Best factory ammo to try in Savage Axis II .25-06

[wombat13]

I have a new Savage Axis II in .25-06 that I will eventually hand load for. I'd like to buy a few (three to five) boxes of different factory ammo to prove whether the rifle will shoot before I begin working up loads. The rifle will be used as a hunting rifle mostly for northern whitetails.

Which brands/bullets should I try? I'm not concerned about the cost. I want to know if the rifle has the potential to be accurate without years of trials and tribulation (I've discussed my challenges with a couple of Ruger Hawkeyes in other threads). Here are the brands I see available at Midway that have hunting bullets in the 100 to 120 grain weight range:

Hornady Superperformance (117 gr SST)
Barnes Vor-TX (100 gr TSX)
Federal (Fusion, Nosler BT, Nosler Partition, Sierra Game King, Trophy Copper)
Nosler (BT, e-Tip, Partition)
DoubleTap (Partition, Accubond)

Which three would you buy if your goal was to prove/disprove that the rifle is accurate?

 

[armedwalleye]

Every gun like SOMETHING. I would try known, or suspected, good performers for the make. I'd recommend Federal Fusion, the Hornady, and I also like Winchester Ballistic tip, nickel cased stuff and can't remember the specific name. Federal Premiums as well are solid performers for me.

 

[wombat13]

Every gun like SOMETHING. I would try known, or suspected, good performers for the make. I'd recommend Federal Fusion, the Hornady, and I also like Winchester Ballistic tip, nickel cased stuff and can't remember the specific name. Federal Premiums as well are solid performers for me.

That's what I'm trying to do, but I've never owned a Savage Axis II (or any Savage). Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[Newtosavage]

Every gun I've shot Federal Fusion ammo out of, shot it well.

 

[VoodooMountain]

Something with the Sierra 117 or a nosler ballistic tip is a good bet. Usually bullets in the 117-120 gr are going to be more accurate on average and should fall within 2 moa for most decent rifles.

But in reality the only person that can answer this is you. Some guns simply do not like some ammo. Some barrels hate boat tails and some won’t shoot flat base. Some barrels only like one weight of bullet or have a very narrow pressure window to work with.

 

[horsey300]

Fusion

 

[someguy2800]

Federal fusion 120 grain is by far the most accurate hunting ammo I ever shot out of my 25-06 and also by far the most effective on game. I found a source for the bullets as reloading components so I handload using the same federal fusion bullets. They are well under moa both as handloads and factory ammo in my Tikka and have and excellent ballistic coefficient of like .485 which is fantastic for a hunting bullet.





Don't get the barnes 100 gr TSX. I shot about 10 deer with these bullets in handloads and they were very disappointing.

The most accurate factory load I've ever shot from my gun is Winchester 90 grain HP's. After some research I figured out these are a slightly modified Speer TNT 87 grain HP. I've shot 300 of these through my 25-06 as factory ammo and over 1000 of the 87's in handloads and they have always delivered exceptional accuracy on top of 4831sc and a winchester primer. This is an explosive varmint bullet so not suitable for deer.

 

[wombat13]

Thanks, everyone. Amazingly consistent responses. Everyone likes Fusion. Federal Fusion 180 gr was the most accurate factory ammo for my Hawkeye in .300WM as well. Obviously, I've got to by the Fusion. I'll also pickup a box each of other suitable hunting ammo (SGK, NBT, etc.).

 

[wombat13]

View attachment 768946

Don't get the barnes 100 gr TSX. I shot about 10 deer with these bullets in handloads and they were very disappointing.

Would you explain that a bit more? I've been shooting 165 gr TSX in my .300WM and I'm not confident in it's terminal performance. I'd like to hear your experience. That bullet certainly looks like it did what it's supposed to do.

 

[Stevenvalleyky]

Wombat, since no one has mentioned this yet, Ill add this. While this is going to be a hunting gun, right now you are just trying to determine if the gun has accuracy potential and your not concerned about cost. Because of that, I would get some match bullets of some kind, maybe Gold medal match or something along those lines. Don't need hunting bullets for it to determine accuracy. That said, I would definitely get the fusion since it combines accuracy with a well made hunting bullet. If they shoot good, they could always be your backup hunting round.
I can't comment on all the others you mentioned but will say that alot of people complain that they were unable to get suitable accuracy using partitions. They shoot great in some guns, lousy in others.
Either way, for judging accuracy potential alone, I would consider some factory match ammo of some kind.

