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25-06 barrel length question

Coonman300

Saw an earlier thread about the effectiveness of 25-06 as a deer rifle. Thinking about getting my son one. He has other rifles and we primarily bow hunt but a gun is always a good gift! Some articles I've read really harp on a 24 inch barrel to get full performance from this caliber. Only a few make a 24 inch any more and they are more than I want to spend for a gun that will not be used all that much. Looking at a Savage Axis II which is a 22 inch barrel. Am I losing much by getting the 22 inch barrel? About a $400 price difference. 250-400 yard shots for the most part.
Thanks for any suggestions
 
YOU'LL BE FINE YOUR ONLY LOSING BOUT 50FPS IN A 22'' BARREL OVER THE 24'' AT THOSE DISTANCE THERE WOULD BE NOT A NOTICEABLE DIFFERENCE
 
I've owned and shot a .25-06 for more then 40 years. The cartridge holds a lot of powder and needs a longer barrel to burn it. I would not own a .25-06 with a barrel shorter than 24".

If you want a short barrel rifle get it in a different cartridge like a .243 Win.
 
What I've liked about the .25-06 is that is a very flat shooting cartridge and it is very versatile. I bought mine for hunting groundhogs in Ohio. I went with the .25 because I figured I may use it for deer hunting some time in the future.

With bullets of 85 to 90 grains it is one heck of a varmint rifle, very flat shooting and hits with a lot of power. It was capable of hitting a groundhog at some very long distances.

Mine has also gone deer hunting in FL and WVA and black bear hunting in Canada with me using the heavy bullets. Some will say it's not enough for elk but I would not hesitate to use it for an elk with a premium heavy bullet.

I have other rifles now but my first choice is still the .25-06
 
I have shot with a 24" barrel on my 25-06 and I currently have a 26" barrel on it. I have seen better groups with the 26". The 24" was the factory original and it would put 5 shots under an inch with 3 shots usually touching with federal box loads, which to me was good enough for a deer hunting rifle. I was able to improve that with hand loads and a Kreiger barrel. This 3 shot group was from October when I was checking my rifle for deer season burning up some of the leftovers from last year.thumbnail (1).jpg
 
My 25-06 Rem 700 Varmint Special and my Ruger 1V are both 24”
I always wondered why Remington and Ruger made them that way.
Perhaps the shorter tubes proved more accurate for them.Later most of the Varmint models were 26”I really think a 26” would benefit a 25-06 especially if a custom barrel.As I look back the 24”has been fine and killed deer DRT with the 120 Partition and’chucks never knew what hit them with the lighter pills.Since this rifle is for your son I understand the idea behind a shorter, lighter barrel,but like the other posters on this thread I would not get a 25-06 with a barrel shorter than 24”
Matt
 
26" with R#25, Win brass, fed 215's, Shilen 12 twist barrel was as follows

63.0g of R#25 with fed 215, 100g Sierra flat base= bug holes at 3600. SD less than 10 fps, grouped in the high 2's firing new Win brass.

58.5g of R#25, fed 215, 117g Sierra flat base = groups in the high 3's and very low 4's at 3300. I believe that this is the ragged edge of stability for this bullet. This was a max load for this rifle and the most accurate load with the 117g sierra flat base bullet.

This is a Texican rifle, flock of guys in a deer club there shoot the same load, Shilen barrels, 12 twist.

This is for illustration and if you try these loads in a Remington factory rifle, 9-10 twist barrels, back off 4-5 grains and work up.

No boat tail bullets of any weight 100g+ would stabalize in the 12T.

No muzzle break on this rifle, McMillen stock, skim coat bedded by the gunsmith, Leupold 6.5-20 scope, jewel trigger set at 1 lb.

Standard SAAMI reamer was used.
 
I use my .25-06 for deer hunting out of a blind. Mine has a 22” barrel. I have used it to take whitetails to 200 yds. I would not want a barrel longer than 22” for hunting out of a blind. I have practiced with it to 300 yds and it shoots well. Maybe a different cartridge would be better for how I hunt, but I bought and use a .25-06 most of the time because that’s what I want to use.
 
Build him a Savage. Not only can you get the barrel length you want from a number of barrel makers but you could also customize it to him. Heck, let him be a part of the build process and let him pick the components he wants. Make a project and some memories out of it.
 
I meant to add this last night and we lost our internet connection. After using a 6 Rem Ackley for several years I decided that my next build would be a 25-06 Ackley on another Tang Safety Ruger for a hunting rifle. My local dealer took in an estate with a Tang Safety 77 that had been re-fitted with a 21-1/2" 25-06 tube (No markings on the barrel, not sure what brand it is.). It is a round top which means it takes standard bases and rings so I grabbed it. Just for the sake of collecting more data I have tried a few loads for it.

Federal Premium 117 gr Sierra GK BTSP runs just about 2900. Listed as 2990 fps so the 21.5" loses about 100 fps.

Speer 100 gr Spitzer with 58.5 gr of RL-22 ran 3132. Alliant and Speer both say the Max is 58.0 for 3248 fps. My overall length was greater than what they listed and the 77 was happy at 58.5 grains. They do not list the length of the test barrel. I was surprised that I only lost 116 fps.

When I was looking at factory 25-06 rifles a bunch of them are 22". When I sell off a few more guns I will send mine off for a 25-06 Ackley Tube and I am thinking 24" so it is easier to carry and get in and out of a blind with then my 6 Rem Ackley that has a longer barrel.

Too completely mess up your choices, for a 22" barrel I would get a 7MM-08. Both of our kids shoot them and they have way less blast than a 25-06. The federal factory 120 gr Fusion load at 3000 fps is fantastic and has very low recoil. Terminal performance out to 300 yards has been fantastic. A 22" 25-06 is kind of blasty, not sure if a younger shooter would enjoy it.

Good Luck with your research!
 
OK, I am going to go a little against the grain here. I will say in general you want a longer barrel, BUT, I have been shooting a Browning A-Bolt with a 22” barrel forever and killed a ridiculous amount of deer, hogs, exotics, bobcats, coyotes, etc with it. I will say that the older A-Bolts have about a mile of freebore and you can run the charge up and basically do what Weatherby does with their freebore and I get unreal velocities with this rifle, that is nipping at the heals of my 257 Weatherby. I have mainly shot 117 SSTs and 100 TTSXs out of it. I mainly shoot this rifle from a box blind or from the back of my quad (where legal) or still hunting. It is a fast handling rifle and 22” is perfect for a box blind for quick shots.

So yes in general you want a longer barrel. But a 22” works under the right circumstances with a Long freebore. If my rifle had a short throat I’m sure I would not be as happy.
Dave
 
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