DaveFerriman
Well-Known Member
What’s everyone’s thoughts on either 25-06 or 6.5 Creedmoor for Roe to Reds?
Almost identical bullet size, although the 25.06 can only go up to 120 grains. The creedmoor is short action though so you could go down to a 16" barrel which you cant really do with a longer action 25.06.Both will work fine, both be better with a 24" barrel, both will be nice to shoot as opposed to bigger calibre/chamberings.
6.5 maybe has the edge on choice of bullets.
Great thank you. What is the softer shooting?
Great thank you. What is the softer shooting?
.25-06 all day. And this is why.
I know the Creedmoor has its benefits but the '06 has pedigree and is a stonking deer cartridge. I completely agree with the article that I linked that the only reason there isnt more popularity for the '06 is because hit never took off for target purposes.
The .25-06 is one of those cartridges that has always appealed to me, but failed to materialise in the safe because logic gets in the way. To much of a sucker for the numbers I guess, rather than pure emotion.
What I mean is this. You hear all this "wow" stuff, like the post above, but when you look at the data behind the wow, its hard to find a reason in the physics to get that excited.
Take a .25-06 firing a 110gr Gamehead at (lets say) 3150fps, could be faster, could be slower. Compared to a .243 Win, that's 10% more bullet weight, at 8% more speed, using around 20-25% more powder. You can modify the variables as much as you like, but the degree of "wow" has never really been backed up by the numbers.
I like the .25-06. My mate Nigel has one in a T3 action with a hand made carbon "Stug" stock and a nice barrel of some description, and a simple old school Zeiss 3-9x plex scope. Its his goto tops rifle, and its accounted for many deer including some properly big Otago red stags. Its unmoderated, lightweight, very well used... with a sharp kick and very loud indeed! A classic configuration, that's how I see it. I do like that rifle.
But its not really got the wow factor that I think misty eyed blokes like to assume. Its a little bit faster, a little bit heavier, a lot louder and rather limited in what you can do with it. Its a bit like the .270 Win, a lot of racket and drama for not a lot difference in performance. The Creedmoor on the other hand is a whole lot more flexible and better behaved. Pretty simple really, the relationship between manners and powder charge!