Have 22-250, 6mm, 270, and 7mm Mag. Love the 7mm Mag as it is my primary hunting rifle. However as I age, I am looking to lessen the recoil (range reasons, not the hunt), rifle weight, and length of barrel for quicker acquisition in the stand.

I have always loved the look of the Model 70 Featherweight (wood stock guy here), and would like to fill the slot between the 6mm and 270.

Does anyone have any experience with this gun and in a 25-06?

Or your experience with the 25-06 in general?

I know a few people that love the round in their particular rifle and won't use anything else for whitetail, but none have the gun I am looking at.

TIA OB.

257 Roberts is another caliber I'd consider. I have the 270 version of that gun and love it

I've shot a lot of deer, pigs and coyotes with a 25-06 and don't have anything bad to say about it. I shoot Berger bullets and with proper shot placement, it's a solid combination.

25-06 has the most DRT kills at our ranch. I have a 300 win mag featherweight. Love my rifle, one in a 25-06 would be sweet to own.

Savage 25.06 is my go to. Deer, hogs, bobcats. Barnes ammo

Shot a Browning blr model 81 for about 30 years. Wanted a bolt action for shooting reasons and went with a Browning X bolt 25.06 and just love it. Killing hogs and deer with it like crazy. Killed a hog at 325 yards with it a couple weeks ago like it was sat 50 yards.

I vote yes for the 25.06!

My grandfather bought in 1972 a Model 70 in .25-06 with a Redfield 3-9. I still have it. It has killed many many animals and to this day is still the most accurate centerfire rifle I own. If I do my part, it's .5-.75 MOA regularly with (the right) factory loads. I've even been able to get a .25 MOA group from it from time to time. I carry one of those in my wallet. Here it is:



That IS 3 rounds.

There are many many great rifles and many many great chamberings. The Model 70 in .25-06 is most certainly among them. With it, you can reasonably take anything on the North American continent.

Would not be a bad choice at all.

Old Sarge.......I have had 5-6 customers over the last few years who have brought 25-06 rifles to me to try and get them to group better. I have done trigger jobs, bedding etc. on them and have found for whatever reason the 25-06 can be a very finicky round to get to hold consistent tight groups with some rifles. ( Talking .75-.5 or less moa.) Most of these had light contour barrels and took a lot of work with hand loading to obtain the results the owners wanted. Imho the 25-06 is a good cartridge but If you like the 7mm mag, might I suggest a 7mm-08? It is a great hunting round with good ballistic performance with most bullet choices. I had a recent client who sold two Browning A-bolts he had in 25-06 and purchased two Remington VLS's in 7mm-08 and is getting consistent .75 moa groups with factory loads with both of them. Just FYI......heck get both!

.25-06 Winchester Model 70 classic supergrade is the only rifle I still own.

Love the caliber, love the performance, love the gun.

You may consider the 6.5x47 Lapua it's a very accurate round, great bullet, and is very light on recoil.

The current Model 70 Featherweights are awesome. I've got 4 Model 70's, all from different time periods, and the current production has the best fit and finish.

My primary deer rifle is a Winchester Model 70 Featherweight in 7mm-08, and I love it. Very light recoil, fun to shoot, and a decent shot will flatten a deer or pig.

I also shoot a 25-06 sometimes, but it's a Browning BAR, which is a different animal.

A Model 70 Featherweight in .25-06 or 7mm-08 would be a great choice. I have dropped Timney triggers into all of mine, but that's up to you.

My favorite gun out of all I have is my Kleinguenther 25-06. Good ballistics & will shoot less than 1/2 groups with factory ammo. When my kids got old enough, I started them on their own 25-06. Great gun!

I have both the 270 win and the 7-08. My 7 yo is shooting 7-08 and my 10 yo the 270. I shoot the 270 primarily and love it. I was looking at getting myself a new rifle and looked up the Winchester featherweight and saw they have a 270 wsm. Any experience w this round?
I've been looking at browning x bolt too. Any preferences when comparing browning xbolt to the Winchester featherweight?

Might need to handload to have success. 25-06 is the most finicky gun I've ever shot and there are limited bullet choices. I can shoot sub moa with bergers but a small change the can open up to 3 moa. Scared of killing ability of light weight bergers. A lot of people have the best success with core-lokts

Alvarado Times said:

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Savage 25.06 is my go to. Deer, hogs, bobcats. Barnes ammo

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Same here!

I have a .25-06 in a Ruger No. 1 Varmint rifle. I like it just fine.

Browning hells canyon long range - check them out

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Does anyone have any experience with this gun and in a 25-06?

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I own the exact gun you're asking about and love it. I hunt in Rocksprings and it's plenty of rifle to drop anything I've seen. In fact, every deer I've shot has dropped dead on the spot with that gun (must be the shooter, haha). I use regular 100gr Remington Corelockt and that works just fine.

