25-06 Just Right for Whitetails

[JohnnyMac007]

I was brought up hunting with the elders in my family saying that one should have nothing less than a 30-06 for deer.

Had the opportunity to blast one with a 25-06 last week.  The bullet was a reloaded Nosler 100 gr. ballistic tip traveling at about 3150 fps from the muzzle.

The deer was about 200 yards away and gave me a perfect broadside shot.  The bullet hit square in the shoulder and went completely though the other shoulder with signs of good expansion.  The doe ran about 15 yards and crashed hard.

With such mild recoil, little muzzle blast, and flat trajectory, I'm convinced you can't ask for a better deer cartridge.

[Wyo. Coyote Hunter]

 ;D007 This last mth. I shot a nice 7 point whitetail with my .25-06 at about 320 yards and used a 115 grain Nosler BTBT.. I hit him in the shoulder, but he did not go down, he flopped down the mt. for about 100 yards until I got another shot into him.  While I like my .25-06, shoot a few more before being so sure. I feel if this would have been a 150 or 165 grain in .30 cal. the buck may have moved but he would have not required additonal rounds. Your family gave you good advice about the 06, the 30-06 that is.....

[Graybeard]

Three hundred and twenty yards is a loong poke certainly do able with such a round but a loong way just the same. Velocity was way down from what it started out at that far away kinda taking some of the steam out of the speedster.

I now have a .25-06 on steroids that I've long thought I'd like to have (.257 Weatherby Magnum). I'd like to give it a try on such a shot someday to see how it will perform. This is the first rifle I've had that shoots Barnes bullets accurately enough to try them on game. With their 115 TSX it is a half inch or darn close to it shooter. Perhaps one day I'll get to see how well it will reach across a canyon on a shot such as you made.

[Wyo. Coyote Hunter]

  Graybeard, I like this .25-06 and have had several .257 Wea. I used all on coyotes, antelope, whitetails and mulies...But I have had this happen before at long range.. These rifles are nice to shoot, accurate, easy to hit with, but even with a good hit animals can run a long distance with this cal. I shot an antelope doe one fall with my .257 Wea. and a100 grain Nosler BTBT. I had a 6.5-20 on that rifle and put the bullet though both lungs. She was in a huge field, she must have ran a semi circle of at least 250 yards. Almost to the spot where I shot her, before she dropped. Now it was no trick to find her, but if the country would have been different I could have lost the old girl.  My former friend put three or four 120's from his .257 though an antelope buck at about the same range. It didn/t run but just milled around.. What I have read about the Wea. Roy wanted a super fast round not to reach way out, but to shoot game at less than 200 yards so the vel. would do the killing...Any way, they are good rounds, everytime I head to Casper a Rem. CDL in .257 wea. keeps calling my name to take it home. I have resisted so far.
If you want to try a long shot, antelope is the game...I think that doe is the only one I have shot at over or around 400 on antelope, I could look and see. For these animals because I have them 2 minutes from my door, I like to use different rounds. Last fall I used the .30-30 on a couple, and the year before .25-35... This year I took a small buck with the .300 H & H because I just had it rebarreled, that buck was about 300 yds.  They are fun to hunt....Wyoming usually has jillions.....

[Graybeard]

Growing up in the '50s and '60s reading Outdoor Life, Field and Stream and Sports Afield I always wanted to go west and hunt pronghorn, mule deer and elk. I've still never made it really. I did get to CO once but my truck died and I had no wheels to get around while there so the hunt was mostly a bust.

I do hope to put it to use on pronghorn and maybe mule deer before I die. It was a round I've long wanted to own. For years the rifle I wanted it in wasn't made then Remington decided to make it and now I have one. It's a Model 700 LSS with the gray laminated stocks I love so much and SS metal work. I have it's twin in .30-06 as well should I ever make an elk hunt. My plan with the '06 was to turn it into a .35 Whelen or 9,3x62 but I just don't hunt enough to justify doing it so might never get it done.

[nomosendero]

;D007 This last mth. I shot a nice 7 point whitetail with my .25-06 at about 320 yards and used a 115 grain Nosler BTBT.. I hit him in the shoulder, but he did not go down, he flopped down the mt. for about 100 yards until I got another shot into him.  While I like my .25-06, shoot a few more before being so sure. I feel if this would have been a 150 or 165 grain in .30 cal. the buck may have moved but he would have not required additonal rounds. Your family gave you good advice about the 06, the 30-06 that is.....

