R25 Review/Hunting thoughts

[JPD]

I just picked up my R25 (.308) 3 days ago. On the way home from the gun shop I stopped and picked up the following: Nikon 3-9x40 BDC scope, scope rings, flip up lens covers, Limbsaver recoil pad (Med), and 3 boxes of Remington 150 gr Soft Point Core-lokt. (18.79 per box) Hornady Custom SST ammo will be sighted in and used for hunting in the fall. The primary use of this rifle will be for hunting deer and hogs.

Putting holes in paper at the range will be for fun or sighting in new scopes/ammo. I'm just an average guy and in 21 years of hunting I've never shot at an animal beyond 300 yards (due mainly to terrain) so making a steel plate go "Ping" at 600+ yards doesn't greatly influence my decision to purchase this rifle. Besides, steel plates don't taste very good and they're hard to cook.

After getting all this stuff to the house I opened the R25's cardboard shipping box and slid out the expected plastic case. Upon opening the plastic case I was surprised to see that it wasn't the hard molded plastic case that I had seen pics of and read comments about the gun sliding around in. It was your standard flat box with egg shaped foam in both halves. Nothing fancy, but much better than hard plastic.

So I broke the gun in half, disassembled the bolt and started cleaning. After the trigger group was sprayed out with air and all items were cleaned, out came the Hopps lubricating oil for a generous coating on everything including the trigger and barrel.

Reassembly complete, on goes the scope and rings. Plumb bob and eye relief adjustments made. Installed the flip open lens covers and the recoil pad. (For range use only. Multiple boxes of ammo. Will not use while hunting. Yes, age will catch you too) and waited for the next sunrise to hit the range.

The range. With the above listed ammo in hand and a 100 yard range ahead of me my day started. Once again I broke the R25 in half, removed the bolt, and placed the upper in a portable vise for boresighting. With target one at 50 yards lined up in the barrel I adjusted the scope as good as these older eyes could. Reassembled the rifle, loaded the magazine with its first 4 rounds, held on orange dot target one, squeezed trigger, and sent one hot round down range. Locked the rifle back in vise, placed crosshairs on dot. Rolled the scope adj 3 inches left and 6 inches up to bullet impact hole. Sent another hot round downrange, struck the dot on the edge at 11 o’clock. Next 2 rounds struck the inside edge of the dot at 1130 both going thru the same hole. Out to 100 yards with the remainder of the 60 rounds for scope work and fun.

So here are the basics of the first 60 rounds thru the rifle for me:

60 rounds fired.
Barrel swabbed 3 times with oil during the first 25 rounds. Zero times after.
Magazine worked flawless
Zero failures to fire.
Zero failures to feed.
Zero malfunctions.
Numerous 3 round groups inside 1 square inch while setting scope @ 100 yds.
Its accuracy seems to be on par with my Rem 7mm mag bolt act 24in barrel and my shooting abilities.

If it proves dependable and maintains this accuracy over time, I may have just found a new life long hunting partner. You know the first one you grab out of the cabinet when it's time to go.

What a fun rifle.

Now for some “opinion” from a hunting perspective. Prior to ordering this R-25 I read every thread, comment, test, review, post, and article I could find on the web including You Tube. To the point where I couldn't Google anything that I hadn't read. The majority of it seemed to come from 2008, 2009, and 2010. So it was a little old. Also I divided the info I read into 3 basic categories, neutral, good, bad. I also took the following into consideration:

Not knowing exactly how many of these rifles have been sold and, understanding that it is human nature to whine, moan, rant, and complain or vent when something isn't good or as "expected" vs. when it is good or as "expected". People will give voice to their opinions more when things are not as expected vs. giving voice when things are right, good, or as expected. That can tend to skew the "total amount per category" of info collected from the web. Back to the rifle and some of the complaints I read.

The trigger.
Yes mine is gritty and has a longer pull than most of my bolt actions. That said, the grittiness and pressure required is "predictable" and it does break clean in the same spot. The cool thing about being human is that I can adjust; and/or change it if I want. As is, I can get it to produce sub MOA groups @ 100 yds. with average hunting ammo.

Weight.
At roughly 9.5 to 10 lbs. with scope it is very equal to the weight of my plastic/composite stocked Rem 7mm mag with scope. My take on "lugging this thing around the woods all day" is this: If your physical condition is so borderline that one single pound on either side of this weight is the difference between a successful hunt and/or complete physical failure on your part then maybe you should re-evaluate your condition or hobby, not the rifles weight.

Noise from charging the weapon.
Is charging the rifle loud? Yes. Would I do it when I got to my stand/blind or on a stalk just before I need to shoot? No. I will charge it at my truck or along the way to my hunting/stalking area and then carry it in the safe manner in which I was taught by my father and grandfather. Once again human adjustment easily overcomes this. Not really something to complain about, but it's out there.

Camo coating flaking or wearing thru in spots.
So what! It's a tool, not a trophy. I don't have one rifle in my cabinet that isn't scratched, nicked, dented, gouged, or have some sort of wear on the finish, metal, wood, or plastic. Hunting rifles get abused. They get laid on the ground, leaned against trees, rocks, fence post, and barbed wire. They fall over, fall off, fall down, slide off, slide down everything. They get dropped, kicked, tripped over, used to push brush out of the way, handled poorly by airlines, and bounced around in the beds of trucks. They freeze and thaw, get rained on, snowed on, sleeted on. They meet with mud, sand, water, dirt, vegetation, and rock. A tool is purchased and used. A trophy is earned and looked at. I think this rifle will stand up to the abuse just fine. After all, its basic design is for just this purpose.

Well there's a few views from my hunting perspective. Hope it helps.

If you want to know my reasons for purchasing this rifle, here you go.
1) The one not so bright hog in the group.
2) Semi-auto with accuracy

That's right. You know that hog. It runs 10-15 yards and then stops to figure out what the heck just happened when you thumped his buddy and then it busts you when you go thru the process of cycling a bolt/lever to get on him. Replace that whole process with semi-auto instead and, well, Mr. Not So Bright is going to have a rough day.

[carver]

Good report! I oppted for the model 700 Varmint in .308 with the blued barrel. Shoots like a dream! Sub MOA's here too!

[jbmid1]

I like your perspective.
It is a tool that should serve you well for years to come.