As I get older, I am convinced that there is nothing new under the sun. For example, as I browse through YouTube videos. I'm starting to see youngsters touting the .25-06 Reminton as a long-range hunting cartridge. They are a bit late to the party. Maybe it's just the algo rhythm playing with my head, but I'm seeing a lot of videos talking about A.O. Neidner's old cartridge. He invented it in 1920 by necking down the then new US Government cartridge to .25 caliber. Remington standardized it in 1969.
I bought my first one in 2008, and I was late to the party. After finding a used Ruger 77 in a pawn shop rack, I started reloading for it and fairly quickly settled on a load that uses Sierra's GameKing bullet and Reloder 22 powder. It throws that 117-grain bullet at 2971 and keeps them all inside an inch at 100 yards. I was done tinkering with that rifle and passed it along to my second son. A bit later, I found another one in a used gun rack and picked it up cheap. I eventually passed it to my elder son. We now have four of them in the family.
That combination is quite lethal on our smallish Louisiana deer. It's a great cartridge. If I were working up loads for it today, I would probably work up a load with one of the newer copper bullets, but I still have a stock of those GameKing bullets and no real reason to start tinkering again.
So, to all you fellows who are just now discovering the .25-06, welcome to the party, pal. It's over 100 years old, and still doing what we ask it to do. A.O. Neidner knew what he was doing back then, and it's still doing it today.
I got mine as a high school graduation present in 1974. It is a Remington Model 700 BDL. As Near as I can find out it was made in 1969. I should take it out and shoot the dust out of the barrel.
ReplyDeleteIn a similar vein, I recently saw an article recently comparing the hot new 6.5 variants to the 120 year old 6.5 Swedish - the performance is almost identical.
ReplyDeleteNo .25-06 here, but .250 Savage has worked well.
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