Rem 700 .25-06. USA snipers rifle?

[Noah1234]

I've got a question I hope someone can answer for me. I just acquired a Rem 700 .25-06. The guy I bought it from claims that it was used by a US Army sniper as his issue weapon in 1979. I'm not really worried about it because the rifle is in excellent shape and I bought it for a good price sniper rifle or no, but I am curious. Would the Army really have issued this rifle in this particular caliber to one of their snipers?

Thanks.

[Southla1]

They MAY have Noah but I have serious doubts about it. The military did use built up Rem. 700's but I never heard of one in 25-06. Most were 7.62NATO (.308 Win) and If memeory serves me correctly back in the very early days of using 700's there may have been some in 30-06 but never 25-06 to my knowledge........ although it sure would be a great caliber for one, but the logistics ammo wise would suck.

[fed168]

The USMC adopted the M40 in 1966, changing from the -.06 to the 7.62x51. The army on the other hand, pretty much used M21s (an M14) until they opted for the M24 as a standard rifle in the early 90s (timing may be off a tad).
7.62 has been the standard sniping caliber for a good while for the US services, and the other calibers that have made appearences have been the .300 Win Mag, .50 BMG, but I have never come across a source that stated the .25-06 was used as a US service round.

[Jeff White]

The U.S. Army issued a bolt action sniper rifle in W.W.II, the M1903A4 Springfield in .30 (30.06), then they issued the M1C and M1D in cal. .30, then in the '60s and early '70s they issued the M21 which was in 7.62 NATO. The M1s and M21 were semi autos. In about 1989 or 1990 the M24 was fielded which is a bolt action. It's based on the Remington 700 long action and was designed to be convertable by the unit armorer from cal. 7.62 NATO to .300 Winchester Magnum.

The Army didn't have a formal sniper program in 1979. Sniping has been one of those skills that we get out of the footlocker and dust off during wartime and then pack away in peacetime. Even during Vietnam there wasn't an Army level sniper school, but there were unit programs and schools. It was 1989 or 1990 before the Army sniper school at Ft. Benning opened. When I went to 47th Infantry Division (MN, IL, IA National Guard) sniper school in 1988 we were issued mostly M1Ds with Korean War vintage M84 telescopes. There were either 4 or 6 M21s in the school and they went to the left handed firers. (You can't shoot the M1C or M1D left handed because the telescope is offset to the left side to allow for loading the M1 with it's enblock clip) They borrowed sniper rifles from all over the Army to come up with enough to conduct the course.

So I think that the seller is trying to to create an interesting history so that the rifle is more marketable. I don't think any Remington 700s were procured even for competition purposes in 25.06 caliber.

HTH

Jeff

[kgs]

From what I know about U.S. sniper history, the .25-06 was never employed.



Regards,

kgs.

[legalhack]

There were sniper schools in the Army back then. Most were at Bragg for what was to become SF CMD. USAJFKCENMA ran one utilizing the M21 system. 7.62 with an ART III scope. Army did not go to bolt guns 'till much later.

Having said all that, I have a rem. 700 in 25-06. Topped with a Springfield Armory 6X20-56mm. It is a pleasure to shoot. Rounds carry well to 600 yards - beyond that, they lose some consistency due to wind play. You'll enjoy your weapon.

[Dogger]

Military is real big on keeping ammo standardized. Never heard of 'em using the 25-06

[WalterGAII]

Where did guys like Carlos Hatchcock learn to be snipers?? (I know that he was a Marine; just wondering about guys of that era.)

[Sodbuster]

And if it were true, that sniper either stole his weapon when leaving the service, or the Army gave it to him when he ETSed. They forgot to give me my M16 when I left.

[Matt VDW]

Where did guys like Carlos Hatchcock learn to be snipers??

He developed his long range shooting skills by competing in highpower rifle matches.

Regarding the rifle: mightn't it have originally been a .308 with a different barrel?

[Al Thompson]

Don't think so - if the rifle's nice and the price was right, be happy.

Based on the seller's silly story about the rifle being his sniper rifle, I would disregard anything else he had to say.

Wrong rifle, wrong caliber, and I do not think he could have stolen it from the Armory. The first 700's procured in mass were the M24s in .308. (Army) These wern't in the system until '88 or later. No .25-06's were ever issued - the .300 Win Mag had a following in the Spec Ops community.

Just a war story I'm afraid.

Giz

[Ric]

I've read that the early Viet Nam snipers used off-the-rack Model 70 Winchesters in .30 '06 purchased from sporting goods stores and base exchanges around 1965 or so. The impression that i formed was that these weapons were not really "approved and issued" through some formal procurement process but were "open-purchased" and somewhat loosely assigned to the in-theater shooting schools.

Under this scenario it's not too hard to imagine a few odd Rem 700's in various calibers showing up, maybe for "testing" and then being "forgotten" about. An awful lot of stuff came back to the US in sea bags in those days.

Without some other evidence i'd say it's just a good story.

If on the other hand you can track the serial number and find out that it was purchased at a Pacific base exchange (Guam ? Subic ?) by a supply-type for the US military in the late 60's, you might have a real story.

-ric

[Al Thompson]

Ric, that's true with the USMC, but I've never seen it claimed for the Army. Lots of stuff ended up in that war zone though.

Why in the world would anyone get a non-standard caliber? There was loads of 7.62 floating around.

Giz

[path27]

Bull@#$%.

[JohnK007]

Noah,
I think Path27's statement above pretty much sums it up.

[Southla1]

It was around 72 or 73 before Remington introduced the 25-06 as a standard factory round. That eliminates it being bought at a PX and issued in the Nam. By 72 the M40 was standardized, and by 73 we were out of the Nam.....totally. I think its like Path27 stated.

[Nimrod]

Giz, Jeff and Fed nailed it. The seller was full of it.

However, the .25-06 is an excellant round. Though iffy in the second half of a 1000 yards. I do not think there is a better deer cartridge for most hunting ranges.