25-06

[fabsroman]

Okay, I have several rifles (i.e., .220 Swift, .270 Win, .30-06, and .300 Win Mag), but am debating buying a .25-06 because I don't like the .270 Win (i.e., extremely old Rem. 700) and I really don't like the .30-06 (i.e., extremely old Savage 110). The other two guns are both Rugers. Anyway, I would like to get all my hunting done between the .220 Swift, the .300 Win Mag, and a new .25-06, all of which will be Rugers.

Most of my big game hunting is on whitetail deer, and I was planning on using the .25-06 for this because of the reduced recoil compared to the .300. My big question is, how far could I humantely kill a decent size whitetail with the .25-06 because some shots could possibly be way out there. I killed two last season at about 250.

Where would the effectiveness of the .25-06 cut out and the .300 Win take over (i.e., where would one animal be killed slower than the other).

Likewise, I plan on using the .25-06 on varmints, which will mostly consist of groundhogs. Where does the effectiveness of the .220 Swift cut out and the .25-06 take over? No sense to me in burning more powder to get the same effect on a groundhog.