 

[wombat13]

Wombat, since no one has mentioned this yet, Ill add this. While this is going to be a hunting gun, right now you are just trying to determine if the gun has accuracy potential and your not concerned about cost. Because of that, I would get some match bullets of some kind, maybe Gold medal match or something along those lines. Don't need hunting bullets for it to determine accuracy. That said, I would definitely get the fusion since it combines accuracy with a well made hunting bullet. If they shoot good, they could always be your backup hunting round.
I can't comment on all the others you mentioned but will say that alot of people complain that they were unable to get suitable accuracy using partitions. They shoot great in some guns, lousy in others.
Either way, for judging accuracy potential alone, I would consider some factory match ammo of some kind.

Thanks for your comment. I was thinking along the same lines, but I don't think anyone makes factory match ammo in .25-06.

 

[KansasSasquatch]

It sounds like the Fusion should be a safe bet. But in my experience the Hornady Superformance will probably shoot well too. I don't have experience with it in .25-06 but I've seen how accurate it can be in plenty of other cartridges. And I know quite a few people that use SST bullets for deer, and none have ever lost a deer due to bad bullet performance.

 

[HamSlamma]

Hornady Superformance

 

[someguy2800]

Would you explain that a bit more? I've been shooting 165 gr TSX in my .300WM and I'm not confident in it's terminal performance. I'd like to hear your experience. That bullet certainly looks like it did what it's supposed to do.

Sure, the bullet in the picture is not the barnes bullet, that is a federal fusion bullet after being shot into water jugs. I do have a 100gr TSX that I recovered under the skin on a heavy quartering shot on a doe but I can't find it for a picture. It looks just like the pictures from the barnes website. They did not group quite as well as jacketed bullets but they were adequate at just under 1 moa. I looked through my hunting notes and I shot 11 deer with the 100 grain TSX, with one being unrecoverable due to loosing the blood trail. They kill deer just as dead as anything else but the thing that was most noticible to me is that all the deer shot with them had entrance wounds that could not be seen and exit wounds the size of a pencil, they all ran 100-200 yards after being shot through the lungs or heart, and none of them bled at all. It would pulverize the heart and lungs but none of it would make it out of the deer, and they would not go down till they passed out from oxygen loss. The deer acted as if they had been shot with an arrow rather than a rifle but there would be no blood. After 3 seasons of this I had enough of it and gave up on my fancy expensive bullets. Mabey the larger sizes are more effective but I refuse to believe a barnes will ever be as effective as a good lead soft point, especially a bonded one like the fusion. If you hunt in open spaces with no brush like wyoming this isn't that important but its a big deal if you hunt in thick brushy areas with tall grass.

If I had to rank the effectiveness of all the bullets I have shot deer with a 25/06 it would be

Federal Fusion 120 gr bonded SP (factory and handload)
Remington Core Lokt 120 grain (factory)
Remington Core Lokt 100 grain (factory)
Nosler 115 grain ballistic tip (factory federal premium)
Sierra 100 grain pro hunter (handload)
Sierra 100 grain gameking (handload)
Barnes TSX 100 grain (handload)

Now here is the thing, all of these kill deer just fine, but in my experience the top 2 on this list will bring the deer down faster and give you a better blood trail to actually find the deer. The barnes was the worst for bringing the deer down quickly and giving a blood trail. Combined with my experience of shooting deer with other guns and tracking deer for other people through the sloughs and reviewing the terminal effects on over 100 deer I've concluded that the best bullet design for bringing a deer down and getting a good blood trail to find it is a heavy for caliber soft point lead bullet.

