25-06 for US deer?

[MagnumManiac]

I'm not a gun smith, so I can't say what would cause that. I make all my brass out of 7mm mauser. I fire form using full powered AI load specs and have never had a brass failure. I do use the slowest powders and with my 26 barrel it approaches the speed of 25-06 on the chrono

I am a smith, all of my brass is fireformed from Winchester White/Yellow box, annealed, sized and with custom Redding dies. The brass never splits when first fired and formed, but does on the third firing about 70% of the time.
I had 300 pieces of that Winchester brass, all had been fireformed and I have lost 70% due to weird neck splits.
They are in the middle of the brass neck with short longitudinal splits and tiny horizontal splits coming off the main split. Some cases have them all the way around the neck, like 3-4, others have only 1.
It's almost like the brass is brittle, but it has been annealed after every single firing.
I fired some factory Remington brass in the rifle and the necks expand by .006". This is not excessive, haven't fired the Rem brass again, was just seeing if it is a gun problem or not.

Cheers.

 

[tknuts103]

25-06 may be one of the best deer cartridges ever. Flat shooting, low recoil, and plenty of lead for deer and the like.

Couldn't agree more. Just crushed a whitetail with Hornady 117 SSTs. Has never failed me although I thought I would use the SSTs for a long range coyote gun and after shooting one a couple days ago I changed my mind. About blew the coyote in half.

 

[Fedwell]

I sent A win. 70 30-06 Barreled action to Douglas and had it Re-Barreled to a 25-06 AI with 1:7.5 twist. To say i am very pleased is a big under statement. Havent killed anything with it yet but I have Reached the magic 4000 fps. Mark using 75HH Bullets. Working on a "Hunting" Load with 92 HH.

Fede-Well

 

[ButterBean]

I sent A win. 70 30-06 Barreled action to Douglas and had it Re-Barreled to a 25-06 AI with 1:7.5 twist. To say i am very pleased is a big under statement. Havent killed anything with it yet but I have Reached the magic 4000 fps. Mark using 75HH Bullets. Working on a "Hunting" Load with 92 HH.

Fede-Well

A 7 twist with the 92's will be a freaking awesome combo

 

[Fedwell]

A 7 twist with the 92's will be a freaking awesome combo

I had it Built because of YOUR Suggestion. Thank you.

 

[budlight]

I only have the custom rem 700 with a 10 twist E R Shaw 26 inch 257 ROBERTS ACK. So it's about 6 grains less than a 25-06. Superformance powder is a good one and so is reloader 25 or R-26 for heavies. My experience with 25-06 is that the heavy 117-120 gr. just do pass through on a classic lung shot and you end up shooting multi times or have to go on long searches of tiny blood trails. So the past few mule deer hunts I used 100 gr sierra SBT. devastating DRT. Out of 3 deer on the last hunt and the others had 6.5 and 7 mm's mine was the only bang flop. I've also used Barnes X bullets with great success

 

[Barrelnut]

I have a light and handy 25-06. It's by far my favorite deer rifle. Have a couple other choices, but seems it's the one I always grab for the last decade or so. It likes the 117 Sierras with RL22. It's easy to fall in love with a 25-06.

 

[ButterBean]

I had it Built because of YOUR Suggestion. Thank you.

Your welcome, That's gonna be deadly

 

[Hugnot]

The .25-06 is an extremely effective hunting cartridge. My self imposed limit for game hunting is 400 yards & the .25-06 can easily match any 6mm or 6.5mm cartridge for effective trajectories at that range. The problem, if it is a problem, the 6mm's & 6.5mms offer more pointy (high BC) bullets. Not to be a future problem as bullet makers can duplicate 6mm & 6.5mm bullet BC's with .257 diameter bullets. A .257 diameter is not a deciding factor for developing high BC, low FF bullets.

 

[ButterBean]

The .25-06 is an extremely effective hunting cartridge. My self imposed limit for game hunting is 400 yards & the .25-06 can easily match any 6mm or 6.5mm cartridge for effective trajectories at that range. The problem, if it is a problem, the 6mm's & 6.5mms offer more pointy (high BC) bullets. Not to be a future problem as bullet makers can duplicate 6mm & 6.5mm bullet BC's with .257 diameter bullets. A .257 diameter is not a deciding factor for developing high BC, low FF bullets.

