never owned 25.06 ,shot one a few times,whats your take on this caliberand its efficiency?

[6phunter]

Weapons

[dewman]

Try F&S answers.

[dewman]

Try this again. I would ask that you post your question on the F&S answer site because there are longtime owners and users of the 25/06 there. Would get very experienced responses.

[CD2]

.25 is a caliber, .25-06 is a cartridge.

[Kody]

Bullet selection is key to gietting the most out of the 25-06. In past years the handloader had an advantage over those getting the ready loads over the counter. That situation has changed with the availability of higher end bullets in factory loads. The blistering speeds of the 25-06 and 257 Weatherby Magnum required tougher bullets such as the 115 gr and 120 Nosler Partition. While I have successfully used a number of different bullet makes the Nosler was by go to round for years. I now load the 120 gr Swift A-Frame which has proven to be accurate in my rifle and I trust to outperform the Nosler Partition. Based on my experience with larger caliber A-Frames I am confident their 25 cal bullet will perform exceptionally well and would expect it to do well onlarger game than deer if one wishes to push its limits. Regardless, I use a larger caliber for larger game as I do believe the appropriately selected 180 gr 30 cal, a 250 gr .338 cal or the 300 gr .375 cal bullet striking the same point of impact as a 120 gr .25 cal bullet will be more effective in dispatching the animal. Any number of the new bullets such as the premium hornady, Speer Acubonds, premium Winchester and Rem factory loads have raised the bar on the capacity of the 25-06. I like to fire lesser rounds for practice and stick to one hunting load with the quality rounds. For this reason I am not a fan of the copper rounds. They are great bullets but firing standard rounds between those of the copper rounds requires the extensive cleaning of the bore beyond a few patchs with Hoppes #9. No thanks, I like to shoot my guns and for me to hit anything I need to practice. I prefer to get it done with the cheap stuff. On the versatility side, the 25-06 bridges the gap between varmint and big game load effectively. I do love the 25 cal offerings and have used the 250-3000 and the great 257 Roberts but the 25-06 stands head and shoulders above them. My hunting load does not show excessive pressure and I have chronographed at 3100fps using 117 gr Sierras and the Swift round. The 257 Weatherby burns plenty of powder for what I consider a marginal improvement in velocity and you may not find a box on that little country sports shop, so the 25-06 has my vote.

[Kody]

Bullet selection is key to gietting the most out of the 25-06. In past years the handloader had an advantage over those getting the ready loads over the counter. That situation has changed with the availability of higher end bullets in factory loads. The blistering speeds of the 25-06 and 257 Weatherby Magnum required tougher bullets such as the 115 gr and 120 Nosler Partition. While I have successfully used a number of different bullet makes the Nosler was by go to round for years. I now load the 120 gr Swift A-Frame which has proven to be accurate in my rifle and I trust to outperform the Nosler Partition. Based on my experience with larger caliber A-Frames I am confident their 25 cal bullet will perform exceptionally well and would expect it to do well onlarger game than deer if one wishes to push its limits. Regardless, I use a larger caliber for larger game as I do believe the appropriately selected 180 gr 30 cal, a 250 gr .338 cal or the 300 gr .375 cal bullet striking the same point of impact as a 120 gr .25 cal bullet will be more effective in dispatching the animal. Any number of the new bullets such as the premium hornady, Speer Acubonds, premium Winchester and Rem factory loads have raised the bar on the capacity of the 25-06. I like to fire lesser rounds for practice and stick to one hunting load with the quality rounds. For this reason I am not a fan of the copper rounds. They are great bullets but firing standard rounds between those of the copper rounds requires the extensive cleaning of the bore beyond a few patchs with Hoppes #9. No thanks, I like to shoot my guns and for me to hit anything I need to practice. I prefer to get it done with the cheap stuff. On the versatility side, the 25-06 bridges the gap between varmint and big game load effectively. I do love the 25 cal offerings and have used the 250-3000 and the great 257 Roberts but the 25-06 stands head and shoulders above them. My hunting load does not show excessive pressure and I have chronographed at 3100fps using 117 gr Sierras and the Swift round. The 257 Weatherby burns plenty of powder for what I consider a marginal improvement in velocity and you may not find a box on that little country sports shop, so the 25-06 has my vote.

PS I do like the light recoil of the 25-06 as it has allowed me to maintain a view of the game and be better prepared for a followup shot. It may push back sharply but the barrel tends to stay on target better than larger rounds like its parent cartridge, the 30-06.