I am new to varmint hunting. I have used ligt loads in several of my deer rifles, but I would like to buy a good rifle just to shoot at varmints and long range targets. How well can I expect a 25-06 to fair in this line. If anyone has an ideas of other favorites please let me hear from you. Remember I am new to this and all help from this forum will be appreciated.
Stephen

You are going to get alot of questions from people who need to know. what kind of varmits? What do you mean "long range"? Is this a carry or bench weapon? How much do you want to spend? Do you want to handload? How much will you shoot in a day? How much recoil do you want to handle?

I answered your poll with a generic 223 Remington, cheap ammo, good accuracy. Good for what I call medium long range, 300 yards.

The 25/06 is a super round, from varmits to elk,

low_tech

Stephen,

If a customer came in asking your question here is what I would ask them back.

First off, for a first dedicated varmint rifle, do not get carried away with the cailber. I consider the 243 Win as a max round for a dedicated varmint would except for very deliberate long range(spelled +500 yard) varmint hunting.

IF you take one of the bigger 22 cailber rounds with a good 50-55 gr varmint bullet, I much prefer Ballistic Tips but there are alot of good ones out there, and drive then to 3600-3800 fps, you will be in good shape for shooting little varmints out to 1/4 mile.

I prefer the 22-250 over the 220 Swift just for user friendliness. It is not hard to get either to shoot well but the 22-250 is cheaper and has more options in rifle choice.

Perhaps even better for you would be something in the 223 class of round. This would be the new 204 if they ever get here, the 222, 223 and 222 Rem Mag.

All of them will give you 300 yard range, they all will get over 200 rounds per pound of powder if you reload, which you really should. And all are very effective on game.

Of the four, the 223 would be my hands down choice right now. If the componants become widely available for the 204, I feel I may lean that way but for now the 223 is the king of high volume varmint rounds.

As far as rifles go, Winchester, Remington, Ruger and Savage all make quality rifles in either sporter weight or heavy varmint rifles. If you will be walking alot while varmint hunting get the sporter, if you will shoot from a fixed location such as a portable bench or over the hood of your truck get the heavy varminter models.

Your optics are at least as important as cailber, get good glass, that does not mean the most expensive you can find. Weaver and Bushnell offer great scopes for very good prices, but get the upper end Bushnells such as the 3200 and 4200 series. In the Weaver lines, the V series are hard to beat.

If you have the money, look at the Burris line of scopes. The varmint models in the Fullfield II and Signature series are very good and for the money, I feel a better option then the higher prices optics that offer more name the more performance.

If you are going to be hunting from the muzzle to say 300 yards, a 4.5-14 power will do nicely. If you plan on stretching things to 500 and 600 yards get one og the 6-24 or 8-32 class scopes. As you advance in shooting skill these higher power scopes will also allow you to reach out to well past the half mile mark.

Good SHooting!!!

50

Stephen,

I have a 25-06 in a Savage F110 Tactical rifle, with a Burris Signature 6x24 scope, and I couldn't be happier. Still, the rifle was bought to fill a niche in my groundhog hunting needs. It is for those days that I want to sit in a field, under a shade tree, with no place to go, 400+ yds of safe shooting, a bipod, tick repellent, some Skoal and a chilled Pepsi, some beef jerky...you get the idea. It's my picnic gun.

For walking and shooting off hand out to 200 yds or less, I have a Savage 112 single shot in .223. Sure it will shoot farther, but I can't shoot better than 200 yds off hand on a groundhog, so I don't.

Both guns fit my mood for the day. Either gun will shoot micro groups @ 100 yds (.5 or less) from the bench.

Best advice I can give you, decide what you want to do while hunting, and choose your rifle accordingly.

