25-06

[Dan Newcombe]

Looking to get a deer rifle and have been tempted by the 25-06.

Can anyone give me any feedback on them, ive had a look in the history search thing and there is some interesting reading. I like the sound of the flat shooting and ive been told its not too rough in the shoulder.

It would be my only big rifle (i have a .22-250 for foxes) so i would want it to do everything from munties to reds (potentially) in this country. could i put boar on it if the opportunity came up in the future?

Would i be able to take it abroad to places like poland and france?

Im more interested in the way it shoots and ease of use (if that makes sense) than the 'ive seen every single deer hit with a XXX run for 7 miles' discussion

What might be an alternate option? I know i could do all this with a .308 but i like something a little bit different

Dan

 

[willie_gunn]

Dan

I don't have practical experience of the 25-06, but I do remember on my DSC1 course that Steve Bowers (he of Specialist Rifle Services and Shooting Times) highly recommended it as a "do it all" calibre. I've hankered after one, but then I've also hankered after a Ruger No.1

willie_gunn

 

[jingzy]

Dan,

personally I am not a fan of them. I used to have one and I found a lot of deer ran on with it. A pal was using one on the hinds this year and although the deer went down, you had to have eyes everywhere as deer sloped off slowly out of sight, perfect shots just not what I would want. (shooting a few at a time)

I would not recommend them for red and definately not for any type of Boar.

Don't want to cause confusion but a 7-08, 6.5x55, 300wsm, 270wsm. They all do different things but I would never have a 25-06 again.

I f you want something different, then you want to be looking at reloading also.
Sorry, a bit negative, but my experience.

 

[caorach]

I think that 270 is the minimum recommended for boar in the government guidelines so I guess the police may not give you a 25-06.

If you are going for something unusual then you need to consider availability of ammo and the range of reloading components available to you.

Buy a 308 and find yourself in the north of Scotland looking for ammo and you will get something to do your job, I'm not so sure that would be the case with something "unusual."

A friend who used a 25-06 for a while considered it an awful lot of bang for very little return.

 

[Dan Newcombe]

Bugger, its never easy is it!!

I will be reloading once i have got comfortable with a gun.

What aspect of the calibre is it that you feel leads to this lack of killing power (out of curiosity)? And are there things that can be done to increase the ability with reloading?

Dan

 

[caorach]

I think that 270 is the minimum recommended for boar in the government guidelines so I guess the police may not give you a 25-06.

If you are going for something unusual then you need to consider availability of ammo and the range of reloading components available to you.

Buy a 308 and find yourself in the north of Scotland looking for ammo and you will get something to do your job, I'm not so sure that would be the case with something "unusual."

A friend who used a 25-06 for a while considered it an awful lot of bang for very little return.

 

[Claret_Dabbler]

The 25/06 will do most of what you want, as long as you load it with bullets suitable for the task in hand, eg 115 - 120gr's for deer. I would not use very high velocity varmint bullets on any deer, you may gralloch a muntie at the shot. It is pretty inefficient and burns a largish amount of powder for small velocity gains over shorter cases.

I would not use a 25/06 by choice on boar, and it unlikely your local plods will list it for boar anyway.

Most European jurisdictions have minimum calibre (generally 6.5 - 7mm) rules for big game hunting and also minimum bullet weights.

Pick something else in the 6.5 - 30cal bracket.

 

[admin]

Personally I do not agree with Jingzy about the 25.06. I have owned and used one for over 15 years and have shot a great many Reds with it, dont ask me how many as i do not keep count, but its in the hundreds. I have also used it on Sika and all the other species. Never lost a beast with it yet! ( tempting fate now ).

It is a flat hard hitting round, and I have even used it in Africa on Black Wildebeest. It did the job prefectly.

It has also taken some very large European Red Stags in the past on the Duke of Northumberlands estates.

My rifle is a Ruger Model 77 MkII stainless and black skeleton plastic stock, with a T8 on the spout.

But whatever you decide to get, they will all kill out to 200yds with no problem, providing the person behind the gun puts the bullet in the right place there in lies the weak point

Sikamalc

 

[Jagare]

I like the 25-06 the exwife had one. She never shot red with it but it killed big fallow OK so i don't see why it won't kill red.
A real no,no on boar though

 

[nuttyspaniel]

I love my 25-06 a cracking round. Im actually selling mine due to unforseen circumstances and the leupold vxl that sits on top. Im well pi@@ed of but s@@t happens!!

cheers
nutty

 

[nuttyspaniel]

double post!!

 

[Heym SR20]

Hard hitting and flat shooting, with a bit more but not very much recoil than a 243 so easy to use. It shoots a 120 gn bullet at 3200 fps. I have used one on hinds and really good. Stalker I used to stalk with had a slightly improved 25 Max and swore by it for even biggest bodied Red deer.

But do bear in mind that it was designed for long range shooting at mid size game in the US - ie Pronghorn and smallish plains deer. You may run into problems with bullets blowing up on close range (ie sub 60 yds) woodland type shots.

If I had a heavy rifle and were looking for an all round light rifle, it would be on the shopping list, but given you already have a 22-250, and now want a bigger rifle my suggestion would be to go to a 7mm or 30 calibre - will give you a bit more flexibility if you want to go overseas for boar / plains game. I must admit to being very tempted by a Sauer left handed in 25-06.

 

[Wingers243]

25-06 is ok, no doubt it will kill whatever you shoot with it if its hit in the correct spot same as my .243 will (except boar of course) Mate of mine has one seems to me a bit like a turbo charged .243! light bullets doing about a million feet per second are dynamite on foxes.

