I've owned a number of 25-06's over the years and I gotta admit the first few with handloads didn't shoot from shyte !
The first one I had that really shot well was one of the first Remington Sendero stainless fluted that came into our area , that thing was a consistent 1/4 MOA gun for 3 at 100 with the Sierra 85 grain . Later I had a remington 700BDL DM that shot about 3/4 MOA with the Nosler 115 BT , killed half a dozen or so deer with this combo . Since then I got a Browning B-78 with an octagon barrel that was made in the mid 70's and a Ruger #1B that was made in the 90's . Sold the Browning not to long ago although it shot nicely with the Hornady 117 SST and the Ruger does okay with the 117 SST as well . Yesterday I picked up the Ranger Arms left handed bolt action 25-06 that was made between 68 and 72 , hopefully my wife will be able to handle this one if I can get it to shoot to suit me .
In the past I've only killed whitetails and groundhogs with the 25-06 and it's done very nicely . For many years I thought the 25-06 was THE PREMIER groundhog round now I'm kinda back to the 222 , 220 Swift and 243 but thats another subject .
Anyway the 25-06 should serve my wife well for any deer she may shoot in her lifetime . I doubt if she'll deer hunt for anything other then whitetails , Sika deer , perhaps mulies , possibly Roe and Red's at a nuch later date !
Of the 06 based cartridges the 25-06 is in my top three !
1. 6.5-06
2. 280 REM
3. 25-06
4. 338-06
5. 9.3x62
6. 270 WIN
7. 30-06
8. 35 Whelen
9. 400 Whelen
10. 6mm-06