Mike

stephan, To take fiftydrivers comments out some more, I'll state another opinion. Fiftydriver is right on with his advise but you asked about the 25-06 in general. IF I WAS TOLD TONITE THAT I COULD ONLY HAVE ONE RIFLE FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE IT WOULD BE A 25-06!!!! Varmints to big game!!! I live in VA so the chances of me ever having to shoot a friggin grizzly are nil!! ANything else....drill the sucker!!! Remington saw fit( I don't run the company) to discontinue Senderos in anything but the godawful, big muthas!!! They used to offer the Senderos in 25-06, 270...but somehow thought they only needed to offer them in RUM's(and I hear they are dropping them and going to the WSM'S!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) in the future!! May not be any Senderos in anything as the WSM's only need a short action!!! I have been working on a 7mmSTW Sendero for a friend........ain't no sense in that much punishment!!! Albeit the thing will shoot pretty good but why subject oneself to that abuse!!!????? Your goal is long range varmints and the 25-06 will handle long range varmints!!! This is from someone who has shot a bunch of varmints with a bunch of guns!! As far as the .224 choices go...22-250 is the stuff!! A close second would be the 222MAG!!!(223 fans eat your heart out!!!!!!) .243 and 6mm.....5 cents of one, nickel for the other!! Step up to the 25-06 and never look back!!! GHD(pastor at the church of GHD...25-06!!) PS: I do have a 6mm Rem that is turning some heads with it's shenanigans!!! But the 25-06 is so much more vesatile!!!

The 6mmm is ideal for your wants in varmint and paper punching. The 25-06 is a fine duel purpose cartridge but you will soon tire of the recoil and replacing shot out barrels if you do a lot of shooting.

The 6mm gives longer barrel life and can handle deer size game with 100 grain bullets. The 65 or 75 grain bullet are ideal varmint bullets at most practical hunting ranges.

The 25-06 is probably the ideal antelope and Caribou cartridge with the 115 grain bullet.

My factory rifle of choice is Savage, you can't beat the out of the box accuracy or the price. The heavy barreled models shine in accuracy performance.

I agree. SAVAGE makes a accurate rifle. Their new ACCU TRIGGER is GREAT. I fired a rifle in .223 and it was nice. The ONLY thing that people seem to say about Savage Rifles is that they are plain looking and have that lasrge Barrel Nut. Out of the box, best accuracy and best for the money. Good looks don't make a accurate rifle.

Reloader66,

I agree with you about the Savage rifle. Got one ordered in .270 WSM that should be here soon. I disagree with you about the .25-06 and replacing shot out barrels and the recoil.

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but you will soon tire of the recoil and replacing shot out barrels

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I have been shooting the .25-06 for over 40 years and never had a problem with shot out barrels. I have three .25-06's at this point in time(a Ruger M77V(older tang safety model), a Remington M700 BDL Varmint and a Ruger No. 1B) and even the older tang safety model Ruger M77V has over 3,000 rounds thru it and still shoots under MOA any time I want. This is my number one deer/antelope/varmint rifle. My first .25-06 was built on a Springfield 03/A3 action in 1961 and had well over 2,500 rounds thru it when I sold it to my cousin. He still has it. The .25-06 is no harder on barrels than your 6mm Remington and it is more versatile. Lawdog

I have just a regular Ruger Mark II Stainless 25-06AI in a Hogue stock. It is superbly accurate with 75 grain V-Maxes at 3950 and for big game I use 100 grain Nosler Partitions at 3550fps. The 75's shoot .3's and the 100' go .7 or less. I use a Leupold 6-18 for its versatility on this versatile caliber. I mainly use it for EVERYTHING. I just love the big time roost the 75-grain V-Maxes dish out on small game. Mine is approaching 1000 rounds and the seating depth has not changed and the rifling looks sharp to the naked eye. I regularly shoot 5 shot groups with no cool down during the string. 5 is the max though as it will be hot by then.

I use a ruger 77 tang safty 25/06 and have droped coyotes out beyond 400 paces. It has a tasco 6x18 on it. I have been able to shoot soda cans out past 600yrds with it from the bench.

Good Shooting

Ray

Diferent solution, get a Savage in 25-06, later get 22-250 barrel= #1 switch combo. Have it built with a 12" twist to use 55-60 gr bullets @ 22-250 velocities. You could then down load to 223 or less and still be able to stabilize light stuff to 2000 fps or less. The bolt does not have to changed to accomplish this, and have a very versatile single bolt gun. I currently shoot from 17 to 300 from bolt, lever, H&R, T/C stuff. You probably have a headache from all the choices available.
Wrench