 

[wombat13]

Sure, the bullet in the picture is not the barnes bullet, that is a federal fusion bullet after being shot into water jugs. I do have a 100gr TSX that I recovered under the skin on a heavy quartering shot on a doe but I can't find it for a picture. It looks just like the pictures from the barnes website. They did not group quite as well as jacketed bullets but they were adequate at just under 1 moa. I looked through my hunting notes and I shot 11 deer with the 100 grain TSX, with one being unrecoverable due to loosing the blood trail. They kill deer just as dead as anything else but the thing that was most noticible to me is that all the deer shot with them had entrance wounds that could not be seen and exit wounds the size of a pencil, they all ran 100-200 yards after being shot through the lungs or heart, and none of them bled at all. It would pulverize the heart and lungs but none of it would make it out of the deer, and they would not go down till they passed out from oxygen loss. The deer acted as if they had been shot with an arrow rather than a rifle but there would be no blood. After 3 seasons of this I had enough of it and gave up on my fancy expensive bullets. Mabey the larger sizes are more effective but I refuse to believe a barnes will ever be as effective as a good lead soft point, especially a bonded one like the fusion. If you hunt in open spaces with no brush like wyoming this isn't that important but its a big deal if you hunt in thick brushy areas with tall grass.

If I had to rank the effectiveness of all the bullets I have shot deer with a 25/06 it would be

Federal Fusion 120 gr bonded SP (factory and handload)
Remington Core Lokt 120 grain (factory)
Remington Core Lokt 100 grain (factory)
Nosler 115 grain ballistic tip (factory federal premium)
Sierra 100 grain pro hunter (handload)
Sierra 100 grain gameking (handload)
Barnes TSX 100 grain (handload)

Now here is the thing, all of these kill deer just fine, but in my experience the top 2 on this list will bring the deer down faster and give you a better blood trail to actually find the deer. The barnes was the worst for bringing the deer down quickly and giving a blood trail. Combined with my experience of shooting deer with other guns and tracking deer for other people through the sloughs and reviewing the terminal effects on over 100 deer I've concluded that the best bullet design for bringing a deer down and getting a good blood trail to find it is a heavy for caliber soft point lead bullet.

Thanks for taking the time to describe your experience with the TSX. I’ve had much the same experience. The TSX is the most accurate bullet in my Ruger Hawkeye, but I’ve lost confidence in its terminal performance. Just the most recent example: I shot a big doe about 100 yards out with my .300wm 165 gr TSX and it ran like greased lightening (common with the TSX in my experience). Found blood about 10 yards from where I shot it, but then nothing. I only found that deer thanks to my buddy who is a much better tracker than I.

Prior to the TSX, I was shooting 180gr Nosler Ballistic Tips. That was only a 1.5 MOA load, but it dropped the deer right there.

 

[someguy2800]

Thanks for taking the time to describe your experience with the TSX. I’ve had much the same experience. The TSX is the most accurate bullet in my Ruger Hawkeye, but I’ve lost confidence in its terminal performance. Just the most recent example: I shot a big doe about 100 yards out with my .300wm 165 gr TSX and it ran like greased lightening (common with the TSX in my experience). Found blood about 10 yards from where I shot it, but then nothing. I only found that deer thanks to my buddy who is a much better tracker than I.

Prior to the TSX, I was shooting 180gr Nosler Ballistic Tips. That was only a 1.5 MOA load, but it dropped the deer right there.

Just curious for my own knowledge, how far did the doe end up going and where was she shot through? I've always thought the barnes bullets would probably be more effective in the larger calibers, at least on deer anyway, but interesting to hear they don't do much better in a 300wm than my little 25 from the sounds of it.

The fusion bullets are the only bullets of the ones above that I had repeated success in anchoring deer. About 60% of them would drop in there tracks and the rest would go 50-70 yards or so while leaving a large blood trail. I don't really understand why that worked so well. As you can see from the list of lighter bullets, I tried to make 100 grain bullets work for me under the theory that the shock of a very high velocity bullet would put deer down faster than a slower heavier bullet but I never observed that to be the case. Of the 100 grain bullets above the only one that I would use again was the remington core lokt. That one did better than the rest of the 100's only in that is stayed together better to give a decent exit wound. It took me awhile to come around to it but I've concluded that the old guys knew a thing or two about deer killing with heavy moderate velocity soft point bullets.

