That looks bada$$
.25 cal varmint rifle
- Thread starter vern.284
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Don't pay attention to Lance, or you'd be >10 .25 cal varmint rifles. Consider yourself warned.
LOL! This is my only .25 cal and WBY chambering thus far. This is my budget build .257 WBY.
Gpkhill2
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2011
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- 187
Only Weatherby cartridge I've owned and I've had 2 rifles chambered in it. Amazing antelope/deer round
First, I am not much of a varmint hunter.
Unless you count the racoons I shoot around the house with a 22LR as varmints. Which they are.
But I am a fan of the 25 caliber rifles.
Currently I think I have 4 -25 caliber rifles.
I have Remington model 25 in 25-20 that has killed two buck deer that I am aware of.
I have a 257 Roberts model 70 featherweight I bought new some 40 years ago.
I also have a 25 souper on an Arisaka action and a 25/06 on a 98 Mauser action.
The varmints I have killed with my 257 Roberts have been coyotes while deer hunting, and a 100-grain Sierra works really well.
Unless you count the racoons I shoot around the house with a 22LR as varmints. Which they are.
But I am a fan of the 25 caliber rifles.
Currently I think I have 4 -25 caliber rifles.
I have Remington model 25 in 25-20 that has killed two buck deer that I am aware of.
I have a 257 Roberts model 70 featherweight I bought new some 40 years ago.
I also have a 25 souper on an Arisaka action and a 25/06 on a 98 Mauser action.
The varmints I have killed with my 257 Roberts have been coyotes while deer hunting, and a 100-grain Sierra works really well.
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I use both 15" and 26" encores in 25-06. The 100 Sierra Game King is sufficient to spectacular on deer and pronghorn, but quite excels on marmots (rockchuck cousin). My best anecdote: an old hand saw a marmot pop at about 80 yds uphill at about 30 degrees. His response: "that was the coolest thing ive ever seen." The whole thing arced about 10' up and away, from the top of a sage brush, with the intestines all blown out like ropes from the body which spun and flipped a few times. This was with the 15" barrel.
The 100s go 2800 in the 15" and 3300 in the 26". I think the momentum (none when considering elk or things that bite, but then again plenty for 5# grass chewers) often displaces the whole carcass several feet, but the soft nature of the game king displaces most of the soft tissues away from the carcass at the same moment. Those results cement the 25-06 as my biggest varmint round.
A 22 or a 6mm works well on the marmot, but either will provide shallower wounds with soft bullets or narrower wounds with harder bullets. The mid-speed 35s like a 14" 358jdj will empty the insides decisively, but is harder to make longer hits with than the varmint rounds. A 41 with a cast hp kills them dead without much discernible effect, same as a 17 hornet with 20gr varmags.
6.5 & 7 long range rigs with soft bullets are wonderful. 308 with softs is too. But with "elk bullets" the critters just stop; same as 41 or 17 described above. A 338 lapua and 300 smk or berger is beautiful overkill with much body displacement, more than the 25. Big bore rifles clean em out and fling em too, but the recoil mostly prevents the shooter from seeing the immediate results. So I go back again to the 25, with either barrel, and the 100 splatter king.
That's what I always used to do....
Tell my wives...ohhhh look I have all these projectiles I ACQUIRED....for 60.00....what a buy...now I need to buy a 2000.00 rifle to shoot them honey!!!! ( could explain 4 wives...you think?)....
Chukman
New Member
Amen, brother !
I'll add 257 Weatherby to the list
dk17hmr, consider the 25/204, redding bushing dies, redding or forster seater sleeve easily bored out. I am running the 22 and 6/204's and they perform way out side what you would ever think.
22/204 is running the 53s at 3700 with 29.2g IMR XBR 8208 with cci br4 primers, .020 freebore reamer.
6/204 is running the 70g Nosler BT and Speer TNT at 3500.
All in Winchester brass.
A pard is shooting a short barrel 25/204 with 100 Partitions at 2850 and he has pictures of a lot of dead stuff.
With our 257 Weatherbys with short freebore, we are shooting the 110g Accubond and the 115g Bergers at 3600 out of 25", X caliber 9Twist, #5 contour, groups are in the 2's on non trued 700s, Boyd's stocks shooting nothing but R#22.
22/204 is running the 53s at 3700 with 29.2g IMR XBR 8208 with cci br4 primers, .020 freebore reamer.
6/204 is running the 70g Nosler BT and Speer TNT at 3500.
All in Winchester brass.
A pard is shooting a short barrel 25/204 with 100 Partitions at 2850 and he has pictures of a lot of dead stuff.
With our 257 Weatherbys with short freebore, we are shooting the 110g Accubond and the 115g Bergers at 3600 out of 25", X caliber 9Twist, #5 contour, groups are in the 2's on non trued 700s, Boyd's stocks shooting nothing but R#22.
Is that close the the 25-45 sharps?
