Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting .257 Cal Bullets?

OP,
Went through trying times with my 6.5 Swede using some bullets highly regarded
by others. Unbelievable misses, unrecoverable hit deer. A Schmidt show rodeo,
one doe. Went lighter, softer, deer die better now.

Only 25-06 experience is loading some 117gr BT Speers for a friend.
He claims good, quick kills.

I’m going to give the 25-06 one more season with different bullets to see how it does. The rifle is a beautiful A Bolt II Medallion and I love it. The jury is still out on the chambering. I will likely go back to a 6.5x55 if the next season isn’t a helluva lot better.

.007 ain't gonna make a lick of difference.

How is an "unbelievable miss" the fault of a bullet?

Beretzs
Have you used the 100 gr Ballistic tip in the 25-06? Interested in hearing about results. Playing with one now.

GreggH

Thanks 10guage. Interesting reading. The comments by Dogzapper were particularly of note.

GreggH

I've had good luck with the 115gr Partition and 115gr Ballistic Tip, I have loaded up some 110gr Accubonds but haven't used them on a deer yet.

Those were the main point of the links. Probably other threads out there if you will do a little searching on the www

Those were the 2 that popped up with the keywords that I entered.

10gauge, thanks for digging up those threads. They’ve got me thinking. I ran into a guy at the range who hunts only bc with a 25/06. He was convinced that lighter bullets performed better on deer than the 117s and 120s. Dog zapper is certainly a believer. We hunt at much shorter ranges here and I don't know how much difference that may make but it’s worth a try. I’ll see if I can find a 100 gr load my rifle likes.

this year is my 1st year using Hammer bullets for deer and antelope hunting the Hammer bullets work well and are the most accurate bullet i have ever shot out of 257 Weather mag. Ruger # 1`s and my Weatherby Mark 5 and my son`s same Ruger #1 rifle too . i have also had great results out of my 22 K-Honet using Hammer bullets. i do like Nosler Partitions and Swift A-Frame but the Hammer bullets for me are more accurate in the 25 caliber rifles i own and use.

I am in the same boat. I like velocity.

Match the bullet to the game. Lighter softer bullet on light soft game.

Even a big deer is maybe 300#, hardly a big animal to me.

I hunt in brush, a 50 yard shot would be long. From the early 80s until the last 5 or 6 years allmy 6mm shot was an 85 grain Sierra SP. Considered a varmint bullet but it has no trouble punching through deer, even on some shoulder shots.

I have used the Sierra 100 whether boattail or flat base in the 25-06, it works fine as well.

I did have a load in a Savage LR 25-06. Max of IMR-4350 & a 100 grain Ballistic Tip. 3/4" or so with regular primer but a Magnum primer cut that group down to around 1/2", don't forget to experiment a little. Never killed any game with it.

Now I have to look them up. I’m a veritable googlefoo whiz.

You have a PM.

A mate shot a red deer hind with the 100gn Ball. Tip in his .25-06. The bullet exited a side on chest shot.

The 100 gr NBT were all I used in my 25-06 until TSX came along.

They are both potent deer killers but I like the TSX better.

Gregg, we’ve shot a few with the Federal Premium 100 BTs, Rem 100 Core Lokts and hand loaded 100’s using RL22 for 3300 and they crushed deer. Nothing was less than excellent. I was blown away how well the 100 BT worked, even at hyper speed.

Beretzs. Thanks for the response. Going to try some to see how they shoot in the rifle I will be doing load development with as well as my .25-284.

GreggH

Boy, that’s the other part of them, they just seem to wanna shoot great. One of the easy accurate bullets.