One bullet I have always wanted to try is the Speer TNT 87 grain hp's that I load for coyote hunting in this gun. Velocity at the muzzle is 3350 fps and they are good for an inch group at 200 yards. They liquefy a yote so I always wanted to try one broadside on a deer through the lungs but I decided I couldn't do that in good conscience lest I hit a shoulder and fail to bring the deer down.

 

[Bfh_auto]

I have a new Savage Axis II in .25-06 that I will eventually hand load for. I'd like to buy a few (three to five) boxes of different factory ammo to prove whether the rifle will shoot before I begin working up loads. The rifle will be used as a hunting rifle mostly for northern whitetails.

Which brands/bullets should I try? I'm not concerned about the cost. I want to know if the rifle has the potential to be accurate without years of trials and tribulation (I've discussed my challenges with a couple of Ruger Hawkeyes in other threads). Here are the brands I see available at Midway that have hunting bullets in the 100 to 120 grain weight range:

Hornady Superperformance (117 gr SST)
Barnes Vor-TX (100 gr TSX)
Federal (Fusion, Nosler BT, Nosler Partition, Sierra Game King, Trophy Copper)
Nosler (BT, e-Tip, Partition)
DoubleTap (Partition, Accubond)

Which three would you buy if your goal was to prove/disprove that the rifle is accurate?

My guns prefer Nosler BT over Fed fusion or Hornady SST. I reload using Hornady bullets though.

 

[ford8nr]

Ive had problems with NOSLER Ballistic Tips coming apart out of a .308 at normal velocities. Only recovering the jackets in the deer. Wrote to Nosler and they said they were NOT designed as a high weight retention bullet. Switched to Sierra Game Kings in my hand loads and never looked back. This year i shot a deer with a factory 150gr PSP Corelokt with exvellent results.

 

[Newtosavage]

Combined with my experience of shooting deer with other guns and tracking deer for other people through the sloughs and reviewing the terminal effects on over 100 deer I've concluded that the best bullet design for bringing a deer down and getting a good blood trail to find it is a heavy for caliber soft point lead bullet.

That's pretty tough to argue with. Good post.

Now, where are you finding those Fusion bullets for reloading, Hmmm?

 

[someguy2800]

Ive had problems with NOSLER Ballistic Tips coming apart out of a .308 at normal velocities. Only recovering the jackets in the deer. Wrote to Nosler and they said they were NOT designed as a high weight retention bullet. Switched to Sierra Game Kings in my hand loads and never looked back. This year i shot a deer with a factory 150gr PSP Corelokt with exvellent results.

I load 125 grain nosler ballistic tips for my father in laws 30 Herrett pistol and a mild 1900 fps muzzle velocity and even that is enough to blow that bullet to fragments and seperate the jacket when shot into water jugs.

 

[someguy2800]

That's pretty tough to argue with. Good post.

Now, where are you finding those Fusion bullets for reloading, Hmmm?

American Reloading has them randomly for different calibers. There is also a seller on gunbroker that has a few sizes right now. If I could buy them off the shelf they would be the only bullets I would buy.

 

[Stevenvalleyky]

The problem with the tsx is that it's just too tough. There just isn't enough target resistance to expand them on whitetails, particularly shooting into soft areas like the lungs/heart. With that bullet, you need to increase resistance or use it on heavier animals like elk, moose, etc. With whitetails using the tsx, you need to shoot for the shoulder to get them to expand. Unfortunately, this can lead to more meat loss. Sadly, it's just not a good bullet to use for whitetail sized game.
For some great info on all kinds of bullets and their proper uses, check out ballisticstudies.com. There is all kinds of great info that pertains to bullet performance.

 

[wombat13]

Thanks for all of your input. I was able to get to Cabela’s today. I picked up one box each of Fusion 120gr., Sierra Gameking 117 gr, Nosler Partition and Nosler Ballistic Tip (both 100 gr) and Barnes TTSX 100 gr. I almost bought the Hornady Superperformance, but I was already at around $200 for the five boxes.