.25-06 in a Browning SS A-Bolt here.... and love it..... no experience on your gun.

I have a .270 in same gun and I feel sorry for it sometimes because I love the .25-06 so much.

Edit to add.... the .25-06 is just the right amount of pop with very little kick for almost any medium game, especially Hill Country Whitetail. Personally I would not use it for elk or even mule deer, or other similar sized large game, but I know some people do.

The impressive part of the ballistics to me is when you get to longer distances, compared to many other calibers, it loses less energy and starts to "catch up" in performance compared to larger calibers as you go past 300 yards or so. These days, I never shoot long distances anyway, but it is still impressive.

slammerag said:

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Might need to handload to have success. 25-06 is the most finicky gun I've ever shot and there are limited bullet choices. I can shoot sub moa with bergers but a small change the can open up to 3 moa. Scared of killing ability of light weight bergers. A lot of people have the best success with core-lokts

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I haven't shot mine in a decade, but back in the old days mine loved the Hornady Light Magnum 117gr loads.

Good choice for Texas whitetail and just about any other game animal in Texas. Only draw back is that it looses to much energy after about 200 yards to make an effective kill on deer.

I have had some experience with the caliber but not that particular gun. I guy I hunted with for years had one in a Ruger Mark II with a bull barrel. Extremely flat shooter. We had a range set up where we could shoot out to 300 yards. His Ruger would almost always out shoot every other rifle on the place. We were all shooting handloads too.

My favorite riffle in my safe is my Remington Sendero 25-06. It's a great round and it shoots the Hornady 117's the best.

Can't comment on the 25-06 cartridge. Never really been a fan of .25 or 7mm calibers ( just personal preference).
But, I am a big fan of Mod.70s!
I really like the new FN manufactured actions.... probably more than the Pre 64s.

I have owned. model 70 in 25-06 since my 16th birthday. That was 45 years ago. Very accurate, little recoil, and everything I've hit with it was DRT. My favorite. Does well with Winchester factory ammo.

I've got a Remington Sendero in 25.06 and love it!

I love the caliber. I could go on forever but most of it has been covered. When bought mine, Winchesters could not be had. I bought both an X-Bolt and BPS that day. I wanted a 1300 and super grade or No.1. I am not a browning homer. I have a A-bolt 300 WM but I will buy that Hells Canyon to replace it when I build up those Cabela's points.


Note: I cannot be happier with my 25-06 but I primarily shoot and buy short action rounds now. That being said I will pick up the 25-06 if I know I need to take longer accurate shot. I dropped a white tail 2 seasons ago at ~350 yards.

Dilly dilly

Sean98 said:

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.25-06 Winchester Model 70 classic supergrade is the only rifle I still own.

Love the caliber, love the performance, love the gun.

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I have been hunting with a 25-06 for 20+ years. I bought it in a browning as they actually had a lefty for me. I love the caliber and rifle. It has been a great deer rifle

Thanks to all that replied.

I had spoken to others prior to posting, and every one that had a 25-06 loved it for whitetail and that was their favorite round for such, and the ability to load lighter for predator/varmint hunting if they so chose.

I called my second brothers (closest since I don't have one) who I would call members of the "gun culture" and are probably the most knowledgeable of all shooters I know personally by far, and have the FFL. One has the gun I mentioned in a 22-250, and loves it, and was nothing but complimentary about the 25-06 for caliber with that gun.

The only issue now, is that I had intended to put a Leupold Vari-x III 3.5x10 x 50mm on it, but it has been discontinued. That is the glass I have on my 7mm Mag and love it. Will transfer it, or look for some obscure sites that may have still have stock, unless Leupold has one that matches it.

Sarge if you're interested in more magnification, I have a VX6 3-18x44 that I'm selling. Might be more scope than you're looking for, but thought i'd let you know. Enjoy the new rifle and the joy it brings.

PFG,

I am sure that is some nice glass, but you are correct, it is a bit much than what I would need. I am sure if you floated it around this board, you will find a buyer that can put it to the proper use.

My aging eyes need as much light as they can get for early/late shots, thus the need for the light funnel of the 50mm. That and the vast majority of my shots would range under 250 yds.

Sarge - Sounds good. Hope you find the right scope for your application.

Here's the details on the VX6 if you wanted to see: https://texags.com/forums/50/topics/2933648

Well, unless we have some new info on the pros/cons of the 25-06 caliber in the Winchester Model 70 Featherweight, this rifle will likely be ordered in the next few days.

The other issue, now is, the Varix-III is no longer manufactured. Was looking for a 3.5x10-50mm. Might be able to find it, but Leupold has all new lines of scopes, and have no reference on the performance of the new lines. Love my VariXIII in the range mentioned.

What is the "replacement"?

That would be the VX3

There are all kinds of VX3 options - illumination, reticles, turrets, etc. But the still make a good ol 3-10x50 VX3