I consider the 25/06Rem a difficult caliber, either with factory fodder or handloads. I let my two Sons pick a rifle out of my rifles and the younger chose the Ruger M77 tang safety that was my Dads. This rifle was not very accurate with my handloads and I questioned him about his choice but he wanted that rifle. To make a long story shorter, he now lives in Tacoma, WA. where he is stationed in the Army and he buys and shoots factory ammo. He said his 25/06 wouldn't group under 5" at 100 yds. He came home last weekend and brought the rifle back with him and I sent him home with my Tikka T3 Lite 300WSM and kept the 25 here with me. The other day I decided to try making up some handloads for it and found that a 120 grain Speer bullet and 50.5 grains of IMR4350 will put three shots overlapping at 100 yds. if I let the barrel cool between shots. I made the same test loads using Hornady 117 grain Interlocks and it put them at about 3". It isn't that this caliber won't shoot but it doesn't just fall into accuracy. I have nown several guys that have bought this cartridge rifle and shortly traded them off because they couldn't get them to shoot. Maybe your B-I-L should take up reloading as a hobby or trade the 25 on a 30/06 as they are easy to find accurate loads for "usually". I have a minimum requirement of sub MOA for my rifles and if I can't get that they are out of here. I really llike sub half MOA, but alas that is sometimes not possible nor reasonable, even for me when the rifle and loads are doing their job.