Here's something that will make some heads spin, .257 is 6.5mm and the 6.5 Needmoor which is .264 is really 6.7mm, Just sayin

 

[Quintus]

The two bit ought six is a dandy. Maybe not for long range as defined here, but back when 450 was a good poke, it was awesome. For animals up to 400 pounds and ranges under 500 yards it is about perfect. With just regular bullets like the 90 grain sierra HPBT GK, 100 grain Partition, 110 grain Accubond, 115 grain B-Tip, and the like it is a perfect blend of speed, shootability, and penetration.

 

[budlight]

I've been out target shooting and had a 100 257 rob AI's to reload and I was thinking about Mr. Coyote. It almost make you cry at the price of stuff now. They got reloaded with 51 gr of superformance.

I found these in the bottom of the bullets $ 6.25 for 100. I had to remember the time frame when I had the 26 inch bull barreled 25-06 and it was just about 1990 when I was really varminting. Lots of jack rabbits back then.

 

[budlight]

I am a smith, all of my brass is fireformed from Winchester White/Yellow box, annealed, sized and with custom Redding dies. The brass never splits when first fired and formed, but does on the third firing about 70% of the time.
I had 300 pieces of that Winchester brass, all had been fireformed and I have lost 70% due to weird neck splits.
They are in the middle of the brass neck with short longitudinal splits and tiny horizontal splits coming off the main split. Some cases have them all the way around the neck, like 3-4, others have only 1.
It's almost like the brass is brittle, but it has been annealed after every single firing.
I fired some factory Remington brass in the rifle and the necks expand by .006". This is not excessive, haven't fired the Rem brass again, was just seeing if it is a gun problem or not.

Cheers.

I was looking up some online loads for 257 rob AI and I came across something that you posted in 2018 using 4350 powder here on longrange. Those older powders burned really hot compared to modern copper foul reducing stuff....

I have always used the slowest powder and just burned more. I have a bunch of reloads using r-26 with 54 grains behind 117 and 120's with cci large rifle primers. I looked for my chrono data, but two houses later it's not around.

lighter rounds I moved up to H 100V and Staball 6.5 and 85 gr ballistic tip varmint rounds.

Over the years I've had wildcat rounds with no information on loading. So I worked off burn rate charts and tested all kinds of powders.

Latest Hodgdon powder burn rate chart (November 2019)

Here is the newest Hodgdon burn rate chart. It is missing a few powders we use but is the most complete I am aware of. #burnrate #powderburnrate

www.longrangeonly.com

 

[MagnumManiac]

I was looking up some online loads for 257 rob AI and I came across something that you posted in 2018 using 4350 powder here on longrange. Those older powders burned really hot compared to modern copper foul reducing stuff....

I have always used the slowest powder and just burned more. I have a bunch of reloads using r-26 with 54 grains behind 117 and 120's with cci large rifle primers. I looked for my chrono data, but two houses later it's not around.

lighter rounds I moved up to H 100V and Staball 6.5 and 85 gr ballistic tip varmint rounds.

Over the years I've had wildcat rounds with no information on loading. So I worked off burn rate charts and tested all kinds of powders.

Latest Hodgdon powder burn rate chart (November 2019)

Here is the newest Hodgdon burn rate chart. It is missing a few powders we use but is the most complete I am aware of. #burnrate #powderburnrate

www.longrangeonly.com

Unfortunately for me, all the Alliant powder I currently have is it. It is not available to me anymore unless I drive 24hrs and physically buy it and transport it myself. There is no hazmat couriers here anymore.
H4350 and 760 are my go-to powders in the 257AI, which I have plenty of both luckily.
I really have no interest screwing that barrel back on, I have my 338-06 barrel on that Mauser 98 currently….it is my favourite custom I built when I first started smithing as a hobby, I am an engine machinist by trade.

Cheers.