25-06 bullet selection

[Bird Dog]

I have a 25-06 with a 25" Pac-nor barrel and 1-11" twist rate. So, it's optimized for 75 to 100 grain bullets. For deer and antelope hunting I have narrowed it down to two bullets. A 100 grain Speer boat tail soft point. Or a 100 grain Swift A-frame. I can get good accuracy with both. The Speers will shoot flatter and are a lot more affordable and obtainable, but I have enough A-frame on-hand to hunt for a while. The vast majority of the deer I've killed has been with 165 grain .30-06. These basically always produce good exit wounds, and though blood trailing has seldom ever been required in 40 years of hunting, the bowhunter in me appreciates a good exit wound. Those same 165gr .30-06 Sierra GKs and Nosler BTs tend to do massive damage to the lungs/heart as they pass through but hold up well on quartering shots.

So, of the above .257 bullets at typical 25-06 velocities from 25 to 300 yards, will the Speer penetrate through or blow-up inside without an exit?

Will the A-frame tend to zip right through without devastating expansion on deer size game?

[georgehwbush]

nosler e-tip 100gr lead free about $1 each though. maybe barns tsx though i have no experience with them. i like the noslers.

[georgehwbush]

that is if you are looking for penetration with good damage ^ that.

and i can't speak to the speer or swift question in particular. sorry.

[jmr40]

Most typical bullets perform well if the impact speed is between roughly 1800-2800 fps. That's not carved in stone, just a general guideline. Every manufacturer is a little different. Much slower and they don't expand. Much faster and they overexpand and don't penetrate.

Most cartridges such as the 30-06, 308 and similar cartridges naturally impact at those speeds from the muzzle-400 yards depending on bullet weight, sometimes a bit farther.

When you start shooting cartridges that are 3000+ fps at the muzzle you can have issues at close range with common bullets like the Speer's. That's where the more expensive bullets such as the Barnes Copper bullets come into play.

Those bullets will stay together well over 3000 fps at impact but need a little faster impact on the low end. Usually, 2000-2200 fps or they may not expand.

I'm not that familiar with the A-Frames but think they are a tough bullet that would hold up well.

Whatever you decide on check the manufacturer's suggestions. Then look at the ballistics of your load to see what ranges your load's velocity falls into the acceptable velocity ranges.

[Koda94]

The Swift A-Frame uses a partition technology thats well proven and established, however its old technology invented back when cup and core bullet technology was poorly bonded and experienced jacket separation. With the partition even if the front of the bullet mushrooms and separates the rear of the bullet stays together and penetrates deep. The trade off is partitions are thus more difficult to make and some claim they tend to be less accurate (but still good enought to hunt with)
I do not know of Speers boat tail soft points reputation but most of todays bonded cup and cores no longer have jacket separation issues and mushroom nicely. The advantage is they are cheaper to make and are more accurate (The speer has a higher BC than the Swift...).

Inside of 300yds it wont matter, a 100gn 25-06 is well established as a legendary deer caliber. If you think someday you might want to stretch your marksmanship past 300 then pick the Speers. I would also tend to favor a bullet thats readily available, the A Frames never seem to be in stock.

[paknheat]

I don’t use either of those bullets in my 25-06. For 100 grain loads I tend to use the Barnes TTSX.

But to answer your question I do believe I would have to use the Speer bullet.


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[Colorado Redneck]

I used Nosler 100 gr. Ballistic tip hunting bullets quite successfully on mule deer. 3270 fps, one doe at around 100 yards, dropped on the spit, and a nice sized 4x4 mulie buck at about 150. Exit hole were like quarter sized. The 1/11 twist might not stabilize solid copper.

[Paul B.]

I've always had good results with Speer bullets in the .308 and .300 Win Mag. Bullets have been the 165 gr. and 200 gr. Hot Cores. I've never used Speer's boat tail bullets on anything so no idea how they'd perform. With that said I think I would also look at the Speer 100 gr. Hot Core. AFAIK, their boat tail bullets are not made using the hot core process. Out of the 18 deer taken with the 165 gr. bullet, only one was ever recover and it literally passed through the deer from appetite to exhaust pipe. Only one animal was shot with the 200 gr. bullet, a cow elk at 530 yards as measured by laser by the guide Bullet hit the elk broadside and passed on through. The elk went down, kicked a few time and expired.
I do have a 25-06 but other than test firing the gun, a Ruger #1B I just haven't shot it all that much.
Paul B.

[Bird Dog]

Here are the stats for various .257 bullets using Berger's stability scale. >1.50 SG on the Berger Scale is stable. Only the bottom 3 are totally stable. The 100 gr Nosler Partition is probably close enough. I can verify that the top 3 options WILL NOT stabilize in a 1-11" twist rifle.

110 Horn ELD-X 1.225" .96 SG
115 Nosler BT 1.215" 1.02 SG
117 Sierra BT 1.165" 1.11 SG
115 Nosler Part 1.145" 1.22 SG
100 Nosler BT 1.115" 1.17 SG
100 Nosler Part 1.035" 1.45 SG
100 Swift AF 1.015" 1.55 SG
100 Speer Hot-Cor 0.940" 1.92 SG
100 Speer BTSP 0.995" 1.63 SG