Considering 25/06 as a varminter

[Ageo308]

Hi Guys im new to the site and im from Australia.
Now im building a custom rifle and looking at the caliber in 25/06rem. What do you guys recommend this as a varmint cal? Ill be shooting between 200-500yrds mainly at rabbits, foxes, goats and pigs (small-medium game). The gun will consist of:

*Tactical Laminated stock (richard microfit)
*Rem 700 action if available
*#7 barrel either Lilja, Shilen, Kreiger or Maddco in around a 26" length
* New Leupold VX-III 6.5-20x50mm Long Range Target with a Varmint Hunter Reticle.
* And a few other goodies.

This is my first custom gun i will be building.

I look forward to your replies.

Adrian

P.S great site

[Aussie]

25/06 is great if you don't intend to do lots of 500 yard work on big pigs . 6.5/06 or 6.5/284 Norma would give you a much better selection of bullets including 140gn pills with high B.C. that should improve long range performance . Lapua and Norma make brass for the 6.5/284 .

[Ageo308]

Hey Aussie well pigs will most likely be taken out to 100-200yrds max (from where i hunt, NSW & QLD) but foxes, bunnies and other smaller game i will take much farther as when i hunt in open mountain country i have a large range to work with.i.e varmint

the 6.5/284 sounds nice and i will look into it.

[Fiftydriver]

Ageo308,

Sounds like a nice rig. If your going to be hunting pigs at those relatively close ranges, a 25-06 will serve you very well with a quality bullet such as the new 110 gr Accubond from Nosler.

Obviously you are not looking to save pelts on the foxes as the 25-06 will do a number on them.

I don't know how big of a deal it is to order bullets in from Canada for you or from the USA but Wildcat Bullets is building a few specialty bullets for my 257 Allen Mag that you may be interested in.

The light bullet is a bonded COre 130 gr FBHP with a B.C. of .550 and a S.D. .281.

Next is a 145 gr FBSP built on a heavy tapered jacket. This bullet has a B.C. of .530 and a S.D. of .313.

There is also a 145 gr ULD Rebated Boattail bullet which should show up here this week that has a B.C. of .738!!!

You would certainly need a fast twist in your 25-06 but this would give you ranges that the 25-06 has never seen before.

The heavies in this caliber will be a 150 gr BCFBHP and possibly a 160 gr BCFBHP as well.

You can e-mail Wildcat Bullets at:

wildcatbullets@hotmail.com

Good SHooting!!!

Kirby Allen(50)

[James Jamison]

I had one built in 1988 with a heavy douglas barrel and there is no way I could even remember the deer, coyote, and fox it has taken. I finally shot out the barrel and that gun is now being turned into a 220 swift but Santa is bringing me a new remmy cdl in 25-06. It will easily take large whitetail deer at 500. Done it plenty of times with 115 gr. partitions. Good luck, James Jamison.

[johnnyk]

The .25-06 is a very versatile cartridge. I wouldn't be skeered to use it on the biggest whitetail anywhere. It is phenominally flat shooting, very accurate and easy to load for. Some say it doesn't have a wide enough range of bullets but I don't see that at all.
I've had real good luck/accuracy with the 75gr Sierra HP. I have some 75gr V-max's (a buddy gave them to me) that I haven't even tried yet. Another buddy shoots the .257 Roberts AI with the 90gr Sierra GK. He said Sierra recommended that bullet for whitetails.
I've used the 100gr Nosler Ballistic Tip and the 100gr Barnes TSX this year for deer. Both bullets are equally accurate and devastating. I started deer season out using TSX's. Rifle was 3" high at 100yds. I ran low on the TSX and went to Ballistic Tips. Cleaned the barrel and shot the 100gr NBT's and they were 4" high! All I had to do was drop down four clicks.
I'm currently working up a load with the 110gr AccuBond. I tried 53.5gr of RL22/w CCI BR2 yesterday and the group was just under 1". If the wind dies down on my range this evening I will try 54.0gr and see how that does.
I'm shooting a Rem Sendero SF with Leupold 6.5-20x40 with Dual Dovetail rings/mounts. My buddy recently bought (guy with .257 Roberts AI) the Rem CDL in .25-06. He likes it but is currently having problems. He disassembeled it to clean it and now can't find the right pressure on the bedding screws. It's got the wooden pressure point in the barrel channel. I've convinced him he needs to glass bed and free-float the barrel. Accuracy has gone from sub-.5" to 2" groups! He and I always argue about wood vs synthetic and which ones more stable. I'm LOL right now! 65in/lbs on the Sendero's action screws and it shoots like nobody's business. Johnny K.

[Ageo308]

[ QUOTE ]
Ageo308,

Sounds like a nice rig. If your going to be hunting pigs at those relatively close ranges, a 25-06 will serve you very well with a quality bullet such as the new 110 gr Accubond from Nosler.

Obviously you are not looking to save pelts on the foxes as the 25-06 will do a number on them.

I don't know how big of a deal it is to order bullets in from Canada for you or from the USA but Wildcat Bullets is building a few specialty bullets for my 257 Allen Mag that you may be interested in.

The light bullet is a bonded COre 130 gr FBHP with a B.C. of .550 and a S.D. .281.

Next is a 145 gr FBSP built on a heavy tapered jacket. This bullet has a B.C. of .530 and a S.D. of .313.

There is also a 145 gr ULD Rebated Boattail bullet which should show up here this week that has a B.C. of .738!!!

You would certainly need a fast twist in your 25-06 but this would give you ranges that the 25-06 has never seen before.

The heavies in this caliber will be a 150 gr BCFBHP and possibly a 160 gr BCFBHP as well.

You can e-mail Wildcat Bullets at:

wildcatbullets@hotmail.com

Good SHooting!!!

Kirby Allen(50)

[/ QUOTE ]

Kirby only 1 problem mate, cant order ammo in for yourself here, only dealers can - and i dont know a dealer well enough for them to order it in as costs can get pretty steep if its not bought in massive bulk. But ill email them and see what they can do (if they have a contact here) thanks.