25-06: The most underrated cartridge

[Music] [Music] when you hear anyone talk about the 25.6 they always claim that it's the most underrated hunting cartridge in history well how did it get this reputation and is it even deserving of the reputation well in this video we'll do an in-depth review of this classic cartridge that even in modern times is held in very high regard by most expert hunters often affectionately referred to as the old quarter war the 25 hot six started life in 1919 when the legendary gunsmith ate off Kneedler started selling rifles chambered in his new cartridge that's right the 25.6 is a hundred years old Remington really legitimize the cartridge in the 1960s when they started selling models seven hundred rifles chambered in 25.6 with the backing of Remington the 25.6 quarter bore was an instant hit with hunters who knew they didn't need Magnum power for deer and antelope but wanted something flatter shooting than the 243 and 308 25.6 instantly became the go-to round for pronghorn for decades the 25 calibers were known as the Western cartridges because of their effectiveness on deer and pronghorn in open country areas the 25.6 is a hunter's round it isn't meant for punching paper at a thousand yards or being a Best of the West fanboy it was made to kill deer size game with authority inside of 400 yards with little recoil and a flat trajectory basically the 25.6 shoots flat like a 22-250 recoils like a 243 and hits like a 270 so with all these positive attributes why is the 25.6 so underrated well that's because 25 caliber bullets don't have high ballistic coefficients modern bullet marketers of somehow convinced hunters that bullet BC's are extremely important it's got so bad that many hunters are using rebrand and target bullets to hunt animals rather than real hunting bullets that were designed solely to kill almost every ethical shot on a game animal is taken within 400 yards at 400 yards shooting from field positions ballistic coefficients do not matter never choose a honey bullet based off of ballistic coefficients nozzle or partitions Swift a frames and TS X's don't have high pcs but they're considered to be three of the most effective killing bullets that money can buy I hear guys talk about superior bcs with rounds like the 243 or six millimeter but in a real-life hunting scenario the ballistics of your typical 25.6 load are far superior to those so always choose a cartridge and bullet based off of how it performs inside of three or four hundred yards who the hell cares about what honey bullets do at a thousand yards you shouldn't because that's not hunting the stupidest criticism of the 25.6 that I've ever heard is that it's overbore meaning the ratio between case capacity and bullet diameter is too high well I Got News for you the 243 or 6 millimeter rounds are just as / bores the 25.6 as a matter of fact the 7 millimeter remington magnum is probably the most over bore honey cartridge in use today but you don't hear people criticizing that do you ironically the last guy who told me he didn't like the 25.6 because it was too overboard shot a 7 millimeter magnum exclusively you know overboard isn't good or bad it just means that the cartridge needs a longer barrel and slower burning powders to achieve its potential so ignore the over bore argument as it's just a bunch of internet hype spread by keyboard commandos now there is one downfall to the 25.6 cartridge and that's the fact that it doesn't perform well in short barrels velocity is one of the secrets to the effectiveness of the 25.6 round and those big charges of slow burning powders really need a longer barrel to take advantage of everything the 25.6 is capable of myself I prefer a 26 inch barrel for the 25.6 cartridge the 2506 really isn't a good short barreled brush gun out of all the deer and antelope sized game I've taken the most dramatic kills I've ever witnessed have been with the 25.6 I don't know if the 25.6 just has that perfect combination between velocity bullet weight and recoil or if it's just luck but that 25.6 is a fantastic killing cartridge that's super easy to shoot you know even though 25.6 is killed everything in North America including Risley bears it's really better suited for Darrin antelope even though 25.6 is very versatile it really is a little bit too much for squirrels and rabbits and prairie dogs and it's too light to be an ethical choice for elk or bear but for everything in-between it really is one of the best cartridges you can get the old quarter bars recognize the world over as one of the finest honey cartridges ever devised 25.6 is not only a favorite among deer and antelope hunters here in the US but it's really prolific in Africa for killing plains game it's heavily utilized in Europe for deer and it's a legendary tool for kangaroo in Australia the 25.6 cartridge truly is an international favorite among hunters 25.6 cases have always been super easy to make by resizing 30.6 or 270 cases but nowadays reloading components and factory ammunition for 2506 are cheap and easy to find so amal availability with the 25.6 is never a problem even Walmart carries it the 2506 is super easy to load for you'll find that slower burning powders work the best for bullets in a let's say 80 to 110 grain range I highly recommend h-43 50 or H 48 31 for 115 to 120 green bullets I highly recommend rotundo for bullets for the 25.6 you want a hard deep penetrating bullet that will hold together on high-speed impacts the best hunting bullets for the 25.6 are the Nosler partition the Swift a-frame and the Barnes T TSX of all of these I really prefer the Barnes but the hundred and fifteen green partition is a proven killer with decades of history behind it before remington started mass-producing rifles in 25.6 in the late 1960s most 2506 rifles were custom built on rebelled Mauser 98 actions this beautiful 25.6 built on a mauser action is a classic example of what most 25.6 rifles look like back in the day but nowadays just about every rifle manufacturer mixed rifles chambered in 25.6 so they're prolific cheap and easy to acquire now most experts agree that there's no better cartridge for a combination of CX p 1 and CX p 2 game than the 2506 but the general public is so concentrated on sexy new cartridges and ultra high b/c bullets that the 2506 feels completely under the radar nowadays it's one of those cartridges where everyone who's ever hunted with it absolutely loves it and those who hate it and probably never tried it so in light of this analysis I have to agree that the 25.6 is indeed the most underrated hunting cartridge of all time well I really hope you enjoyed my video thank you for watching and good hunting [Music]

Channel: undefined

Views: 176,204

Rating: 4.8791857 out of 5

Keywords: 25-06, 25-06 hunting, 25-06 underrated, 25-06 bullets, 25-06 pronghorn, 25-06 deer, 25-06 antelope, 25-06 rifle, 25-06 vs, 25-06 vs 243, 25-06 vs 270, desert dog, best hunting cartridge, best caliber for hunting, best deer caliber, best pronghorn caliber, best bullet for pronghorn, 100gr ttsx, 115gr partition, loading the 25-06, 25-06 loads, 25-06 shooting, overbore, overbore cartridges, overbore caliber, best hunting caliber

Id: AnmJAfBWlfg

Length: 9min 36sec (576 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 24 2019