Thread: 25 Cal these days

Greetings all,
Mere mention of a wildcat .25 calibre rifle and my brain was off to the races. Next minute I am surrounded by books all open at different pages where something of interest resides. In the late 1950's the .250 savage and the .257 Roberts were still chambered. By the mid 1960's they were gone. The modern .25 shooter is unlikely to be satisfied with a round for the past, regardless of how good they are when loaded to modern pressures. A .25 Creedmoor has been mentioned (actually a version of the .250 Savage Improved) which would be great in a short action but what would be good if you wanted a bit more zap? My old Speer No 9 manual may have a possible answer. The 25-284. It comes close to the .25-06 in performance and the shorter case would allow seating the long projectiles out in the shorter of the long actions where the .25-06 may struggle. You could call it a 6.35mm x 55 if you wanted. Would go nicely in a Tikka.
Regards Grandpamac.

breakopen .25/307

As others have mentioned, 25cal has grown a lot in popularity. Both Berger and Hornady do some very high BC hunting and target bullets now, that in many ways are a better choice than the equivalent 6.5mm bullets.

A 25 Creedmoor is definitely a cartridge worth considering if you are a reloader. Probably not likely to become a main stream cartridge but with brass available (or easily resized from 6 or 6.5mm CM brass) it's not a "bad" wildcat and isn't going to be hard to feed.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

breakopen .25/307

A little bit more work on the extractor and you could go 25/08 or 25CM and not have the hassle of getting 307 brass.

If you really wanted something rimmed then you could go 303/25, been around in Aus for years.

Originally Posted by Jaco Goosen

Just finished a beautiful 25 Creedmoor for another forum member, and have some more lined up. the 25s taken off in a big way. I belief we will be seeing s lot on 25cal in the near future. A good mate has been shooting a 25-06 since forever, I've always been of the opinion that a 25/08 Improved would have been a better option since a short action could be used.

One of the top shooters from Namibia has been shooting a 25 Koevoet(25/08 Imp) and it left an lifelong impression on me - even though I'm a died in the wool 6mm shooter.

I've been between fires - 25/08 Improved or Creedmoor??? The shorted case of the Creedmoor does make a lot of sense.....and then I learned about the existence of the 25GT!

So many calibres, so little time

Koevoet, hey. Wonder how many of those old warriors still exist?

I think there is a future in 25 for LR competition and hunting again with these new projectiles on the market (there will surely be more projo options available soon enough)

For hunting a 130 ish grain round is tame enough but carries some energy to distance.

From the PRS side it is popular because it bridges the gap between 6 & 6.5. slightly more recoil than a 6 but much better wind bucking ability and more energy on target/splash to correct from. some guys find 6.5 to be too much so a .25 is doable.
A few of us will be changing to 25 this year so keep an eye out at matches, even ask to have a shot after a match if you are curious.

Going to depend on projectile availability at the end of the day.

Apparently (from podcast) Brian Litz put a lot of time into the 133/135 Bergers, and results so far are really promising from the US comp shooters and hunters.

Here is a 25 cal Berger 135 next to a 7mm Hornady 180 ELDM


You'll need a 1:7.5" twist for reliable stability. Some US guys using 1:7.8" for the 'new magnums'.

Not sure what the Hornady 134 ELDM will be like, supply wise.

What prices are you guys paying for them? I jumped on 1k of the 135's on clearance at £49.50 per 100.

Was quoted £68 per 100 for ELD-M's so no-bueno here.

Got one box of Peterson LR 25 Creed headstamped brass, but will probably land up using 6.5 brass necked down.

Originally Posted by caberslash

Going to depend on projectile availability at the end of the day.

Apparently (from podcast) Brian Litz put a lot of time into the 133/135 Bergers, and results so far are really promising from the US comp shooters and hunters.

Here is a 25 cal Berger 135 next to a 7mm Hornady 180 ELDM
Attachment 245683

You'll need a 1:7.5" twist for reliable stability. Some US guys using 1:7.8" for the 'new magnums'.

