For long range, what is the best twist rate?

Are you building? I think everything factory is 1 in 10. I have a 257 Roberts, I think they are all 1 in 10 as well.

What bullet are you wanting to shoot?

Well, I am thinking about bidding on a JP Sauer & Sons 202 Deluxe in .25-06. The seller didn't know the twist. I googled around and couldn't even find a Sauer 202 in .25-06. Its getting priced about of my league though. I guess it will be 1-10".
Not sure, its got very pretty wood, take down model. You know me I'm like a 3-year-old playing with grandpa's pocket watch.

1-10 will work with everything up to 120 grains.

Yes

I've got a Sako in .25-06 here. It is giving me a hard time.

I think there's an inherent nature of the cartridge that's difficult to get it to shoot tight. There's tons of stories about that that have been posted on this forum over the last several years. A guy is having trouble getting a rifle to shoot as tight as he'd like it. .25-06 seems to be the culprit, often times.

For long range, a 1:7.5 twist and use 135 gr Bergers. It's tough to get those barrels right now. I've been waiting on two for 6 weeks.

1-8 and 133 Berger

Or

1-10 and 115 Berger

I have a Brux 1:8 I bought for a 25 saum, just haven’t got it chambered yet. Figured I’d shoot the 130’s of some nature…what I’d really like is to cut it 18” and do something in the 120’s but seems most bullet manufacturers I’d want to use it’s either 11x’s or 13x’s.

I had an acquaintance decades ago named Troy whose dream rifle was a Sako 25-06. He’d tell me that 25-06 is a flat shooting SOB.

Interesting.

Friend of mine has a OLD weatherby vanguard in .25-06 that will only shoot a handloaded Barnes bullet well.

He’s tried everything else and they group like chit. But that load shoots little cloverleafs.

They are finicky. The one I own is a Rem BDL I bought the wife over 20 years ago. Its a good shooter with IMR 4831 and the Nos. 115 BT, but I remember the thing was a little of a challenge to get right. I have helped out a few guys with the same results. I need to take it apart and bed it, work the trigger over and play around with it and maybe hunt with it sometime, I like shooting them.

The one I've got in, is a modern Sako, synthetic stock, with an aluminum chassis. Make the action screws zero torque and the action could still walk around in the stock. I bedded it, and re-shot it. Patterns so terrible, I can call them groups. When a Sako is printing like a Christensen, I have to blame the cartridge. The first bad shooting Sako or Tikka I've ever seen.

There is nothing wrong with the cartridge.

200 yards.

Please elaborate.

Keep in mind, I've posted pics of sub-1/4 MOA groups at 200 yards. Same loading bench, same rifle range, same shooter.

This is horrible!

My experience with 25-06 says they like lighter bullets and we all want to shoot heavier ones. Myself included.

I have seen rifles in .25-06 do pretty much the same shooting other bullets as well. One was a custom my uncle had, which would shoot either 115- or 120-grain Partitions at half MOA.

I have developed loads in the .25-06 that were sub-MOA using Re16, H4931SC, Magnum, Hunter, Retumbo, and H4895 using bullets from 75 grains to 115 grains. It may not be the easiest cartridge out there to get to shoot well, but it's not the most persnickety cartridge either.

I think there's something wrong with that rifle.

I think there's a bad barrel here. I told him so. I've never seen a bad barrel on a Sako or a Tikka, but it's bound to happen eventually.

A friend of mine has an old 25-06. He too has tales of certain bullets making the rifle shoot like a shotgun. I think it's a finicky cartridge.

I have owned two, a remmy 700 and encore barrel made by EABCO. Neither were picky Infact 100gr partitions from Noslers red box shot sub imo in both. I had load work on on 115vld but not sure I have saved it any where, it went with the barrel when I sold. Regardless never remember OTC ammo being that bad

The first rifle I bought myself after college was a used Remmy 700 ADL and is also the first rifle where I concentrated on working up high precision loads and bedding a stock. It shot 100gr to 120gr extremely well (sub moa). The only bullets it did not like were the original Barnes. I went with 100 gr Nosler B-Tips and 117 gr Hornady. I need to put this rifle back together and see what it will do.

The only 25-06 I’ve loaded for is a 700 Mountain Rifle owned by one of the guys at the deer lease who is recoil averse. I approached it just like other necked down 30-06 based cartridges. From that sample of one, I like the cartridge. The particular rifle I loaded for was relatively easy to get it to shoot. The pencil thin barrel would start wandering on the third shot if you didn’t let it cool. What I loaded seemed to like a .050 jump. 117-120 grain Hornady and Sierra bullets with H-4831 would consistently shoot 5 shot groups in the .7’s. 100 grain Partitions and IMR-4350 in the .6’s. With those 100 grain partitions leaving the muzzle over 3,200fps, it is a spectacular killer on deer and coyotes.

I noticed that many .25-06’s wore heavier barrels than other calibers.

My friend shoots a Ruger 77 .25-06 and his is identical to my .270, but his has a 24” barrel that is heavier than my 22” sporter barrel.

He shoots 120 grain remmy core-lokts and it kills south Texas whitetails very well.

Owner of the horrible shooting Sako here. As soon as I seen this post I knew JG would have some input on the 25-06 Don't give up buddy, we believe in you!

The first truly accurate rifle I owned was a 25-06 Ruger No 1 that I bought at JC Penny’s back in the day. It loved 87gr Speer bullets.