[jimhammond]

I am looking at 25-06 rifels BUT I see some with 22 inch and some with 24 inch barrles. From what I have read about this caliber and the slow burning powder to obtain the best results, it looks like the best would be a 24 or 26 inch barrel. I have had great succes with the new Savages but thier 25-06's are all 22 inches except for the long range hunter????

Any help or suggestions on barrel lenght for a 25-06.

Thanks
Jim

 

[Shawn Crea]

Suggest that you go with at least a 24" barrel, which IMO provides a good balance length anyway. Many of the powders used for the 25-06 perform best with this, or longer length.

Depends on what you want to do with the rifle. If general deer or antelope hunting, I'd go with a 24" barrel. I have one in the Win Mod 70, which I use for deer and antelope, but also rockchucking. If you want it as a bipod varmint rig, or bench paper punching, 26" barrel would not be a bad choice.

 

[Darkker]

I had a Ruger MkII and now have a XL-7, in 25-06. Both have 22" Pipes, and I have no complaints. Eaisier to get them out of the truck when a stupid yotes shows up unexpectedly.

 

[2Bits]

My model 70 Winchester Sporter was in 24" barrel, it did a great job and served me wwll for over a dozen years. Now the eldest son has the rifle and is tickled pink. It makes a very nice practice rifle from the bench too.

I did purchase a Ruger model 77 back in January of this year and it has the heavier barrel and laminated stock on the rifle. It is more of a stationary type rifle and not as light in weight as the Winchester. I am still working up loads for this rifle and hope it shoots as well as the Winchester did over the years.

 

[broom_jm]

The 25-'06 is, by volume if not in name, a "magnum" cartridge. As such, you will see the best velocity from it by using a 26" barrel, although a 24" is typically considered more practical. If you're hunting where you have to cover a lot of ground, especially in mountainous terrain, you'll appreciate a shorter barrel. On the other hand, if it's mostly going to be used from a shooting bench, at long ranges, the extra length will help get the most from that cartridge.

What do you plan to use the gun for?

 

[landroverking]

I have the 25-06 in both ...Remington in 26 inch and a Bullberry 24 inch for my T/C Encore. Shoot the same hand load in both, but I do have to seed the bullet a little deeper for the Rem 700 BDL.
Great cal.

 

[shane256]

One thing that I've enjoyed about my T/C Encore Pro Hunter is that, lacking an action, my 24" rifle barrel on it still makes it a fair bit shorter than a bolt action rifle with a 24" barrel

 

[Lone Wattie]

I've got a "short", 22 inch barrel on a Stevens 25-06. It is stock except for the Timney trigger I dropped in. Using 100 grain bullets and IMR 4831, (which I'm told is a slow burning magnum powder), I've been getting groups just a hair over 1 inch at 200 yds. Velocities are in the 3000-3100 fps range. I really don't miss having longer barrel. But I tend to sacrifice speed for accuracy. When this barrel is shot out I may install a longer one. Just my 2 cents worth.

 

[MontyF]

I have an early A-bolt with the 22 inch barrel. From what I've read the later ones came with a 24" tube. Anyway i haven't fired mine over a cronny but the powder that seems to work best so far, is IMR4831 which is a slow powder. Unless you are hung up on obtaining the best velocity, doubt anything you shoot at will notice the difference.

 

[2Bits]

The 1/4 bore is a great caliber for hunting predators, varmints and medium size game animals! The accuracy has always been top shelf with my 25-06 model 70 Winchester Sporter in pre-64 action and the variety of bullets is plentiful. I can flat shoot down range and take a big mulie buck out to that 400 yard range if one can place the bullet into the vitals, ammunition for the 25-06 is always on the shelf too.

 

[mattsbox99]

My Ruger M77s and Rem 700 have 24" barrels, Rugers have a medium weight barrel, my Rem has a sporter weight barrel. I also have a No. 1 with a 26" Medium-Heavy weight barrel that really carries like a 22, and shoots like a 32.

 

[41 Mag]

I am looking at 25-06 rifels BUT I see some with 22 inch and some with 24 inch barrles. From what I have read about this caliber and the slow burning powder to obtain the best results, it looks like the best would be a 24 or 26 inch barrel. I have had great succes with the new Savages but thier 25-06's are all 22 inches except for the long range hunter????

Any help or suggestions on barrel lenght for a 25-06.

Thanks
Jim

As mentioned the type of use you have in mind will be the overall determining factor. If you going to use it for woodland hunting where shots out to 300yds will be on the very long end of things, then pick something light weight for carrying and get on with finding the best loads.

If your looking more for reaching out and touching something at ranges from 250yds on out, then you want all the barrel you can get. Even for the lighter weight varmint bullets the longer barrels will give you more of an advantage.

My first one was a stock Remington 700 which sported a 24" barrel. I have to admit it was probably the most accurate off the shelf rifle I have ever had the pleasure to sit behind. Using the 115gr Partition, shots on deer sized game and under, out to 400yds was as easy as setting the bottom of the thin center of the duplex reticle in my Leupold on where I wanted to hit and lightly touching the 2.5# trigger. Head shots on squirrel sized critters out to 300yds was pretty easy as well. I passed that one along to my daughter who has since used it to take several very nice bucks from our family farm with ease to 350yd.


The one I replaced it with is the AI version. Having had so much fun with the standard version I wanted to squeek out the best I could get form it so I went with a 28" barrel from Broughton which I had an extended chamber area put on to allow for setting the barrel back sometime down the road if necessary. With it I am easily getting 3400fps with the same bullet I was only getting 3150 from in the first.

This said I built it expressly for sitting out and busting feral hogs at range, and doing so with precision shots. This rig is holding groups so far at around 3/4" at 300yds with top end loads. I am getting up to 8 loads per case with no issues showing at this time. It was built for heavier bullets and uses a 1-9 vs the 1-10 standard twist. Like I mentioned I wanted this one to have the best I could put into it. So far it hasn't let me down. I took this little shoat at 275yds which is just getting fun for this rig. I used a 125gr Wildcat RBBT ULD bullet running just over 3300fps. The aiming point was the ear, and with the piggie moving through the brush in the background to the right, and me resting across the hood of the truck across the pasture, I hit just behind the ear by about an inch or so.

I only have around 250 - 300 rounds through it at present, but from the way it has preformed so far, I highly doubt I will be burning the throat out anytime soon.

Good luck with your choice, I highly doubt you will be disappointed either way you go.

Later,
41mag