In this video I talk about a very good wildcat cartridge. I go over the history and ballistics of the 25-06 Ackley Improved. I compare it to the 25-06 Remington and the 257 Weatherby. Hope you enjoy the video!
This is a cartridge I almost never mention to anyone just because it’s almost unheard of. Too many want factory offerings in both rifle and ammo but with this you can’t get that. I appreciate you covering this 🙏
Thank you for this long overdue video. The plain 25-06 is Loved by many. Most people that have it for whitetail, won't hear of anything else. The 25-06 Ackley is phenomenal.
@@TODinWYmade one for me as well. A takedown switch barrel in 25,30,&338 - 06 all AI. Perhaps a quicker twist than the 10, would have stabilized some of the newer bullets from. Hornady better? 338 AI was silly on my part just a strait up 338 - 06 but I was looking for extended case life.
It is a cool cartridge and glad you did a video. A couple people on the forum shoot this cartridge and have achieved excellent results especially with Hammer Bullets. I’ll stick with my .280AI. Thanks
So glad you covered this cartridge. My dad and I saw a nice Ruger M77 ( the older one with the tang safety) in a pawn shop for a pretty decent price but we didn’t end up getting it. Later on I got to thinking that it would be a perfect rifle to convert to 25-06 AI and do a few upgrades to it and make it an awesome deer and antelope rifle! So I have been looking into the 25-06 AI a little and it’s great to see you cover it in one of your videos. Next time I am in there I may have to see if they still have that old rifle!
Great video, thanks for the video!!...it seems to me there is still good reasons to follow the good old calibers and its siblings , 30-06 parent case availability for cases, new 130ish and a bit more heavier bullets coming out, a selection of slow powders and given is a relatively barrel burner it seems a 1 in 8 / 1 in 7 twist will get with a 26" tube will be a real good contender for a not magnum related caliber. Personally I¨ll go this route for my .25-06 Ruger No1 when the rifle needs rebarreling, heck possibly sooner!, the lack of bolt action will give me enough room to put a longer barrel to squeeze maximum velocity and still be a handy hunter rig. Thanks again for the effort!. Regards from Argentina, D.
I fire formed with 14.6g of bullseye, filled the case with cream of wheat, and piece of paper towel stuffed down in to keep the mess from falling out. A perfectly formed case is the result. I push a patch down the barrel every 25 rounds. The advantage is brass is available. Federal and Nosler brass is soft in the case head, you will lose primer pockets. Winchester Brass is great. Lapua is the very, very toughest in 30/06. The Easy button is the 25/06 brass, but we have not seen Winchester brass in a few years. We have been shooting the 110g Nosler accubond and the 115g Berger with some amazing accuracy, and deer just flop. The old 117g Sierra btsp is a bullet that just hammers deer hard, but the BC is not that good for 500-600 yard shots. With a Gentry muzzle break this cartridge indeed becomes one of your favorite, hard-hitting cartridges of all time. With some of the new HIGH BC bullets, very long range shooting is now a Reality.
It is impressive; I have a 257 Robert's A.I., a 250 Savage A.I. and a 257 Weatherby. I love them all, surprisingly, the 250 A.I. is very close to the Roberts A.I., with 87 grain. I am getting 3380 FPS and 3409 fps out of them. With heavier bullets the margin gets bigger with the Robert. The 250 Savage A.I. case is very similar to the Creedmoor case. I always thought the 6.5 x 55 Ackley, in a modern rifle would be sweet.
I got one with a 7.5tw 26" barrel. Best decision on a cartridge I've made. I have 5x fired brass that I've never had to trim. If you can find RWS 270win brass it's better than Lapua for fire forming. Norma 270win brass is pretty good also. If your chamber is set up properly by your Smith you can use factory 25-06 ammo in a pinch. The down side..... my rifle loves retumbo and RL26 which have been extinct for almost 3 years. Fire forming can be easily done during barrel break in and my fire forming loads were still 1/2moa just not as fast as fully formed loads.
I've never even seen a 25-06AI or any of its stats until now but I agree with you that it probably is in the top 3 AI designs. And compared with the 257 Weatherby, it fills some big shoes. In terms of power, not many Weatherby cartridges withstand much competition and this cartridge really does! Thanks for a really great video introduction to this cartridge.
Berger publishes .25-06 AI load data for their 135 grain LR Hybrid using a 26" barrrel. One very interesting load is the following: Alliant RE 26 Min. 53.0 grains @2812 FPS Max. 58.2 grains @3063 FPS Approx. fill ratio of 91%. This load provides the best speed per volume of powder of more than a couple dozen tested. According to the Berger calculator, at 500 yards this load would deliver around 2550 FPS, 1950 ft. lbs., -36" drop, and 12.5" wind drift (15 mph 9 o-clock). A very potent and flat shooting round for sure.
Excellent video! I’m sure you are referring to bolt action cartridges for the most part but in my opinion the two cartridges that gain the most in their Ackley versions are number one-25-35 Winchester and number two-348 Winchester. I can get over 200 feet per second easily out of my 348 without even pushing it. If you’ve ever seen the factory cartridges it’s not hard to see why.
You could look for a Weatherby ULW in .25-06 and have it set back and re-chambered. I decided to re-barrel because I wanted 26", and a faster twist. I have a "LITE" in a very light package. Shoots bugholes.
This looks sweet. With high BC bullets coming in the 25s, this could be a awesome opportunity for a custom rifle. Maybe would need a magnum length action for the long bullets though??
If someone handed me a 25-06AI cartridge, like the one shown in the thumbnail, I'd think it was a Weatherby load at first blush until noticing the absence of a belt. That is an extremely blown out shoulder.
I am considering a custom target rifle in 25-06, and trying to determine if the fire form needed to go AI would be worth it. Also having a hard time funding Go/No-Go guages.
I have one, from H-S Precision when they were still in Arizona. I vividly recall the first crow I took with it. It was vaporized. Rained black feathers for what seemed like many minutes. 😅 This gun put 5 shots of the Winchester Supreme factory load into 1/4 MOA @ 100 yds, while fire-forming of course.😊
P.O.Ackley said this cartridge offered the least improvement of his improved cartridges…2506 cases tend to grow in length with each resizing…the improved version fixes that but fireforming or trimming once for the life of the case is easier to me….2506 really doesn’t need improving…I’ve used it for 35 years in Nevada open sagebrush it doesn’t need improving.
25 cal is so underated. I personally think 25 cal is the best bullet diameter for a short action especially for a 308case . 6.5 cm is a tad slow with the highest bc bullets and 6mm is a bit too fast. 25 cal is right on prefect
Are you factoring in that you can reload 257 Weatherby for much cheaper as well? I did the cost for you even with the inflated prices. 25-06 AI should be around $1.67 to reload. 257 WBY is $2.05 to reload.