That depends on how many you shoot with the 30-06 or any other round. I have used a ton of cartridges for Deer, so I have killed probably 30-35 deer or so with the 30-06 & most were quickly fatal, but a few were not, some went a little ways, but some times that happens. My Wife killed a nice 8pt. at about 30 yds. with a 270 2 wks ago, she drilled both front shoulders, junked the lungs & was a wicked wound channel, but that Buck covered about 60 yards. It would not surprise me if she shoots 10 more in the same spot that drop like a stone. Some of the big ones esp. do what seems impossible. I have used most calibers from 223 to 45-70 & some of my fastest kills have been with a hot loaded 25-06 or 25-06AI, partly because the bullet const. is right for Deer, esp. in the 115 & above wts, but some 100's are OK, but it appears the heavier 25's do better after 300 yds. out to 400 & change, I have no qualms about a hot 25 out to 400-450yds., but I can understand your Deer flopping down the hill, struggling downhill gives momentum, saw that with an Antelope shot with a 270 once & a time or two with Deer & other rounds.

[Wyo. Coyote Hunter]

  Greybeard,  good mulies are tough now, but antelope should be a do able project about any time one draws a permit...

Nomosendero, it is something how a caliber can work well for one guy and not another...Over the years I have had just too many animals remain on their feet too long after being shot in the vitals with  .24' & 25's. I like em, but have come to question their ability to kill at long range... I am about to try Nosler Part. in 100 grain for my next go at deer with the .25-06.....It seems to hammer an ol coyote, but deer and sometimes antelope maintain their footing too long for me at times with this cal. For my money the old coyote is far tougher than any deer or antelope....I used a 115 Nosler BTBT...I sent the deer to a processor for my mom to take home, otherwise, I would have done an extensive check on what the bullet did .....It is one of those things I really wish I would have done... but too late now.

[DDZ]

I've hunted deer with a 25-06 for 35 years. I have had to track a couple but it was because of bad shot placement. If I put the shot where is supposed to go, the farthest a deer has run is 50-75 yards. If you hit a deer in the boiler room with a 25-06 it isn't going far.   I use the sierra 117gr. flatbase. I realize that there are better constructed bullets, but this one is accurate in my rifle. What I like best about the 25-06, it doubles as my varmint rifle using the same load, and the 117gr. does fly well at further distances.     

[Wyo. Coyote Hunter]

  DDZ, I can believe that, how far do you normally shoot your deer?? My difficulty with this caliber comes as ranges stretch beyond 2 and a half foot ball fields.  It is great to hitting, but.....

[nomosendero]

Thought about this alot after reading different results, I can only think of 1 Deer or Antelope that stayed up for a ways, I shot an Antelope at about 410yds. with a 125 gr. Wildcat, but in fairness to the bullet it landed a little low & did minimal damage to the lungs, fatal, but not as fast as I would like. I should also mention that I load the 25's to a stiff, but safe load in 26" Sendero's (I load for 3) & in effect in a little diff. class than the guy who uses factory stuff in a 24" or less tube. In fact now, 2 of these Sendero's (mine & my brothers) are AI's & my son's rifle will remain a std. because I don't see him reloading after I am done.
I do think having a upper end load & the right bullet matters more than the bigger rounds & is part of the reason why my experiences have been favorable.
WCH, I can tell you that the best track record in the std. 25-06 has been the 120 Partition loaded to 3200fps with RL25, upper end but safe in these rifles. Try that & I think you will be rather impressed, the 115TSX was devasting as well, though BC was a little less than I liked.

[Wyo. Coyote Hunter]

  Nomosendaro,  I will look into this info. you use re 25 in the std. 25-06? I have only used the 115 BTBT lately or 100 Serria's. I like Nosler Part. so will check this out... I have a 27 in. Douglas on this rifle, but it is a std. .25-06..I really wish I could have skinned this deer myself, that gives a guy a good picture of what really happened. Honestly, I was surprised when this buck took that hit and did not hit the dirt. I had a solid rest and the 14 power Burris showed clearly my buck.. I thought maybe a short run, but he kept pushing and trying to get up. I am not sure the bullet didn't fragment.  But I have had excellent performance with these bullets in 7mm's and 30.s... Thanks for the information....

