25 06 Rem and 22" barrel.

[Land Rover]

Hi Guys

I have an awesome 25 06 with a heavy 25" barrel and all up it weighs about 4.5kgs.
I am wanting a lighter rifle for the longer overnight hunts and am interested in the
Tikka T3 lite 25 06. These rifle have a 22" inch barrel, which I will add a suppressor.
Do any of you guys have one and how does it shoot? Are there problems from the powder not completely burning in the barrel because of the short length. I know velocity will be down but I am mostly shooting 0 - 200 yards and occasionally up to 350 yards.

 

[Barrelnut]

I run RL22 and Sierra 100 gr. Game King in my 22" barreled Savage. I get 3200 fps and it shoots less than 1/2 MOA for 5 shots at 200 yards most of the he time. Plane ole 10 twist.

 

[Bbear]

I have two Remington's in 22" barrels. One is a 'slow' barrel with 110 AB's running right under 3000 fps, the other pushes the same bullet with the same powder right at 3125. I see no signs of un-burned powder in either of these two.
The Tikka's are a great, accurate rifle right out of the box. Not much you'll need to do to them except stick on a scope and go shooting.

 

[RT2506]

What will you be hunting? I have been killing white tail deer for about 20 years with a .257 diameter 117 Sierra Pro Hunter at 3000 fps to a touch over 500 yards on a regular bases with BANG FLOP results. Shorter barrel 25-06s do really well with one of the 4350s.

 

[Land Rover]

Well I have bought the Tikka T3 Lite 25 06 and added a five shot mag.
Mostly hunting Goats, with the odd wild pig and occasional red Deer.
I Will make sure it shoots to the MOA guaranteed and then get one of my suppressors fitted.

My other hand loads for my 25" barreled 25 06 are with AR2217 (or H1000 )
Will I need a faster power for a shorter barrel or just go with what I have.


I also have AR 2209 and AR 2208.

 

[RT2506]

H1000 is pretty slow burning. What bullet will you be shooting? These slow burners work best with 115 gr and heaver bullets. With the 22" barrel I still would give one of the 4350s a try. You may be ok with the H1000 velocity wise but get a pretty big fire ball of muzzle blast. My buddy used H1000 in his 24" barrel with 117 Sierra's and got great accuracy but the velocity was almost the same as his H4831 load with the same accuracy but the H1000 had a much greater muzzle blast. Once he used up the pound of H1000 he went back to the H4831 because he had a bunch of it. I have a 26" 25-06 that I average 3000 fps with 49 grs IMR or AA 4350, 117 Sierra pro hunter flat base bullet, CCI 250 mag primer and a Rem. case. I get BUG HOLE accuracy with it. I get the same velocity with H4831 but the accuracy is not as good. I have never really felt the need for more velocity and I regularly kill white tail deer out to 500 yards and keep hair in the cross hairs. If I hunt bean fields where I will get longer than 500 yard shots I bring out the 27 3/4" barrel 264 Win Mag. 130 Accubonds at 3350 fps really reach out there and touch them.

 

[Land Rover]

I'm keen on the 117gr Sierra Prohunters, they always seem to do the job.
58.5gr AR2217 (H1000) I get 3150-3200fps from my 25" heavy barrel. 1/2" accuracy.

So I would like to stick with the Sierra Prohunters in my Tikka.
I don't get muzzle flash with the 25" barrel. So if I have a 22" barrel and then add my suppressor which will add to the overall length, will that help with the muzzle flash issue.
I will have to check how far forward my suppressor sits. In a way it will be extending the barrel length?

It's hard to look at other powders when I get superb results with Ar2217.

The main thing that bettered my accuracy was seating the bullets deeper. Just off the lands wasn't working for me. So I measured factory rounds which were over 1mm shorter in OAL. I seated the bullets .3mm deeper and bingo the groups pulled in.
I am happy to try my other powders if a faster burning one is required.

 

[scfam]

Hi Guys

I have an awesome 25 06 with a heavy 25" barrel and all up it weighs about 4.5kgs.
I am wanting a lighter rifle for the longer overnight hunts and am interested in the
Tikka T3 lite 25 06. These rifle have a 22" inch barrel, which I will add a suppressor.
Do any of you guys have one and how does it shoot? Are there problems from the powder not completely burning in the barrel because of the short length. I know velocity will be down but I am mostly shooting 0 - 200 yards and occasionally up to 350 yards.

There is no free lunch. You will not get the same MV out of your 22.4 inch Tikka that you would out of your 25 inch barrel. The 25-06 really is more of a "magnum class" when it comes to powder burn rate. So, yep, you will lose a bit of MV in the 22.4. Is it enough to matter to you? I am a 25-06 supporter and I think you will not see enough difference to really matter except at the margins. So if your 25-06 is a 350 yard elk rifle, maybe in the Tikka you take that down to 325...see what I'm saying? If you aren't hunting elk, it just won't make that much difference. Have fun!!! BTW, the shorter stiffer barrel might just give you a tiny bit better accuracy and it sure as heck will weigh less. Life is a big pile of tradeoffs. You might also consider the 6.5 Creedmoor in that weight/length of barrel. Not quite the laser the 25-06 is, but still a pretty cool shooter with mild recoil out to 400 yards...also a little less affected by the barrel length issue....

Umm, just to throw another little dealio at you, why not think about the savage Model 11 or 16 Trophy Lightweight in 6.5 Creedmoor? Now you are talking pretty good deer and even modest elk gun, with super light weight and fairly light recoil. Also a reputed sub-moa rifle and maybe $50 less than the Tikka...Just sayin'

 

[RT2506]

You never know until you give something a try. You will work it out. I have tried a lot of different make and styles of bullets and it is hard to beat the plain Jane 117 Sierra on deer size game. I get better accuracy out of the flat base pro hunter than the BT game king usually. In your stated yardage usage even 300 or so fps less velocity will not make any difference. My buddy killed a bunch of deer with a 257 Roberts out to around 500 yards at times using the 117 pro hunter with no problems. My buddy and I did crop damage control on a big farm for 15 years were we took 100 white tail deer a year and we shot them with everything from an arrow to a 45-70 Sharps buffalo rifle. We learned a lot about what works and what does not work well. With most any plain Jane cup and core 100 to 120 gr bullet in any 25 cal from 250 Savage to 257 Weatherby is a drop them in their tracks deer killer.