I have been rifle hunting with a 25-06 the last three years. At Academy which is usually my last minute stop for getting ammo before hitting the range or lease. The Academy down here only carries that Remington core-lokt or the Federal V-shock's. I have only ever used the core-lokt...killed every deer clean shots I have hit with em, mainly due to my scope accuracy I believe and where I have been targeting the deer. What are some good ammo's to buy other than these two brands and where to find them?

I load match grade ammo, and the 25-06 is one of them. Factory offerings is very poor for good quality ammo, IMO, in this caliber. A 115 grain Berger VLD loaded with the right powder and powder charge accurate to .02 grains is about as good as it gets.

http://dallasreloads.com/product-category/25-06/

This^^^^

I will look into those...out of the last 3 years I have been using the Remington ammo, and I know there is better ammo for this gun, just no stores will give me more options.

If they make a bullet for it, I can load it. What options do you want? When it comes to ammo, I'm like the mall candy store with all kinds of flavors and options. Retailers often only carry certain brands, and those are minimal. The 25-06 is not known as a match round, and this factory ammo is often loaded as a low end round with cheap bullets and large variations in the powder inside the case.

That was my main complaint when I first started shooting 270 Win when I first started shooting it as a precision round. The ammo was poor, and from the same mfg and type of ammo (same mfg, bullet, and same line of ammo), there was large variations from lot to lot. That's when I started reloading and got into precision shooting and it opened up ALL the options for shooting and controlling your own ammo. That's why I load match ammo now!

Seems like your happy with the performance on game. What is it you are not satisfied with about the Remington ammo?

If your going to shoot competitively or pin point accuracy is a big thing to you maybe other options are worth it. If you just want to hunt with it the Remingtons as you have seen and countless other off the shelf ammo's are more than adequate.

FIL has a 2506 he has been shooting federal loaded sierra game kings out of it and it has done well.

Personally if the remingtons aren't broke I wouldn't try to fix them.

You can always buy ammo on line and have it delivered to your door.

MidwayUSA, Midsouth shooters supply, Graf & Sons, Cabela's, Bass pro, Sinclair, brownells, etc.

Or for a more complete list, try Ammoseek.com.

what rifle are you shooting? Is it capable of shooting under 1" groups now with the ammo you use?

What is the longest shot you will be taking?

if you got an accurate rifle and want to make longer shots 300+


have Chad develop a load and have him load a couple boxes. this will be a match hunting load developed for YOUR rifle. 40 rounds should last you a few seasons.

Look at the Federal Premium line. They can be found at many gun stores and online.

In my browning abolt stainless stalker, I run RP brass, CCI-200, 51.0gn of IMR-4350 and a 100gn Nosler BT. Killed a pile of stuff with it, from 15yds to quite a ways further than that.

If your not shooting past 200 yards, REM / CL's will work OK. If your trying achieve better accuracy to shoot longer distances go with hand loads however, the .25 doesn't have a great BC which isn't very efficient shooting at longer distances.

Bergers 115 VLD (H) has a very acceptable BC and will reach out to 800 (furthest I've shot) with no issues.
P_102

I'm kind of with the OP. I shoot a 25-06 and have landed on the Core-Lokts after poor performance on deer with some others. The CL's seem to just knock them dead and are very accurate out of my Tikka, but something about me just doesn't want to shoot Core-Lokts...

Chad would you share the recipe for the 115 vld?

I run 115vld at 3100 with hv100. It hits like a hammer and shoots lights out.

A good chef at a restaurant never reveals his secret recipes. If I posted all my loads on line, people would duplicate them and/or have someone else make their ammo. I can't release my load data. It takes a lot of work, expense, and range time coming up with good ammo. That's what gives me the edge on having a great shooting product.

^^Knew that was coming^^

Can't argue that logic, either.

I've been shooting the 120 gr. Corelokts in my 25/06's since 1980. I have never had one fail and I suspect at least 75% (probably closer to 85%) of them never took a step. It's just me and nothing personal against anyone else as we all have our own idiosyncrasies, but I won't shoot another cartridge in mine until they no longer show me they are effective due to changes in bullets or powder. I am amazed at how many people put the Corelokt bullets down, and it might be that over 300 yds. they don't perform as well as others do; however, it would be hard for me to imagine another cartridge doing any/much better than these have performed for me over all these years. I have killed dozens of WT's with them and they just plain work. That's the practical side of them, and I will let the experts argue the technical side of cartridges and the various bullets used. But animals aren't shot on paper. I don't know what happened to the day when deer fell dead with all the old standards and today we have to have the newest and coolest that's out there.

I've had pretty much the same results from several different 120gr Cup and Core bullets (Speer, Sierra, Hornady) from 25/06's and 257AIs. To me the 120gr grain bullet at 3000ish is just a sweet spot considering, trajectory, recoil, and terminal ballistics for whitetail. Of course, this is not to say that a dozen or so other cartridges wouldn't do pertty much the same thing. But it's fun to cuss and discuss the minutia.