What to expect from a 25-06 NEF

[riddleofsteel]

I am considering buying a NEF rifle with a 26" barrel in 25-06. Knowing the mass of NEF knowledge represented here I was wondering what kind of accuracy and reliabilty I can expect.
I have been shooting the 25-06 for about 10 years now but out of a Remington bolt action. I do hand load for the 25-06 but I also have a pretty big stash of Hornady 117 grain SPBT Custom ammo I could use as well.
My goal is a light weight, low recoil deer rifle. Keeping this in mind I realize that sub MOA goups are nice but not critical. The single shot format is not strange to me as I shot T/C Contenders for years and most of my hunting with bolt actions rarely, if ever, need a second shot. In that respect I guess they might as well all be single shots.

So what can I expect?
Are they resonably reliable as far a firing, extracting, ect?
How are the triggers?
How is the average accuracy?

Thanks in advance

[Hildy]

I can't really tell you about the average, buy I can tell you a little about mine.

I have a hand load that will punch them slightly under an inch at 100y now. Yesterday, I shot a 2 and 1/16" group at 325y using the 75g Hornady V-Max.

Fred M has had a really bad experience with the '06 in the NEF.

I ended up with a real shooter I guess.

I think Fred can explain to you better about the rifles, but so far, my experience has been great.

Here is a picture of mine:

[quickdtoo]

My .25-06 Ultra may not be typical cuz I know of at least 2 .25-06 handis that didn't shoot good, but I know of one other that does well, OTOH. Mine shoots the Hornady 117gr BTSP very well with 1" 3 shot 100yd groups, and the first 2 of 3 will be touching or real close to it, but 5 shot groups open to 2" or so, it just doesn't shoot as well warm, but for my purposes, I'm only interested in the first shot or two anyway, those are the ones that count. It also shoots the 115gr Federal NP almost as well. I don't handload for the .25-06 so I'll leave that open to those who do.

[riddleofsteel]

Pretty much what I thought. A rifle that sells for around $200.00 and is based on a shotgun frame can not be expected to be a benchrest rifle. Still I expected about 25% horror stories, 25% one hole shooting machines and the rest doing about 1.5 to 2 inches at 100 yards. Of course that is about what low end bolt actions are doing.
I am a long .25 and .26 fan. The damage these gentle shooting rifles will do has to be seen to be believed. I wanted a woods walking rile to take on hunts where my 25-06 Sendero would be a burden. Not being blessed with extra funds right now the NEF Handi just be my cup of tea.

Anybody else?

Thanks

[ScatterGunner]

hi -

fred m. can give you some pretty good insight on the 25-06 handi.

sg

[James B]

Don't have the 26 inch 25-06 but I have the 26 inch 280 Rem In the Handi. I bought it slightly used. The trigger was worse than awful and I am not fibbing when I say the pull weight was between 10 and 12 lbs. I got the trigger worked over and the rifle has been nothing but perfect. It shoots under 1 1/2 inches with most loads. That in spite of the fact that I have made no attempt to work up a load that it really likes. I could hunt all North America with that rifle. It had a little problem with sticky cases until I found that my OCL was a bit over the limit. I shortened them up a bit and no more problems. Given thier simularity I would expect about the same performance from the 25-06. Good Luck and Good hunting.

[Fred M]

riddleofsteel.
The biggest problem I had with the 25-06 was an over size bore.

Without a proper .257" size bore you are pretty well beat when
 it comes to accuracy. All the rest can be tweaked and fixed by
a home tinkerer like myself. But in the US you can send it back
and demand a dimensional accurate bore and an acceptable
 trigger pull. Put a hidden mark on your barrel so you know
it is yours

Don't do any work on the rifle before you have the exact
bore size, if you don't know how to do this get a gun
smith to slug the bore. This is no rocket science neither.
Without the excat dimensions H&R will just tell you the barrel
is in spec. A 1/2 thou (.0005") either way is ok, not great
but ok.

You will get a better idea of what I did by reading my
 write up "
"Tweaking the H&R Ultra 25-06". Don't let it scared you because
most of it is quite easy to do.

http://www.angelfire.com/ma/ZERMEL/tweakultra.html

[v8r]

All of my handys have shot very well no matter what the caliber.If it won't shoot after trying a few different brands of ammo,send the thing back and get it fixed.I suspect it will shoot just fine.They are not a weatherby with a accuracy guarntee,They only cost about 250.00 tops.I bet it will go bang when you pull the trigger and group at least under 2 inches at a 100 yards.