[nomosendero]

Nomosendaro,  I will look into this info. you use re 25 in the std. 25-06? I have only used the 115 BTBT lately or 100 Serria's. I like Nosler Part. so will check this out... I have a 27 in. Douglas on this rifle, but it is a std. .25-06..I really wish I could have skinned this deer myself, that gives a guy a good picture of what really happened. Honestly, I was surprised when this buck took that hit and did not hit the dirt. I had a solid rest and the 14 power Burris showed clearly my buck.. I thought maybe a short run, but he kept pushing and trying to get up. I am not sure the bullet didn't fragment.  But I have had excellent performance with these bullets in 7mm's and 30.s... Thanks for the information....

I thought RL25 would be a tad too slow, but with 115 & higher it has beat RL22, H4831, & others. I had played a little with IMR7828 & it shows promise, I will take that up in Jan-Feb. But after all, Ret. is a little slower than RL25, but Hodgdon shows it doing best among it's powders in the heavy bullets, so we should not be surprised I guess.

Yes, I use RL25 with 115 & up, nothing lighter with that powder. I loaded 115's in my son's Sendero at 3,200+ with sub 1/2" accuracy, Win brass & CCI Mag primers, you will smoke any Deer or Antelope you shoot. 27" tube, very good!!  

[charles p]

I guess I've taken about 50 whitetails in NC with a 25-06.  I mostly shoot the heavier 115-120 bullets.  Penetration is great.  I once took two doe with one shot (neck and shoulder).  Neither got out of her shadow.  

The 25-06 is a very accurate round in my experience.  I have very few deer that run after the shot because I normally take neck or shoulder shots.  

It's not the rifle caliber that kills the deer.  All rifles and calibers are capable of bad shots and even misses.  Find one you have confidence in.

[MZ5]

My brother is on his second 25-06, and he recently was praising it to me.  That's one of the reasons I like the 25 WSSM.  The 25-06 can potentially be pushed slightly faster, but I like the WSSMs and the 25 is nearly the equal of the 25-06.  Besides that, having my quarter bore be a WSSM makes it far simpler to separate it out from my 30-06 brass. 

[mannyrock]

   A couple of quick points or thoughts:

   1.  Lots of people who shoot the .25-06 are one-gun type of hunters.  They love the round, and don't see a need for anything else.

   2.  Take into account:  That the .25-06 is danged loud! And I mean LOUD!

 

[boaman88]

Killed several deer with the 25-06. Never had to go far to find them. I have always been partial to Winchesters factory ammo with the 120 gr PEP. It has shot nice tight groups in every 25-06 I have shot. Makes a pretty good size hole comming out the other side on a good lung shot too. I would not call in just right. I call it perfect for whitetail.

As far as one running to far, I have seen more than one run over a hundred yards after being lung shot with a 300 Win Mag. Some of those deer are just tougher than others.

[yooper77]

If you place your shots well the 25-06 Remington will do the job every time with any bullet from 100 to 120 grains.  Every cartridge made from the parent 30-06 Springfield is a smart choice.

 I always shoot a double lung for deer or antelope and never a shoulder shot unless I am shooting bears then I want to break down both shoulders.
 
Antelope are very fun and easy to spot & stalk hunt with success rates in the 90% on public land.
I have used my 243 Winchester, 100 grain Nosler Partitions and IMR-4350 from 50 to 300 yards and they were all complete pass throughs and didn’t go more than 10-20 yards in Wyoming and New Mexico.

I have also hunted Mule deer with equal success in North Dakota with my 270 Winchester, 150 grain Hornady Interlock and IMR-4831.

This year I used my 338-06 A-Square for a nice doe whitetail to see how it worked, well perfect performance with complete pass through double lung and hear shot and no wasted shoulder meat.  I used 30-06 Springfield brass, 200 grain Nosler/Winchester combined technology Silver Ballistic Tips and IMR-4320.