Not sure what the Hornady 134 ELDM will be like, supply wise.

What prices are you guys paying for them? I jumped on 1k of the 135's on clearance at £49.50 per 100.

Was quoted £68 per 100 for ELD-M's so no-bueno here.

Got one box of Peterson LR 25 Creed headstamped brass, but will probably land up using 6.5 brass necked down.

Jump on the Alpha 25CM SRP brass, surely that's up your way, it's superb brass.

25 SAUM

Copied this from a US forum...

I'm in the process of having a 25 SAUM built, just waiting for JGS to get the reamer done. I'll be trying the new Hornady 134 ELD-M bullets first and probably with N565 or RL26. I'm not sure there's enough case capacity to use N570 and still get good velocity but I have it to try if the other two don't work out.

I haven't 100% decided on barrel length but as of now I'm heavily leaning to go 22in and expecting velocity to be somewhere around 3150 with those 134 ELD-M's.

I have had a 25-06 for a couple of years and love it... so would be really interested to see how these new wildcats go. Would be nice if there was a factory offering of them too. Does it look like these other .25 cals would require as long a barrel as the 25-06 for effective velocity?

Originally Posted by Double Shot

Jump on the Alpha 25CM SRP brass, surely that's up your way, it's superb brass.

There is an importer in the UK but not many 25 CM shooters here.

Having seen, read and heard a few things, I'm not going to be jumping on the small rifle primer train for intermediate (308) rifle sized cases.
I'm sure Alpha is good brass, they do LRP versions of other cartridges, so hopefully a 25 CM LRP version comes in soon.
I don't need to push pressures, and none of the actions in my price range are bushed for SRP (not paying the UK work rates for it to be done either). No point using small primers if they crater or blank out due to overside firing pin hole. Tikka T3 is the only action which does not require bushing for SRP.

Might have been stupid of me, but I sold off all my small rifle primers as I could see availability being an issue in the future. Not willing to pay £80-150 per 1k of primers when the same items were £25-80 per 1k about 4 years ago... ('new shipment in from Magtech of Brazil' nah they were at the back of the warehouse this whole time and the price got jacked 4x. Simple supply and demand, when there is little to no demand, create an artificial scarcity to increase demand).

I'll see out the large rifle primers that I have. Got plenty...

Originally Posted by JoelA

I have had a 25-06 for a couple of years and love it... so would be really interested to see how these new wildcats go. Would be nice if there was a factory offering of them too. Does it look like these other .25 cals would require as long a barrel as the 25-06 for effective velocity?

25CM, 25GT and 25x47L aren't wild cats, they are very much factory produced brass, some ammo makers will start to look at them.
For the 130g+ projectiles it's generally recommended to have a 7.5 twist, most comp shooters are running 26" barrels.
These can produce upwards of 3000fps.

Originally Posted by kiwi303

I think there is a future in 25 for LR competition and hunting again with these new projectiles on the market (there will surely be more projo options available soon enough)

For hunting a 130 ish grain round is tame enough but carries some energy to distance.

From the PRS side it is popular because it bridges the gap between 6 & 6.5. slightly more recoil than a 6 but much better wind bucking ability and more energy on target/splash to correct from. some guys find 6.5 to be too much so a .25 is doable.
A few of us will be changing to 25 this year so keep an eye out at matches, even ask to have a shot after a match if you are curious.

It sounds like the trend in the US is starting to go away from fast and light bullets and back to heavy and slow.

Turns out I was right to use stick with 6.5CM and 147s.

If I were to build a new rifle I'd definitely be considering 25GT or 25CM. But at the same time I quite like the idea of 22BR. Hence why I just stuck with 6.5CM....

But for a hunting/target/do everything rifle, 25CM would be pretty hard to beat.

Heres a 6.5 06 that shoots 143 gr ELD-X's very tight- Just a 25.06 necked out to 6.5
No factory ammo available so need to reload for it

There are still some around, Im aware of a few in NZ. They dont really advertise it.