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

 

[1911nut]

http://forum.accurateshooter.com/threads/25-06-barrel-length-question.3994325/

 

[sdean]

A deer won’t know 50 fps. A great deer round. Don’t over think this. Good luck.

 

[cheek9075]

Factory rem 700 sendero, 117gr sst, h4350, cci primer, getting 3150 fps. Best rifle I have. Its fun to shoot, deadly on deer. You cant got wrong with it. It's a 600 yard rifle, I have shot it to 1000, not the best at that distance, but it will make the shot.

 

[86alaskan]

22in will get you going just fine, better if you handload. I run a 24" and a 26" and run them pretty hard. When I had a 23" tikka, I would run 117gr sierra loads around 3050 pretty easy. just depends on how far to want to push it. With modern powder and bullets, you really won't lose much from 2" of barrel.

 

[Kurz]

Some articles I've read really harp on a 24 inch barrel to get full performance from this caliber.

If someone is 'really harping' about their idea that 24" happens to be that magical barrel length which optimizes the performance of this cartridge, they are certainly fallacious. The one and only time I know of in which a barrel length was 'optimized' for a cartridge was the 6PPC during the testing at the Houston Warehouse.

A cartridge with the case capacity of the .25-06 has many more lengths to utilize than just the one barrel length suggested with which it can perform. In my opinion you are overworking the thinking about this cartridge and the length of the barrel. Pick a length which you want to use then develop your load and go out to enjoy the experience. There is no magic, there is testing and developing a load or loads.

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.

My suggestion here is to pick another present for this year and save your money for next year or even the year after that in order to buy a rifle worthy of owning and using rather than how many times it might get fired.

250-400 yard shots for the most part.

I've been shooting a .25-06 with the 131 Black Jack bullets in a 22" barrel getting 3,000 fps with 3 powders. This combination is good for 1,000 ft/lbs of energy out to about 900 yards. I've also tested a handful of other .25 caliber cartridges with this same bullet yielding excellent performance. The one small catch is that your barrel will need a slightly faster twist rate, like 1:7.25" or thereabouts. But if I can do it with the heaviest bullet available, you can get another bullet to perform.