The .25/06 is a true thoroughbred. Quite capable of outstanding performance, but apt to give you a kick to the side of the head too.
A friend who has been shooting the same .25/06 very successfully and accurately for over 25yrs confered with me over a perplexing problem he recently encountered.
He had bought 60rds (three boxes) of Winchester 120gr PP ammo on a clearance sale (two boxes were same lot#, 3rd box was different lot#). Upon shooting the first one, and all subsequent ones, he had to use a block of wood to extract the fired cases. This was found to occur with BOTH lot#'s.
I inspected the rifle, and chamber. After routine cleaning followed by a chamber brushing, nothing looked awry. Previously reloaded and fired ammo from other makes were "OK".
I then turned my attention to the ammo. Brass miked out nominal; length, thickness, ect.
Then he later pulled some bullets. Nothing abnormal, except for the ~55gr of powder, which appears very similar to Winchester XMR rifle powder. However, after the remaining ammo from same box had powder charges dropped 10%, and reloaded- when fired had no problem. Pressure signs were absent, no burnishing of the case neck, or dimming of the headstamp, or primer cratering.
I chrono'd the original loading with his rifle (after cleaning, it only required working the bolt twice, and hand rapping the bolt handle to eject the fire case), which still had burnishing on the middle section of the neck!), the velocity was a "nominal" ~3,000fps. Pressures were obviously OVER max, as primers were somewhat flattened and were showing evidence of light cratering.
The reduced factory loadings were fired later and appeared to produce nominal pressures. The same rifle fired with the reloads the shooter had been using for upwards of 20yrs still produced the usual excellent accuracy -Sierra 120gr HP over H4831 or *IMR4320 ( *this is a "slower load" at 2,900fps, but exceedingly accurate!).
Only thing we could surmise was that the ammo was just too hot for his rifle (an early '80's MkX Interarms Mauser w/24" bbl). His reloads with range pickup Winchester brass were OK, and the cases weighed nominally the same.
He sent Winchester an email regarding the ammo issue, but has not recieved a reply after 2 weeks.
Anyone else had this problem with the .25/06 factory ammo?
My experience with several .25/06's I've reloaded for shows that it indeed can be finicky. Nothing new there though. P.O. Ackley had same experience with it.
Personnally, I use a .257 Roberts, and find that it isn't nearly as sensitive, even though my "personal" data, worked up totally independently was essentially identical to data that John Barsness publised in recent Handloader Magazine. It is somewhat higher than most manuals present, and somewhat lower than ususally is the "limit" for the .25/06.
Difference in .25/06 and .257 Roberts is actually less than the difference between .30/06 and .308 as case length and volumn would indicate. Just that due to somewhat "overbore capacity" of the '06 case can cause pressures to escalate very quickly after the "max" for a particular chamber is reached.
I too have seen this with the .270wcf, but to a lesser extent.
One friend had (he's now deceased), a Cooper in .25/06. It too had a "tight" chamber and "maxxed out" below most of the loading manuals. At 5% below Hodgdons max of H4831SC, it gave slightly above book-max velocities, but astounding accuracy.
Just give the .25/06 a little more "cautious respect" than you might a .30/06, or .270 when deciding to trickle a little more powder on the pan.
All that said though, the 120gr .257 slugs at 3,000-3,100fps are in my experience indistinguishable from the performance of the .270 130gr bullets at nearly identical velocities. My .257Roberts pushes the 120gr to 2,875- 2,900fps with RL-22 or H4831, and have never given anything but exemplary performance.
No need to "HOT-ROD" the .25/06. It's a hot-rod already!
Makes me wonder why the "factories" keep cranking out new cartridges all the time.
P.S. I get 3,500fps from 75gr Hornady HP's and H414 from my .257Robt. and 22" bbl. (Hodgdon "book" load at miserly ~48,000cup!)
With .25/06 ~3,700fps is possible, but the 85-87gr bullets are much better past 300yds. My p-dog load for "Bob" is an 85gr Nosler B.T. at 3,400fps. 3,500fps is easily do-able from the .25/06, and certainly in the .22-250 and .220Swift class for varmints. In my experience,with 100gr bullets in .25/06, 3,250fps is the "sweet-spot". 3,000fps is "IT" with the 120gr bullets, but as formentioned, these "long" bullets can be very pressure sensitive.