I would have something a but bigger in bullet dept. No reason you can't load a .308 with a 100 grain bullet if you want to but you can load it up to 180 grain and maybe even heavier?

Velocity isn't everything......

 

[Thar]

Dan,

personally I am not a fan of them. I used to have one and I found a lot of deer ran on with it.

Jingzy

Your post is illogical, else were you say you use a 6.5X55 with 120gn bullets.

6.5X55
6.5mm bore size, 120gn bullet, Velocity 2800fps

25-06
6.4mm bore size 117gn bullet, Velocity 3200fps

The bullet size and weight are almost identical although the 25-06 is going 400fps faster and producing around 500ftlbs of energy more than the Swede.

Could you explain scientifically why the less powerful cartridge is better for red deer?

I have a friend who uses his full time on the West Coast of Scotland culling red deer and he loves his 25-06.

Dan
To this post the above is irrelevant as neither is a good calibre for boar; you can’t use a 308 in France for boar because this is classed as a military calibre. So if you want a round that you can find ammo pretty much any where and be flat shooting with enough punch for boar, I would look at the 25-06 big brother the 270 Winchester. With 150gn or 160gn bullets it will floor pigs, with lighter 130gn it is a real flat shooter.

Best rgds

Tahr

 

[jingzy]

Thar,

I am not getting into another strung out debate, I dont need to state scientifically as I witnessed my mates rifles performance in Dec. I know many who do use it to their satisfaction. I personally didn't like mine 5yrs ago either. The stalker in Dec actually took the 25=06 off my mate and shot 3 himself..............."I'm not impressed with that" his remarks, not mine. He got into 60yds and deer were still walking off after the strike.

The problem I had was deer running on when shot below 130ish yds. Anything above that fell pretty well. I have said it before in another thread, I believe it is due to the bullet being too fast.

Perhaps it was wrong bullet, perhaps bullet placement, but I dont think so.

Speed isn't everything, I thought that was agreed in the Terminal Ballistics thread.

 

[Thar]

Thar,
Speed isn't everything, I thought that was agreed in the Terminal Ballistics thread.

Although speed is not everything it is an important component of the way a rifle bullet kills. If you have two bullets of the same weight and size the faster moving bullet will be more powerful, not the slower one. Chops brought loads of scientific data to the terminal ballistic thread to prove this point. If you and other just want to dismiss it fine, but I will still try to inform others that read posts on here the truth.

Here is some anecdotal evidence to back my position as you will not believe scientific papers.

A few years ago I was hunting abroad, in our party were two bow hunters a father and son from Birmingham, the son was the national Junior champion, I took interest in them as my son shoots Field Target Archery, and will in fact be shooting at the Scottish national Championships next month in Dumfries and Galloway.

These chaps were shooting feral goats with their bows I was knocking them down with a 223. You could watch the arrow go right though a goat’s rib cage, at times there was no reaction by the goat, you would of thought that the archer had missed it. It would then lie down and die after a few minutes. Shot in the same place with the 223 the goat would drop dead on the spot.

The arrows have an 8mm carbon fibre shaft and 3 broadheads on the shaft about 20/25mm in size, the arrow would weigh ounces not gains. I am not sure what power bows they were using but would estimate that with a good compound bow the arrow would be doing about 450fps. This must be the ultimate in heavy slow projectile.

The 223 with a 50gn bullet doing 3300fps was/is the far better killer also consider that the archers were shooting with in 25yrds were with the rifle we were shooting form 75yrs and back to 200yrds.

Best rgds

Tahr

 

[jingzy]

Although speed is not everything it is an important component of the way a rifle bullet kills. If you have two bullets of the same weight and size the faster moving bullet will be more powerful, not the slower one.

Thar,

I am not disputing what you are saying here, that is the laws of physics. But it does not by any stretch of the imagination make it a better choice for culling deer. Hence, my little story of the 300wsm. More clout than your .270, more clout than my 6.5, but...........I have never had a deer run on that far with a 6.5.

Lets be honest here, a big boomstick is good but it is in no way a necessity.

I don't need to bring any scientific data to the table here. This was one of the major reasons for starting the Terminal Ballistics thread. And you are quite correct, Chops brought some fantastic data to the table as did Dalua, far more than you or I had or we would have been joining in at the latter stages also.

It all boils down to the correct choice bullet for the calibe that you are using for whatever quarry.

P.S Sorry this is starting to go off topic, if we need to continue debating this can someone start another thread. I don't feel the need to as I am happy with my little pop gun.

Cheers,

J

 

[Thar]

Chops brought some fantastic data to the table as did Dalua,

We must of been reading different posts as I saw no data that Dalua brought to the thread to counter anything that Chops or Morena contributed.

I don't feel the need to as I am happy with my little pop gun.
J

The problem is your love of that 6.5X55, because of this you lose rational thought and the laws of physics, scientific evidence, ballistic convention and common sense are all completely ignored in your attempt to justify your love.

Never mind, be happy with your love for now. I can only hope that one day you will see it in a more rational light.


Best grds

Tahr

 

[Storm]

xxx

 

[irishgun]

i have a lot of experance with the 25,06 on sika /fallow and some on reds
you will not get a better cal for ireland /england .
if you use the right bullet and do your bit boar will not be a problem to the cal .

but,,if you are a one gun out fit go for the .270/30.06 one of them could be gun for you they will give more range of bullets .

same weight action ,etc