Okay here's the skinny on the caliber and on the Browing A Bolt Hunter Field rifle with 22" barrel.

My son Sterling looked at every table at the Houston gun show a couple of weekends ago and didn't find one. On our way home, a friend who owns a gun shop called me and said he had just taken one in on trade that was brand new and we should take a look at it. So we stopped by the shop and my first question was why did he trade in a new rifle?

Seems the guy bought it, had them put Leupold two piece bases and Leupold rings on it with a Nikon scope. He took it home and before he got a chance to shoot it the gun shop got an over under shotgun in that he wanted worse so he went back to the shop and swapped it. He lost we or I should say Sterling gained on that deal.

Anyway, with the Winchester 120 gr. Super-X Positive Expanding Point load the rifle grouped 4 shots in one and a half inches at 100 yards. This was this past Saturday and we did have some north wind and I think that the rifle and shooter can do better, we'll see.

Anyway no feed problems with the rifle at all and we went through about 30 rounds on Saturday. No barrel fouling, no problems at all. The recoil of the rifle I would say is about the same as a .243 in a BDL.

Sunday we had some hogs in our trap and I wanted to see how the bullet handled a 150 pound sow's shoulder plates. At a distance of a little more than 50 yards we put one of the 120 grain bullets through the right shoulder and the bullet punched a .25 caliber hole going in and about a three inch hole coming out, completely obliterating the shoulder plate on the left side and all that was left of the heart, etc., was mush. I was happy with how the bullet performed at that distance and figured it would do about the same at greater distances.

This morning Sterling and a a friend of mine sat on a two man stand that has been having a lot of hog action at the deer feeder. They called to tell me that when the feeder went off the pigs came to breakfast. Glenn shot one with his .22-250 and Sterling shot two, one standing and one running and both according to them dropped in their tracks. They're going to take pictures of the bullet wounds when they get them skinned.

All in all I'm pretty satisfied with this caliber and with this particular rifle. In a couple of weeks we'll be taking some doe and spikes and we'll see how it handles them.

For right now, I'd sure recommend it for hogs, lol and I'm thinking about getting another in this rifle and caliber for my wife. It's a shooter for sure.

TH

The 115 grain SBT is dynamite on whitetails. I'm really impressed by how well both of my 25 WSSMs shoot, a 70 Super Shadow and a 70 Ultimate Shadow stainless. I'm going to set the Ultimate Shadow up with 2 scope in QRW rings, 1 zeroed for 85 grain SBTs and the other zeroed for the 115 grain SBTs. Glad to hear that there is another person out there who has something good to say about the 25 WSSM.

Jeff

Jeff I can't say enough good things about the caliber and the rifle right now. It sure is doing everything that I would expect from one.

In fact, I want one for myself so I ordered another just like my son's rifle today.

I can't imagine someone not liking it.

TH

I'm getting excellent accuracy with my .25 WSSM M70 Coyote. So far it has accounted for a nice 14" Antelope, 197 lb.(dressed out weight) Wild Hog and a 3x3 Mule Deer. All using the 100 gr. Barnes TSX. Lawdog

I have Browning A Bolt Hunter in 25 WSSM that finally scored today. I'm shooting 110gr. AB's @2920fps. I shot a whitetail doe at 125 yds. slightly quartering away. The bullet missed the ribs going in and coming out. The insides were a mess. She fell when I shot got up and stumbled a few yards and went down for good. The only bad thing I can say is there was almost no blood trail. Other than that, I was impressed with the performance of the round. I think this gun will be a keeper. I really like the low recoil and muzzle blast. I've shot deer with all sorts of rifles up to 300 WSM and 7mm STW's. This rifle may change my mind about needing all that blast and recoil . The longest shot I could make is maybe 200 yds. I think this little gun will fill the bill nicely.

It's nice to hear some positive comments about the 25 WSSM. Seems like all you read on these forums is how stupid Winchester is for bringing out the WSSM instead of the WSM and how the WSSM is just a joke... I really like the way my M70 FWT handles and shoots. Haven't shot a deer with it yet but have shot plenty with 257 Bobs, 257 AI's and 25/06's, so I'm not concerned about how it will perform on game.

quote:

Originally posted by olarmy:
It's nice to hear some positive comments about the 25 WSSM. Seems like all you read on these forums is how stupid Winchester is for bringing out the WSSM instead of the WSM and how the WSSM is just a joke... I really like the way my M70 FWT handles and shoots. Haven't shot a deer with it yet but have shot plenty with 257 Bobs, 257 AI's and 25/06's, so I'm not concerned about how it will perform on game.

I know what you mean. All the negative comments from people that haven’t even tried one of the WSSM’s. “They don’t feed properly.†or “They burn out barrels quicker than they change their underwear.â€, and such is all you hear. But ask them where they got their information and all you get is “they read it†ore “they heard it†supposedly from some reputable source. To me they come across as sour grapes, being afraid of something. There is plenty of room for new technology in the firearms industry as long as the new cartridges perform as advertised, which, in the case of the WSM’s and WSSM’s they do. Lawdog

Wow this is like a WSSM support group. It really is nice to hear some comments about what the 25 wssm IS instead of what it IS NOT. What it IS is an ideal deer cartridge in a short handy rifle. Plenty of range and plenty of power without a lot of recoil.

I have only used the 243WSSM. I really wish Winchester would have not used magnum in the name. I like the 6mm and 6.5 but never came on to the 25's. I don't see what the 243Win/6mmRem shooters are complaining about. All 3 have about the same case capacity. I see it as just another cartridge to choose from.
I went shooting today with a friend. We were both shooting 243WSSM in heavy barreled M70's. I have only shot handloaded rounds but he was shooting factory 100g loads. I did notice his bolt was harder opening than mine. Not sure if the ammo is loaded on the hot side or if it is just his gun. I'll have to try some factory loads in mine.

I too shoot a 25 WSSM, a Featherweight and could not be happier. Load data is scarce except for Hodgdon. Would like to see some Alliant powder used and maybe Ramshot. Call and bug Sierra so they will hurry and release their data which has been shot but not yet compiled. Enjoy!
GregH

Speaking of Sierra bullets... I have tried loading 117 gr sierra gamekings for my model 70 and found they touch the lands at about 2.300" oal. The specs say oal is 2.360". Is this normal?