Considered by many as the most balanced of the "quarter bores" for hunting medium-sized game, the .25-06 Remington remained in obscurity as a wildcat cartridge for nearly half a century before being standardized by Remington in 1969. Its design was based on the

.30-06 Springfield The .30-06 Springfield cartridge (pronounced "thirty- aught-six" ), 7.62×63mm in metric notation, and called the .30 Gov't '06 by Winchester, was introduced to the United States Army in 1906 and later standardized; it remained in military use ...

cartridge necked-down (case opening made narrower) to .257 caliber keeping a similar C.O.A.L (Cartridge Overall Length) of its parent case, thus being chambered in standard-length actions. Nominal bullet diameter is 0.257, and bullet weights range from .

History

Charles Newton necked down the

cartridge in 1912 to accept the 117-grain .25-35 Winchester bullet, but the resulting .256 Newton cartridge didn't get traction. Newton's early modification encouraged commercial release of a shortened case (from 63 to 49mm) as the

.250-3000 Savage The .250-3000 Savage (also known as the .250 Savage) is a rifle cartridge created by Charles Newton in 1915. It was designed to be used in the Savage Model 99 hammerless lever action rifle. The name comes from its original manufacturer, Savage ...

in 1915.

Frankford Arsenal The Frankford Arsenal is a former United States Army ammunition plant located adjacent to the Bridesburg neighborhood of Northeast Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, north of the original course of Frankford Creek. History Opened in 1816 on of land ...

developed an experimental .25-06 during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

; and distribution of surplus

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

military equipment through the Civilian Marksmanship Program following the war encouraged independent gunsmiths to experiment with the cartridge. A. O. Niedner of Dowagiac, Michigan introduced rifles for the .25 Niedner in 1920. Niedner Arms Corporation retained the 17° 30 .30-06 shoulder chambering .25 caliber barrels rifled with one twist in . Similar cartridges were identified as the .25 Hi-Power, .25 Whelen (analogous to .35 Whelen), or .25-100-3000 (to indicate the ability to achieve 3,000 feet-per-second with a 100-grain bullet rather than the 87-grain bullet used in the .250-3000 Savage). Greater case capacity offered minimal velocity improvement over the .250-3000 Savage case with contemporary

smokeless powder Finnish smokeless powderSmokeless powder is a type of propellant used in firearms and artillery that produces less smoke and less fouling when fired compared to gunpowder ("black powder"). The combustion products are mainly gaseous, compared to a ...

s. Availability of

DuPont DuPont de Nemours, Inc., commonly shortened to DuPont, is an American multinational chemical company first formed in 1802 by French-American chemist and industrialist Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours. The company played a major role in ...

's Improved Military Rifle (IMR) powders encouraged commercial release of the .257 Roberts using the 57mm-long

Mauser Mauser, originally Königlich Württembergische Gewehrfabrik ("Royal Württemberg Rifle Factory"), was a German arms manufacturer. Their line of bolt-action rifles and semi-automatic pistols has been produced since the 1870s for the German arme ...

case in 1934. Release of IMR 4350 in 1940 and availability of surplus 4831 powder salvaged from

Oerlikon 20mm cannon The Oerlikon 20 mm cannon is a series of autocannons, based on an original German Becker Type M2 20 mm cannon design that appeared very early in World War I. It was widely produced by Oerlikon Contraves and others, with various models empl ...

cartridges after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

greatly improved performance of the full-length .25-06 case..25-06 Remington
data from Accurate Powder

Performance

.25-caliber bullets typically have high ballistic coefficients without being heavy, which combined with the large case capacity of its parent .30-06 case, allows relatively high muzzle velocities without heavy recoil. The combination of high ballistic coefficients with high muzzle velocities gives the .25-06 a very flat trajectory as well as retaining kinetic energy down-range. The cartridge is capable of propelling a 117 grain (7.6 g) bullet at up to 3,200 feet per second (980 m/s) and energy levels up to . Bullets lighter than 75 grains are available in .257 caliber but were designed for the smaller .25-20 Winchester and .25-35 Winchester cartridges and are too lightly constructed for the high velocities of the .25-06. The cartridge has less felt recoil than a .30-06 in a similar weight rifle, due to the lighter weight bullets used. Shooters who are recoil sensitive will find the recoil from the .25-06 easier on the shoulder, contributing to good shot placement. This cartridge is not quite as powerful as the .257 Weatherby Magnum, usually running slower with a given bullet weight, but almost 200 ft/s faster than the .257 Roberts at its hottest loads (i.e. .257 Roberts +P).

SAAMI The Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute (SAAMI, pronounced "Sammy") is an association of American manufacturers of firearms, ammunition, and components. SAAMI is an accredited standards developer that publishes several Ameri ...

pressure limit for the .25-06 is 63,000 PSI.

Sporting Uses

The .25-06 is generally considered to be a good round for medium-sized game such as

deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the rei ...

and

antelope The term antelope is used to refer to many species of even-toed ruminant that are indigenous to various regions in Africa and Eurasia. Antelope comprise a wastebasket taxon defined as any of numerous Old World grazing and browsing hoofed mammal ...

because of its combination of substantial kinetic energy and moderate recoil. The addition of a flat trajectory makes it particularly popular in open terrains such as plains and mountains, where longer-range shots on game are not seldom, since its flat trajectory forgives range-estimation errors up to 300 yards if sighted to its maximum point blank range. Bullets of different weights and construction make the .25-06 Remington a fine alternative for hunting species ranging from

prairie dog Prairie dogs (genus ''Cynomys'') are herbivorous burrowing ground squirrels native to the grasslands of North America. Within the genus are five species: black-tailed, white-tailed, Gunnison's, Utah, and Mexican prairie dogs. In Mexico, ...

s and

coyote The coyote (''Canis latrans'') is a species of canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the wolf, and slightly smaller than the closely related eastern wolf and red wolf. It fills much of the same ecological nich ...

s to mid-sized deer and sheep. Although capable of taking heavier game such as elk, many hunters prefer a larger caliber and a heavier bullet for larger species. Bullets range from lightly constructed 75-grain bullets with muzzle velocities in the 3,700 ft/s (1,130 m/s) range to more robust 120-grain bullets with muzzle velocities in the 3,000 ft/s (915 m/s) range. Most manufacturers of

bolt-action Bolt-action is a type of manual firearm action that is operated by ''directly'' manipulating the bolt via a bolt handle, which is most commonly placed on the right-hand side of the weapon (as most users are right-handed). Most bolt-actio ...

single-shot Single-shot firearms are firearms that hold only a single round of ammunition, and must be reloaded manually after every shot. The history of firearms began with single-shot designs, then multi-barreled designs appeared, and eventually many ce ...

rifles offer the .25-06 as a standard chambering and factory loaded ammunition is available from Remington,

Winchester Winchester is a cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government district, at the western end of the South Downs National Park, on the River Itchen. It is south-west of Lon ...

, Federal Cartridge and most other major manufacturers.

References

* ''Hornady Handbook of Cartridge Reloading vol I, Sixth Edition''; Book by Hornady Mfg Co., 2003 p. 233

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:25-06 Remington Pistol and rifle cartridges Remington Arms cartridges Wildcat cartridges

History

Performance

Sporting Uses

See also

References

External links