Varmints, I use the 223 Remington, for manly fox and coyotes which is more than enough for either, 45, 50 to 55 grain bullets, and IMR-3031 & H-4198.  At longer ranges for coyotes, I use 22-250 Remington, 50 to 55 grain bullets, and IMR-4064 or 243 Winchester, 70, 75, 80 to 87 grain bullets and IMR-3031, IMR-4064 or IMR-4320, but both are overkill for any coyote out to 400 yards in my experience.

yooper77

[nomosendero]

   A couple of quick points or thoughts:

   1.  Lots of people who shoot the .25-06 are one-gun type of hunters.  They love the round, and don't see a need for anything else.

   2.  Take into account:  That the .25-06 is danged loud! And I mean LOUD!

 

Then how loud is the 257 Wea, 264 WM, 7RM, 300 mags, etc. it would be loud for an easterner shooting Varmits by a neighbors house, another good reason not to live in the East, other than that I have no idea
why the 25-06 would be louder than stated rounds & many, many others. To me it's a non-issue compared to about anything I shoot.

[JohnnyMac007]

Have any of you ever taken a hog with a 25-06?  How did it perform?

[boaman88]

Never had a chance to take a hog with it. Friends dad shot one on our lease this year with a 22-250. Bang-flop hog never moved except to hit the ground. It was about a 200 lb sow. Only hog I have ever killed was with my 7mm-08. Put the bullet just about right in its ear. Needless to say it went no where.

[SHOOTALL]

The load is the load i use and have for over 25 years on deer and ground hogs . Never made a shot on deer much past 100 yards with it but have gone to 400 on GH's . Good Luck if you get one .

[nomosendero]

Have any of you ever taken a hog with a 25-06?  How did it perform?

I killed 3 Hogs with a 25-06 when I lived in South AR, about 16 years ago. This was before I used Partitions
in that cal. & the TSX was not to be found. I used the old 120gr. Solid Base with fine results.

[DKA]

Have a 25 06 in Remington 700 SPS, with hand loads, it is one of the most accurate rifles that I own. Use H 1000 under Nosler  120Gr Partitions and it is awesome deer rifle.

[shot1]

I have killed waaaay over 200 WT deer with everything from a bow through most calibers up to 45-70. My main go to rifle for deer is a 25-06 shooting a 117 Sierra bullet. I have killed at least 150 deer with a 25-06 and I have never had a single one go over 75 yards. 99% drop right in their tracks from a shoulder shot. I have killed them from right on top of you to a little over 400 yards. Most between 100 and 300 yards. I have used many different makers bullets and I think the 117 Sierra is the best. In my experience if you put one of those 117 Sierra's leaving the muzzle 300 to 3100 fps into a shoulder or in the lung heart zone of a deer it is not going far. You can run the vitals through a screen.

[Wyo. Coyote Hunter]

  shot 1 on the average how big are these deer???

[nomosendero]

Everyone should read the old Russell Thornberry article about the 25-06 & using it for big Alberta Whitetails.

[shot1]

These deer that I have killed averaged live weight 100 to 190 pounds. Northampton and Halifax Co NC deer. I helped with a control program on a big farm for 15 years. Another bullet that has been doing a really good job for some of my friends is the 110 Nosler Accubond. I have not tried it yet because I have a BUNCH of the 117 Sierra bullets and if it ain't broke I don't try to fix it.   I did try the 130 gr Accubond in my new 264 Win mag this season and took 4 deer with it and it worked perfect. I really like this bullet in the 264.

[shot1]

Here is the link to the Russel Thornberry article

http://www.buckmasters.com/bm/Resources/ClassicBuckmasters/tabid/127/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/50/The-25-06-Deadly-On-Deer.aspx

[Brithunter]

Thank you for posting that it was an interesting read and I have recently acquired a 25-06 and am playing with loads for it now.

The Federal Premium load with the 100 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip gave pretty dissapointing results in accuracy my handloads with the 85 Grain Ballistic Tips and H4350 are doing better I will try the heavier bullets again next year now 

[Wyo. Coyote Hunter]

  Brit, my .25-06 did not like the light 85 or 100 grain Nosler BTBT, but does ok with the 110 Acc. bonds or 115 BTBT. However with the 100 grain Serria FB it is very accurate. Three powders work very well IMR 4831, IMR4350 and Re.22. All of the bullets have been accurate in various .25-06's, but I think the 100 Serria has been most acc. in more rifles.....