25.06 as a deer/varmint/predator round

joenhawaii · 03-23-2004, 01:13 AM

I will be buying a new rifle soon and caliber is now the big question. It will mostly serve as a deer rifle, but I would like to get into varmint and predator hunting. Would you 25.06 owners please give me some advice based on real life experience.

Vapodog · 03-23-2004, 05:30 AM

I've owned several .25-06 rifles and can say they are very good deer rifles.

Look long and hard at the .260 Remington before you buy a
.25-06..........you might change your mind.

stubblejumper · 03-23-2004, 06:17 AM

The 25-06 is hard to beat as a deer/predator round.

Mykey · 03-23-2004, 06:31 AM

Excellent choice! The 25.06 is a great deer rifle and also a good varmit gun. I have two loads worked up right now for mine, one is a Speer 120grn bullet that i use for deer and it kills like lighting, the other is a Sierra 75grn HP that i shoot small critters with and it does quick work on those as well. You can't go wrong with the 25.06 as a dual purpose rifle, it's a fast flat shooter with mild recoil that hits the target hard. I agree with vapodog that the 260 rem is a good caliber no doubt and i'd love to have one to add to my arsenal to play with but unless you handload the 260 factory ammo may not be readily available on the shelf and depending on your area the 25.06 may not either but you could always do mail order if you couldn't buy it locally. Another dual purpose caliber you could consider is the 243 which is very popular and ammo is usually easy to find. It will take down any deer or varmit you shoot with it if you do your part. Having said all that i personally would choose a 25.06 and never look back but i'm a little bias here because i love that caliber. Good luck in whatever you choose.

GordonGekko · 03-23-2004, 01:35 PM

The 25-06 and 257 Roberts are for my money the best two varmint/smaller big game calibers. The 6.5's (.264's) are a little heavy for varmints in my opinion, and the 6mm's (.243's) are on the light side for deer. Both will do o.k. but are slightly less than ideal, the .25's though seem to have a good combination of bullet weights for varmints and deer, and they seem to do better in this role than their larger/smaller counterparts. In fact this application is exactly what Ned Roberts had in mind when he created his little .257.

Gordon

thndrchiken · 03-23-2004, 08:21 PM

25-06 would definitely fill the bill, though I imagine it would be overkill on varmint.

James B · 03-23-2004, 08:44 PM

I just had to have one when they first came out and there was no LH models at that time so I bought a new LH 270 Remington 700 BDL and had it rebarreled to 25-06. Trouble was there were really no good bullets available for it yet as Nosler had no Ballistic tips or Partitions yet for it. Bullet perf0rmance then was not to good. The lighter bullets were good for Varmits but most of the heavier bullets were to fragil for the velocity of the new round. Thats all behind us now and good bullets are easy to find and make it the rifle it was meant to be. Excellent for everything from prairie dogs to Elk. With the Right Bullets. I don't have one right now and am happy with the 257 Roberts but a new Savage LH with accu-trigger is in my future.

handloader1 · 03-23-2004, 10:37 PM

The 25-06 Rem. will suit your needs well. Good luck.

joenhawaii · 03-24-2004, 10:51 AM

Thanks for all the comments guys. It seems like it's unanimous that the 25.06 is a great deer/varmint caliber, but how readily available is the ammo for someone who doesn't reload. Will I be better off going with the lighter .243 that is more common.

driftrider · 03-24-2004, 01:49 PM

The .25-06 would be an ourstanding deer cartridge, and will do a great job on varmints and predators too, insomuch as it will make any varmint or predator (short of the great bears, of course) VERY dead!

The only two problems I could foresee would be that the .25-06 with varmint bullets would be pretty hard on pelts. The solution would be to use a heavier constructed bullet that wouldn't expand much or fragment in a coyote, leaving a small exit hole. Just be careful (as always) about what's behind the target as the bullet will, unlike a varmint bullet, pass through with a lot of energy left and could ricochet.

The other problem you might run into if you do a lot of high-volume varmint shooting (prairie dogging), where lots of rounds are being fired. The .25-06 burns a lot of powder and barrel heating would be an issue. But if you just used it to for the long shots and had a .223 or .22-250 for the bulk of the shooting, then the .25-06 would be great.

As for overkill, the .25-06 isn't THAT bad.

I met a guy the other day who takes three rifles with him when he goes to Dogtown, SD. One is a custom Mauser in 22-250, one is a semi-custom Remington M700 in .22-243, and the last is a 7mm Mag. He loads the 7mm with match-grade bullets and uses it for the occational 400+ yard shots! Talk about really ruining a prairie dogs day!

Mike