Technical and hunting information on the calibres
Read the whole A mid-calibre rifle project story
Official Australian Hunter review
Please note that the loads mentioned herein were safe in the rifles tested, but should be worked up to carefully in any other firearms.
The .25-06
If you are one of those people who want the latest and greatest, the .25-06 might not be for you. It’s been around since about 1920, when AO Niedner necked-down .30-06 cases to .25-calibre and called his creation the .25 Niedner. Brass was plentiful at this time, with military surplus cases just about given away. It took until 1969 for one of the major players to produce factory ammunition in this calibre - Remington was the first to do it and the round attained instant popularity.
Various factory loads are available for the 25-06, but handloaders will extract the best from it. With bullet weights from 75 to 120 grains and excellent powders available, it is not too hard to cook up a good working load. The handloader can still neck-down .30-06 cases to form .25-06s, but why bother? Both Winchester and Remington produce bags of new cases at moderate cost already formed and headstamped.
I prefer to load 85-, 87- or 100-grain bullets for this calibre. These weights give good velocities in excess of 3300fps with careful loading and this makes for a flat-shooting cartridge. The Australian-made ADI AR2209 is an excellent powder for the .25-06 and gives excellent velocity and accuracy with all of the aforementioned bullet weights. There is no need to use Magnum primers with this cartridge. Easy to load for and fairly easy on barrels, the .25-06 has a lot going for it.
Claimed by .25-calibre enthusiasts to be the ‘ideal all-round calibre for Australia’, the quarter-bore certainly has a lot going for it. With usable bullet weights from 75 to 120 grains, all sorts of game may be despatched humanely with this calibre. Factory loads in a number of bullet weights are readily available, so it is just a matter of choosing a suitable one for the game that you are hunting.
With the lighter bullets, the .25-06 has been used as a varmint hunting rifle on longer range rabbits, hares and foxes and indeed, is a reliable killer out past 400m, if you can hit them that far away.
I have used this calibre with success on goats and pigs, and even small to medium fallow deer (where permitted) will fold up immediately following a well-placed shot from the .25-06. I have shot a number of these for meat with instant kills.
The 7mm-08
This would have to be one of the easier calibres to work up a load for - it is a .308 case necked back to 7mm. Powders such as ADI’s AR2208 are just perfect for this calibre, as well as Winchester’s WW760 for the heavier bullets.
The 7mm-08 makes a fine Rifle Metallic Silhouette match cartridge and bullets over 150 grains should be used loaded up to maximum velocity. This cartridge is very easy on barrels and my first rifle had around 8000 rounds through it before the stainless barrel was replaced.
I have owned and used a 7mm-08 since late 1980s, and have hunted every type of game in South Australia and Western New South Wales with a 7mm-08. My rifle was originally built for Rifle Metallic Silhouette shooting, but it soon found a role in the hunting scene.
With a bullet spread between 100 and 175 grains, there is something for any type of game that the average hunter will find. Factory loads in either 120 or 140 grains will work very effectively on everything up to medium deer.
I have shot hundreds of goats and a lot of pigs over the years with this calibre and it is a very effective killer. For game the size of goats, load a 120-grain Sierra over 40 grains of AR2208 and go get them. This load is fast, accurate and deadly and will flatten ferals at sensible ranges. I have used this load on medium-sized pigs, but shooters chasing larger ones might want to move up to the 139- and 149-grain bullets. Try 38 grains of AR2208 or 42 of AR2209 with these.
With its mild recoil and longer range capabilities, the 7mm-08 is a very useful calibre for Australian hunting activities.
The .270 Winchester
Another cartridge formed originally by necking-down the .30-06 case, the .270 was first offered in a rifle by Winchester way back in 1925.
Like the .25-06, it is easy to load for and new brass can be purchased ready to load. Once again, AR2209 is a good choice for most bullet weights, although some reloaders prefer AR2213SC when using the 117- and 120-grain offerings. Magnum primers are not required with this cartridge.
I prefer a good 130-grain bullet loaded over 54 grains of AR2209 for a velocity over 3050fps. This load has worked very well when shooting longer distances, as it has a good trajectory and easy-to-manage holdover.
The .270 is noted for two things: it is loud and it is very effective as a longer range calibre. In fact, for shooting long distances over gullies, such as in the Flinders Ranges in South Australia, there are few cartridges that can match a well-tuned .270 for effectiveness.
A good rifle in this calibre with suitable bullets will take down just about any game in Australia, with the exception of buffalo. Although the .270 has been used as a varmint cartridge overseas, I would consider it more a game cartridge and leave the varminting to smaller calibres. However, pigs, goats and deer are well within the capabilities of the .270. Bullets from 90 to 150 grains give a good spread and 130-grain loads are preferred by many shooters.
The .270 is quite pleasant to shoot from a recoil point of view, but hearing protection is strongly recommended, as it’s not a subtle calibre!
The .308 Winchester
The .308 Winchester is the civilian version of the 7.62 NATO military cartridge. It was first released in a Winchester rifles way back in 1952, and is another very easy cartridge to load for.
A good 150-grain bullet over 46 grains of AR2208 will take care of most game in an exemplary manner. Brass for the .308 is readily available and for the budget-conscious, there is often once-fired brass available for very low cost. Normal primers should be used.
Bullet weights from 110 right up to 220 grains are available, but there is no point going more than 180 grains, as the trajectory will become rainbow-like with the really heavy stuff.
The .308 is a fuss-free cartridge and reacts well to handloading. It has been described as the most accurate .30-calibre going around and the Big Bore shooters that use it right out to 1200 yards would agree. It was also used in Benchrest competition for many years before the advent of the PPC cartridges.
The ‘thirty’ can use bullets from 110 to 220 grains, but bullets around the 150-grain mark are a better choice for hunting. Factory loadings are available in a vast number of combinations from just about every manufacturer, so choose your load to suit your game.
Hunters may use a .308 with confidence against game up to full-grown fallow deer. It is more than adequate on goats and pigs and with the right bullet choice, it will not destroy too much usable meat. Bullet choice is important, bearing in mind that most Australian game is thin-skinned and does not require harder bullets to do the job.
For feral destruction, the 130-grain Speer hollow-point is hard to beat, with its huge hole in the front. A stiff load of AR2208 behind one of these will shoot fast and flat and knock over anything up to the size of goats.
The .308 is pleasant to shoot in a rifle of medium weight and can be carried all day on a hunt without too much trouble.
Read about Range testing, gunsmithing and handloading for accuracy
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