Anyone here run a fast twist 25-06? With berger making a 135 and 133g with a bc near .65 the 25s have finally became slightly interesting to me. I once build a 6.5-06 on a rem action and I loved the way it fed and had 5 in the mag box with plenty of room to seat out. My accountant talked me out of the 6.5-06 but I still miss it for the way it functioned and just worked well in hunting situations.

A 25-06 feeds slick and functions great on a rem LA it's just always been handicapped by slow twists and lack of high bc bullet options. I wish northland offered a remage 25 in an 8 twist. I'd be tempted to give another 25-06 a shot. I had one in a ss mtn 700but a campfire member from Oregon I believe talked me out of it.

I still prefer 6.5s by a wide margin with lots of good bullet options but a fast twist 25-06 would give you proper headstamped brass and the option to run factory ammo in a pinch. I ordered a few more remage barrels the other day from northland and James mentioned a lot if guys were doing 25 Creedmoor. I've got no interest in that given factory 6.5 and 6 options abound but it makes me think James must have some fast twist .257 tubes available. I better make another call to NSS.

Bb

Iddave built one. He might chime in. It’s on my radar as well.

The factory stamped brass or ammo matters zero to me. Can't get 30-06 in 2 YEARS, the hopes for 25-06 would be less than nothing.

So if I have to reload anyway....

What does the 25 cal, .65 BC Berger do better than the 6.5 cal with a .694 BC Berger?

Besides the new 6.5 magnum chamberings, a 25-06 would drive a similar weight bullet quite a bit faster wouldn’t it? I bet you could get 3000 FPS with the 133 grain bullet with a slow burning powder and 26” barrel.

I was thinking 25-06 vs 6.5-06 in my response.

I had preferred barrel blanks screw a 1:7.5 twist 25-06 barrel onto an old Remington LA I had at hand for my son’s graduation present.

I freaking love that thing. I can see having it done again real soon. Barrel is 23”, and from memory I think we’re running the 133 Bergers at 2950 with Retumbo. He killed an elk and a nice pronghorn with it this year at 500+ yards.

Simply a great, all-purpose rifle/chambering imho.

Dave

Hell ya!!

just took a Weatherby mark 5 rifle and rebarreled with a 4 contour , 7 1/2 twist , finished at 28 inches ,chambered in a 257 Weatherby mag. cartridge , Brux barrel , i built this to shoot the 135 gr. Berger bullets ,Hammer bullets and maybe 131 gr. B.J. bullets too. have not shot it much hoping to get 3300 + fps with good accuracy. i do know my 257 Creedmoor really shoots well out to 500 yards and rifle has a Brux barrel 7 1/2 twist barrel too. this new rifle is for any range antelope and deer , i have shot some antelope and deer in the past with just a Brux 10 twist barrel 100 gr. Nosler partition in a 257 Weatherby mag at 3800 fps a long ways out on the first shot already but hope to gain just a little more. hopefully ? i feel the 25 caliber rifles should come with a 8 twist barrel not a 10 twist , i also rebarreled 2 - 257 Roberts rifles with 8 twist Brux barrels ,both these rifles shoot really well with 115 gr. and 135 grain bullets these 2 rifles are for the family ladies to use also. good luck with your 25-06 should be a good long range shooter too ,Pete53

Never got any further than brain storming stage but , always thought a 135-140 gr high BC style bullet in a 25-06 with a 1:7 twist would be awesome.. no this thread pops up .no the gears are whirling...

I got a 25-284 on a long action with a 7.5" twist barrel and its a hammer. Shoots the 135 Berger at 3110 fps with a 22" barrel. The gun is quickly becoming onw of my favorites.

I recently sent my BDL 25-06 off to pac nor because it never shot consistently enough to my liking. Originally I asked for a9” twist super match barrel. Then I saw the long VLD’s Berger is making and asked them to make it an 8” twist instead. I’m hoping in the next few years for some heavier accubonds or ELD X’s. Time will tell.

yes i agree , i did get a 1- 7 1/2 twist 257 Weatherby done with a Brux barrel , i am going to try and get the Hammer bullets to shoot well for now hopefully ?

25-06 has become my favorite for long range hunting. (Over 300 yards). But you’ll definitely benefit from a faster twist and heavier billets in it.

I understand the logic so certainly won't denigrate it, but built a .25/06 with match grade 26" #5 SS fluted barrel with the standard 10" twist and an additional .020" throat added and have never seen it lack anything I can hunt with a .257.

I liked and still have 100gn Hornady SP, 100gn Barnes TTSX and 120 Nosler Partitions with a sprinkling of Hornady 117gn SPBT's. They all shoot exceptionally well. The 100gn Partition is no slouch either. While these bullets don't have the high BC's some people seek, they sure don't fail because of that as hunting bullets.
It's just a great cartridge for the majority of game we have.

