanguard.

Weatherby Vanguard

g

I would go
Weatherby Vanguard
Reimington
Ruger

In that order. It's mostly a personal preferance thing. I could never warm up to the Browing design.

GB

Seattlesetters, of the rifles you are interested in, I would buy the browning. I had a 25-06 in rem 700 sps, and browning A-bolt stainless, now have 25-06 in Kimber 8400 classic. I was a Remington only man for several years, but, I like the X-bolt much better than the current Remingtons or Rugers.

Thanks for that Info John Moses I have not seen one yet!
Been on a shotgun kick lately!

Mike

I wish. The Vanguard is not an option. It is not offered in .25-06 (SS). If it was, the search would be over.

Ernie the gunsmith

Sells 'em for $6.95. The trigger is already good on X-bolt's. This will make 'em better. It's made by Pault Fireams Specialties.

Best,

Dee

Remington 700 BDL . One of the older versions if you can find one.

LotK - What does the XCR offer for the extra $400 over the SPS? I've been trying to figure that out.

If you can stomach the crappy metal finish of the 700 SPS stainless, I'd go that direction. Matter of fact I did, but I personally despise it's porous, gravel beaded like finish. It was bought sight unseen. (lesson learned)

If you're truly looking for/wanting a "sporter" weight rifle, be aware that every Ruger M77 (in 25-06) that I've ever seen has had a mag countour barrel on it. Can't say I've personally seen or laid hands on the newer H'eye model in 25-06, but I'd be surprised if Ruger changed gears and put sporter barrels on them. Just FWIW/FYI...

If you're stuck on Rem & SS be aware they also made 25-06s in the BDL SS model w/ the nicer satin stainless finish & synthetic stock, though they're rare and hard to find used.

IMHO, the 700 XCR is simply not worth the extra $300-350 for their proprietary metal finish.

I have several Rem 700 BDL SS rifles and sold another here, a .30-06 to replace it with an XCR. They all really shoot well right out of the box, and they shoot all the factory and military ammo well. I don't have to worry about a pet load for them. Definitely look for an older BDL over the SPS.

A hunting companion has a Browning A-Bolt II SS in .25-06 with a 22 inch barrel. He loads it for accuracy, not the max velocity and has settled on a single 120-gr Nosler Partition load that shoots under .75 inch 5 shot groups every day, any day. He might give up a little velocity, but he wanted a stainless rifle that was easy to handle in the woods and in treestands overlooking grain fields. The deer don't notice that the bullets start out at "only" 2,900 fps.

Had a Rem Classic 25-06, Ruger 25-06 and now own a Browning 25-06. The Rem just would not shoot, so it is now a 280AI.

The Ruger, like someone said, had the magnum contour barrel. It felt way too muzzle heavy, just did not balance well. Plus, shooting max loads, the velocity just barely hit 3000 fps. To me, there was no point lugging around a 9 pound rifle that shoots like a 257 Roberts.

The Browning has been the best of the bunch. It is light enough, pretty dang accurate and didnt need a bunch of tinkering to make it shoot. This gun hit max velocity well below max loads.

You can't run fast enough to give me a Browning A-Bolt or anything like it. Too many instances with field break downs, especially in really wet, rough conditions. Apparently it doesn't take much rust or corrosion to put them out of bussiness.
I would prefer the Ruger. I've had less trouble with mine and the very similar Winchester M70 than any of the other choices.
I use Remingtons. They are not my first choice for rough going, but I've never had a serious reliability issue with them either. E

Not had any of the problems you mention with mine. They have been in some rough weather too.

I'm with ya' on the running though, the Rugers I've shot, (only 3), were about as accurate as a sling shot.

I'm sure they make some accurate rifles. I just haven't run into one yet.

Not my first,second or third choice in Rifles either but I know of no one that has had problem one with a Browning Bolt gun. Your mentor JB also likes Brownings . Do you have personal experiences with brownings?

I followed the link to the Weatherby site. I see now that the 25-06 is not offered in stainless.

That being the case, I would go with the Rem. Stainless SPS.

I currently own 5 Remington rifles that have been produed in the last 3 years. All of them are shooters right out of the box. The SPS is ugly--no question about it. But I have a 30-06 right now, that if I told you how good it shoots--unmodified--in its factory stock--you might question my truthfulness. So I'll put it like this; all 5 of my Remington standard production rifles will shoot less than 1" at 100 yards with my handloads (thats all I shoot).

The thing about the 06 is the fact that though the outside of the action is not smooth--the bolt glinds like its on butter. The barrel does not foul badly and cleans up with min. effort.

You can still get a stainless SPS for under 6 bills if you look around. The 700 is a great action to build on latter if you desire, and drop in upgrades are much more common and varied for the Remington than for the other two rifles you mentioned.

I can't remember exactly, but I think that the bottom metal on the X-Bolt was plactic when they first came out. Maybe someone can correct me if I am wrong.
Plastic bottom metal (an oximoron) is a deal killer for me.

I have my flame suit on for all you Tika lovers.

GB



I wish. The Vanguard is not an option. It is not offered in .25-06 (SS). If it was, the search would be over. [/quote]

My thoughts exactly, I bought a 700 SPS Youth rifle in .243 Winchester and it absolutely has the worst factory finish I've ever seen on a rifle. 30m in wet conditions last year and it started to rust. Since it shot very well with the factory tube, I've sent it off to Walter Birdsong to have it coated in BlackT.

I also totally agree with you on the M77 in .25-06. I am a fan of the M77, but the .25-06 uses a magnum contour barrel and it's extremely heavy.

That actually sparks my interest. Ruger's website says 8 1/4 pounds.

Mark,

when i was looking for a .25 caliber rifle, i knew which rifle that i wanted... i had been shooting the m 70 classic featherwieghts for some years, and they are what i want a rifle to be... at least the new haven rifles with the winchester trigger are...

my problem was that the m70 classic featherweight was never made in 25-06 and the .257 bobs are mostly selling for way too much money...
i had a model 70 fwt in 30-06 in the cabinet, and it never performed like i wanted it to... i ordered a barrel and shipped the rifle off to have it rebarrelled and tweaked...
i expect to have exactly the rifle that i want in my hands pretty soon...

i guess what i'm saying is that you've probly got a rifle that you wished was a .25 cal.... and it can be, if you want...

I would say it's every bit of that, I have the same rifle in .300 Win Mag and scoped (plus a 1" decelerator) it's a 9lb 6oz rifle.

Hi Geo. Boy,

The Bottom metal on Browning X-Bolt's is Metal. The only thing Polymer is the clip.

Best,

Dee