\u201cThe .25\/06 is the Rodney Dangerfield of cartridges, it just can\u2019t get any respect,\u201d says Shooting Editor John Snow in a recent conversation we had about the quarter-bore wildcat that Remington brought into official production in 1969. It\u2019s an old cartridge with a cult-like following that makes up for its lack of numbers with passion to spare. Is their devotion simply a matter of nostalgia, or is there something more to the .25\/06?<\/p>\n
The Spell of the .25\/06<\/h2>\n
It was with eager anticipation that I got my first elk tag as a 12-year-old kid in Colorado. I borrowed a .25\/06 that belonged to my friend\u2019s dad, and it was the first big-game rifle I ever shot. I vividly remember shooting it in an old dug-out gravel pit along a rural country road with my dad\u2014even though I never did get an elk with it. It seemed that every hunter and farmer talked about the .25\/06 with a humble reverence.<\/p>\n
I remember bull elk and antelope that my uncle Tracy would kill with his Ruger .25\/06 when he traveled back to Colorado. He lived in Alaska and had plenty of stories of adventure involving this rifle. He\u2019d often tell the story of a grizzly bear that was killed almost instantly from one \u00a0shot with his .25\/06\u2014it was the fastest he\u2019d ever seen a grizzly expire.<\/p>\n In another story, he was in the Brooks Range with some friends when a wolf ran through camp. After everyone had given up on shooting at the running wolf, he pulled a single .25\/06 cartridge from his pocket, kissed it, slid it into the chamber, and dropped the wolf at over 800 paces. He eventually gave that rifle to my cousin (his nephew), and I once watched him shoot a coyote between the eyes at over 300 yards. My uncle still loves the .25\/06, and even swindled me out of mine\u2014but that\u2019s another story altogether.<\/p>\n I grew up on the edge of two eras\u2014just before laser rangefinders and custom dials were common. You sighted your rifle two or three inches high at 100 yards, and if a deer or coyote was really far off, you held just over its back. That is unless you were shooting a .25\/06 of course\u2014then you held dead-on. When saving for my first big-game rifle, I was torn between two rifles in the local turnstile\u2014a Remington Model 710 .30\/06, and a stainless-steel Ruger .25\/06. The Remington was cheaper, and my resolve was weak, but I do still wish I had gotten the .25.<\/p>\n Not that long ago, maximum point-blank range was the name of the game for the average hunter, and that\u2019s where the .25\/06 shines. High B.C., heavy-for-caliber bullets weren\u2019t widely popular until relatively recently, and the .25\/06 came from an era where speed was the key to going long. Without easily adjustable scopes to compensate for bullet drop, the faster and flatter a bullet could be pushed, the easier it was to shoot at longer distances. There were many great wildcats and production cartridges, but the .25\/06 earned itself a place in the hearts of many western big-game hunters.<\/p>\n Eventually, I bought my own .25\/06\u2014a Remington M700\u2014in 2006. I\u2019d been in Alaska for several years and was fully enthralled with Dall sheep hunting. I thought the .25\/06 would make a hell of a sheep rifle, and I was right. I killed 6 rams in a row with that .25\/06, as well as several bears, moose, deer, and a big mountain goat.<\/p>\n The end of my nearly exclusive use of that rifle ironically coincided with the first production hunting rifle chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor that I could find back in 2013, a Ruger Hawkeye. It was also about the time I started using custom dials on most of my scopes. As a competitive shooter, I recognized some of the benefits that the 6.5 CM brings to the table. I was also just itching to try something new. That\u2019s really it. I think for the average hunter, the .25\/06 is still better in some ways.<\/p>\n If the .25\/06 is under-appreciated, the 6.5 CM is certainly over-appreciated, right? After all, it’s not just quarter-bore shooters who will knock the 6.5 CM. After all, everyone who doesn\u2019t shoot it seems to want bash the 6.5 CM. Some of the criticism around the 6.5 CM is just silly. Just spend some time shooting the 6.5 CM or the 6.5 PRC (which is gaining popularity quickly) and then switch back to shooting .308\u2019s and .30\/06\u2019s. You\u2019ll feel like you\u2019re throwing bricks downrange\u2014and your shoulder will feel it too.<\/p>\n However, that\u2019s not really the case with the .25\/06 when it comes to practical hunting situations for most folks. Sure, the 6.5 CM eventually pulls away from the .25\/06 in a few ways, but at distances that are beyond ethical for most hunters. The .25\/06 has always been fast and deadly, and many shooters who weren\u2019t brought up with it don\u2019t know what they\u2019re missing. It consumes more powder than the 6.5 CM but is faster and flatter across most practical hunting distances.<\/p>\n For big game, a good bullet that will hold together is vital, and with the .25\/06 my favorite was always the Nosler 110-grain Accubond<\/a>. The 117-grain Hornady SST<\/a> was a close second. The 110-grain Accubond is still one of the best choices out there, and the .25\/06 can drive it at nearly 3,300 feet per second\u2014although 3,085 is probably a more realistic average for most rifles. My favorite bullet for the 6.5 CM is the Hornady 143-grain ELDX, and a handload at 2,675 fps for my Winchester XPR has killed more sheep and caribou than climate change.<\/p>\n Read Next:<\/strong> The Best Deer Hunting Rifles of 2022<\/a><\/p>\n The 143-grain 6.5mm bullet has a much higher B.C., but the speed of a 110-grain Accubond at 3,085 fps gives the .25\/06 a flatter trajectory to 1,000 yards. It also has a higher velocity out to about 550 yards. It still hangs onto a 2,000-fps velocity at 500 yards\u2014farther than most hunters should ever be shooting at game anyway\u2014and wind deflection is only slightly more. It\u2019s arguable that the average deer hunter whose shots are at reasonable distances is better-off choosing the .25\/06 over the 6.5 CM by the numbers. It also doesn\u2019t hurt that ammo for the .25\/06 was still on many store shelves throughout the entire pandemic.<\/p>\n It\u2019s impossible to say whether the .25\/06 is conclusively the most under-appreciated cartridge of our time, but I feel that just about anyone who really gives it a chance would be impressed by what the innocuous cartridge will do. Being caught between the bullet selections of the 6mm and 6.5mm cartridges doesn\u2019t do the .25\/06 any favors. I also know that there are some quarter bores out there that are faster, but it\u2019s not always about being the fastest. The .25\/06 Remington won hearts by being a simple, fast, accurate, and light-recoiling cartridge. It still is, and it could certainly use some more respect.<\/p>\n The post Is the .25\/06 the Most Under-Appreciated Cartridge Ever?<\/a> appeared first on Outdoor Life<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.outdoorlife.com\/uploads\/2022\/09\/02\/FP_P2506A1_2506RemNoslerAccuBond_Combo_Rm.jpeg\")
The Flat-Shooting .25\/06<\/h2>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.outdoorlife.com\/uploads\/2022\/09\/02\/sheep-hunting-06-004-copy.jpg\")
Is the Creedmoor really any better?<\/h2>\n
The .25\/06 Can Still Hang, and Excel<\/h2>\n
![\"Ballistics](\"https:\/\/www.outdoorlife.com\/uploads\/2022\/09\/02\/IMG_6609-2-scaled.jpg\")
A Cartridge is a Cartridge<\/h2>\n