These fast twist guys make me laugh. Like nothing can be killed with old bullets and conventional twists. I had several fast twist rifles honestly they sucked.

What sucked about them WCH?

I agree though, normal twists and bullets still hunt just fine.

Interesting! Not heard that take on fast twist barrels. Longer slippery bullets they allow use of generally enhances a cartridges capability. I have however thought that some slippery bullets aren’t what a person prefers or has experience with for on game action. Admittedly I’d be all over a sleek re-vamp of the Partition.

Anyhow, just curious.

They were POC! They are called Accubonds!

Accuracy for one. The best accuracy came with conventional bullets rather than the extra heavy target bullets. I gave one barrel away, and the guy who took it found out the same. I for one don't need a 135 gr. 25 caliber bullet, if I want a heavier bullet, then the.270 works fine. It has for almost 100 years.

Hahaha. You’re right - I still like that old school copper barrier 😜

Can’t argue with that - the sleek bullets don’t make a whit of difference the most common ranges.

In my .25-06 I had a 1:8 twist not to shoot really heavy bullets but to shoot Barnes TTSX bullets better. In my experience I have gotten good accuracy with the Barnes bullets with the normal twist but when I experimented with the 1:8 twist the accuracy was excellent. This has been my finding with the .257 Weatherby Mag too. I widened my experiment to my new .22-250 and 6mm Remington, the slightly faster twist gave me better accuracy. The better accuracy is not heads and tails but from .75-1.0” to .25-.50. It just gives me more satisfaction and confidence, although I know the improvement means nothing in a hunting application. I did find that the 1:8 twist gave me more options for a wider spectrum of accurate powders as compared to the standard twists. Just my observations yours may differ.

They do!

Those are solid points

It's possible to get a dud barrel, regardless of the twist.

I've seen enough 5-shot groups in the 0.1-0.3 MOA range using fast twists and heavy, sleek target bullets, it's not an issue for my uses. That includes match-grade barrels and factory.

I just mailed out a Forbes 24b to LRI to get a 24” 1-7 twist barrel installed in 25/06. Looking forward to trying the 121gr and 128gr hammers on caribou

Damn! Now that’s going to be quite cool.

isnt the forbes box a little shorter than standard boxes like on a remington ? if so i hope it works out for ya with those bullets

The mag box on the Forbes 24 is 3.4”

Probably a dumb question, but is there a "to fast twist" with a 25-06? I would still want to be able to get good results from all of the 100 grain Hornadys I have hoarded up -- will a 1:7:5 or 1:7 work well for them?

I wouldn’t worry about them myself. It’s a fairly thick jacketed bullet and I’ve never seen a faster twister rifle shoot worse myself.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/15603745/1

Dave

Are they putting a K&P on for you or did you send them something else? Definitely hope you will follow up with pics once you get it back!

I’m going with their KP barrel, it’s going to be contour matched to the Forbes barrel. Hopefully it will drop right in with no issues.

I’m really thinking about a 25 Souper. But, you do lose the headstamp

If in question I always go with a faster twist. I have yet to see a downside to it. One of my friends thought I was nuts about 17 years ago because I had a custom rifle built for me by Jim See of centershot rifles. I went all in with a full single point trueing of a 700, custom bottom metal, jewel trigger, cerekote, and a cool looking interrupted fluted barrel from a lessor know company at the time called Brux.

He thought I was crazy because I was going for a good long range varmint rifle and I chose 243 win over 6mm rem. I had grown up shooting a 6mm so he couldn't
fathom me switching. I told him the 243 was actually better on a short action because of mag box space and seating out. He couldn't follow. Then when I told him I went 8 twist he really thought I'd lost it. I'd really impressed him with my 6mms ability to splat things with a 55g nbt at 4100 fps. He said the 55s would never shoot in an 8 twist. I went ahead with my plans and he continued telling me I was an idiot.

About 2007 or so we went rock chuck hunting at an old favorite spot towards twin falls. It was a typically windy spring day. We hit the first pile from about 300 yards back. I smoked 2 right away and he missed 2 from "wind problems". He then said you may have hit but those bullets don't explode like they did in your 6mm. That's when I had to break it to him I'd switch bullets and was shooting 105 Amaxes. He really flipped at that. While he was letting me have it I glassed a few more way further down the canal bank on another pile. The Leica read 670 so I dialed elevation, held for windage and missed. My windage was off but I could barely see a mark on the lava rock through the spotter that said I gauged the wind wrong. I adjusted and hit the next 2 at that range.

