My first 25-06 was a real revelation to me. It was a wood stocked Tikka T3 hunter with a 3-9 Weaver scope. I was working for the Tikka importer at the time so we were encouraged to use and promote the product. I had no problem doing that and took full advantage of the situation. Finished up using a 22-250, a 30- 06, a 308 and the 25-06. The 25-06 was, commercially, the least commonly used of these. None of my working hunter mates used one on the job. A friend had a fancy custom BSA which I fired on several occasions. But it wasn’t till I got my own one that I started to appreciate what you could do with one. The Tikka proved to be a very accurate rifle which I had expected. It was light in weight and easy to carry in the mountains. Looking back through my load data notebook I see that I concentrated on loading 120 grain bullets. Even chronographed some loads to ensure I was equalling factory performance.

I’d been using it for some time when I had a light bulb moment with it. I had just shot a number of goats which a cocky wanted gone, long difficult shots from memory. The sudden thought was this rifle is the full equivalent of the 270 which I had worn on my shoulder for years and which I had become very familiar with. I was holding at the same elevation for these long attempts and it was working. I had a quick mental tally up . During the time I had been using it I had shot eleven animals for eleven shots. They were not all barrel stretchers, there was some close range bush hunting as well. I continued using the rifle until the new 270 WSM was announced and I couldn’t resist getting one of those. A cobber eventually persuaded me to part with it.

My present 25-06 is a Remington 700 CDL. I’ve found it to be accurate and easy to carry. No problem to ring the gong at the 500 yard mark using the 120s. It shoots fine with a light load with 87 grain bullets, nice and comfortable for range work.

As you might guess , I’ve been very impressed with the 25-06 and it’s performance as a hunting rifle.