This was back when long range shooting wasn't as common and hitting Rock chucks at that range didn't happen often for most people. I proceeded to take several more past 500 and he ended the day with only taking 1 past 300. He admitted he could hardly believe some of the shots the 243 made but kept rubbing it in how the 105 amaxes didn't detonate like a 55 and insisted I screwed up. After a few hours I put a target on a fence and we backed up to 100 so I could sight in again. I had brought about 20 rounds loaded with 55g NBTs at about 4000. I shot a few rounds and adjusted to the new load and shot a nice 1/2 moa group with 55s.

Then we spent another hour looking for a chuck and couldn't find one. Finally a rabbit stepped out and donated its body to science. At the shot it pretty much instantly disappeared in a big red and white flash it was about a 7 foot tall mushroom cloud of rabbit hair and mist. My friend couldn't believe it. He said he'd never seen anything like it. That's when I explained that the faster twist meant an even faster spin on the bullet and that my theory was that if the bullet held together enough to get to the target its was going to come apart more violently when it got there. He quit giving me crap about my 243 and started borrowing it.

He was a guy that was very committed to the old ways and didn't care much for new things. He didn't change his mind easily but that 1 day with my 8 twist 243 changed his thoughts on lots of things. Next thing I knew he was looking at the BC of bullets, buying a scope he could dial, and wanting a faster twist barrel. He later had me load 208 amaxes for his old 30-06.

Bb

Great account Burley. Only takes one good trip.

Years ago I watched my buddy tear stuff up with a 1-8 223 at distance I didn’t think was possible using 75 grain AMaxs. From then on, like you mentioned, when in doubt go faster.

Buddy of mine built a superbly accurate 25 Creedmoor, fast twist.

Got me to thinking that I might ask him to spin on a new, fast twist barrel to replace my factory 1:10 twist 25-06 barrel...

Guy

Now you’re talking Guy!

Berger has some slick looking 130+ bullets that might be the cats butt out on the windy prairie.

I think the 25-06 kills game very fine way the hell out there with standard 1-10. I guess all that matters is how far you want to take a crack at game animals. If fast twist is your thing in similar caliber size you’d be better served with a 1-8 or 1-7.5 twisted 6mm whether 243 WCF, 6mm Creedmoor, or LA 6mm Remington. 6mm all have superior bullets and of course 6.5mm goes without saying. Still, there’s nothing wrong with a 1-10 twist 25-06 Remington in the corn or bean fields on game way the hell out there.

I guess the best part is they don’t charge more for the extra twist and you could still shoot the normal 257 bullets from the gun if you didn’t care for the higher BC jobs, plus you’d get a little extra benefit from the extra RPMs. Kind of a win win win

I would agree, it’s just that the .257 bore at this time in bullet development is the least of the sweet spots for building a heavy for caliber fast twist rig. In taking big game with 90gr to 120gr loads, a 1-10 twist .257 at 400 yards is at no disadvantage, especially with a 25-06 Rem or 257 Wby.

For sure. I just meant if your putting a barrel on a gun there is no disadvantage to getting the faster twist while you’re doing it. Seems like the 25’s are about where the 270’s are at.

That is were I am at ... I have a new to me 25-06 Kimber Montana. I am going to shoot it to see where it is at, but if there is a hint it needs a new barrel off it will go and I would like get a 1:8 if it was no disadvantage in the 100grain bullets.

Now watch it shoot like crazy and not need a new barrel

I got this rifle when I really was looking to build a 257 Weatherby but common sense told me you get about 95% of the 257 WBY with a 25-06 (or so it seems to me)

Some of my best shooting rifles are ones I bought as donors just for the action with the intent to rebarrel. Then I made the mistake of shooting them before sending them off fir a new barrel. They used to say don't shoot the donor around here a lot so I think it's a common problem.

I have a kimber Montana 270 wsm I bought with the intent if doing a 6.5 prc or 6.5 4s on. Then took it to the range just to shoot up a few 270 wsm rounds I had. Of course the worst group it shot was about .80moa. It's still a 270 wsm even though im not a 270 fan.

I bought a stainless classic model 70 in 243 with an old bushnell 3200 3-9 a few years ago thinking I'd get it rebored to 358 win. The scope was already on it and I had a few boxes of Federal blue box 100g ammo so I Shor a few groups one day. They were all under 1 moa so that rifle is still a 243.

The rifles I buy that don't shoot well are usually the ones I want to keep as is. If I buy it for the action or with a project in mind it almost always shoots great as is.

Bb

Well put Burley.

I've been down that road

dave

one other nice thing about a 25 caliber rifle is it does have less recoil too and shooting in the prone position with a bi-pod and 25 caliber rifle with a fast twist barrel is much easier on my shoulder ,accurate and shoots a long ways out too with these new heavier grained .257 bullets

125gr .257 HAMMER HUNTER next to a 115gr Nosler BT

Pretty bad ass looking bullet.

That hammer is groovey looking.looks sleek and I like the radiused edges on the grooves.

Bb