The Savage 110 Hunter in 25-06 Remington Part II

My wife tells me she has always seen in me a great deal of potential. Subsequently, she works diligently to utilize as much of it as possible. Where a casual observer might see an out of shape old guy, stretched out on the couch and watching “Street Outlaws – No Prep”, my wife sees a man who could be changing wiper blades on the family SUV, or re-caulking the upstairs shower, or scrubbing out the trash cans. Fortunately, what my wife has always underestimated is my speed and stealth that can, in a blink of an eye, get me off the sofa, out the garage door and over to the shop to work on important projects… like Part II of the Savage Model 110 Hunter review.

The Bushnell Engage – Long Form

Bushnell Engage REN21044DG
Magnification	2.5-10x
Objective Lens	44mm
Reticle	Deploy MOA
Turret Type	Tactical
Elevation Range – MOA	50
Windage Range – MOA	50
Parallax (Yards)	10 – 500+∞
Tube Size	30mm
Focus (Parallax)	Side
Eye Relief ”	3.6″
FOV ‘ @100yds 2.5x – 10x	45 – 11
Weight Ounces	19.3
Overall Length ”	13.6
MAP	$299

A Bushnell Engage 2.5-10x 44mm, a good combination of high performance and moderate price, was installed on the Weaver bases preinstalled on the Hunter. The scope is a good match up for a hunting rifle, offering a combination of precision shot placement, mechanical durability and a high degree of tolerance of extreme environments.

This particular Engage has a 30mm tube and 44mm objective lens, with the results of increases tube strength and bright image.

First Vs Second focal plane reticle placement – A first position focal plane reticle placement increased the apparent size of crosshairs and compensation graduations proportional to the selected magnification. The result is a hard to read reticle at low magnification and target obscuring crosshairs and compensation graduations at high magnification.

The Deploy MOA reticle is placed at the secondary focal plane position so the crosshairs and compensating graduations remain constant in size and do not obscure at top magnification ranges. The trade off is that the graduations are accurate in MOA representation only at top magnification, 10x in this case, and less so at low magnification. As a practical matter, compensation graduations are used at longer distances… beyond 200 yards, where the scope would be cranked up to 10x and all graduation marks would have a non-target obscuring presence and an absolute MOA value.

The Engage air contact optical surfaces are multi coated to maximize light transmission color and they receive an EXO barrier coating. The EXO barrier fills the pores in the glass for an ultra slick surface that repels what scope lenses typically encounter: water, oil, fog, dust, rain, snow, and finger prints. The coating does not diminish with time and exposure. All optical surfaces, interior and exterior, receive and anti reflection Ultra Wide Band Coating that presents a bright, true color image across the color spectrum.

Other than what has already been mentioned, the scope is nitrogen purchased and O Ring sealed to make it water and fog proof, the eyepiece is fast focus and the turrets lock adjustment and can be zero reset without the use of tools.

The Bushnell Engage – Short Form

The Engage dropped into place on Weaver mounts and rings, with only 4 1/4 vertical MOA clicks to laser align. Another 2 up clicks and 3 left clicks put 120 grain Fusion ammo black center. Approximately 180 rounds were fired; nothing shot loose or out of adjustment. Turret adjustments were positive, predictable and tracked precisely over target when adjusting for changes in ammo and bullet weights. Weaver Grand Slam steel rings were employed. This ring set is high, which suits bench shooting, but a medium height set would get the scope down a bit and still clear the eye piece and objective bell.

I like the Deploy MOA reticle. The graduation lines are only 0.18 MOA thick so, while well defined, they don’t obscure the target. Shooting at 2.5x the field of view is wide, bright and the image crisp. Shooting at 10x, the field of view of course narrows, but the rest remains. As I said previously, it is a good match for the Savage Model 110 Hunter.

The 25-06 Remington Cartridge

The 25-06 Remington is an interesting cartridge, revered by some, disparaged by others. Introduced by A.O. Neider in 1920, a SAAMI standard in 1969 with Remington sponsorship, during its life it has been challenged by the 250-3000 Savage, the 257 Robert and the 257 Weatherby Magnum and yet it persists while the others have tended to fade away.

For the sake of context, today there are two factory loads for the 250 Savage, eight for the 257 Roberts, twenty six for the 25-06 Remington, and sixteen for the Weatherby. In regard to the latter two, the Remington round is a $20 – $24 per box cartridge, the Weatherby is a $40 – $90 per box proposition. I can find thirteen manufacturers offering a combines thirty rifle models chambered for the 25-06 Remington and seventeen rifles chambered for the 257 Weatherby, one from Remington and the other sixteen all Weatherbys.

Factory ammo seemed the way to go for Part II, rather than a dose of my handloads that may or may not mean anything… to anyone else. Three types that were representative of the cartridge’s potential were selected:

The 100 grain 25-06 Remington is rated at 3210 fps, where as the 257 Weatherby is rated at 3500 fps. It is difficult to get an apple to apple comparison between the 25-06 Rem and the 257 Weatherby as the barrel length standard for the 25-06 Rem is 24″, the Weatherby is 26″, but most 25-06 Rifles sold are 22″.  The maximum pressure is similar; 65KPSI for the Remington and 64.5KPSI for the Weatherby.

The 257 Weatherby was surely and secretly designed by smokeless powder companies as the 25-06 Remington holds 65 grains and the 257 Weatherby holds 84. If you’re a handloader you can get 108 rounds of 25-06 to the powder pound, but only 83 with the Weatherby. What is the velocity difference worth?

The Remington 100 grain, with a +/- 3″ ordinate, has a point blank range of 282 yards whereas the Weatherby can reach to 304 yards. At 300 yards, the 25-06 Rem is moving along at 2505 fps with 1393 ft.lbs of kinetic energy. The Weatherby is at 2750 fps and with 1393 ft.lbs. of kinetic energy. I have shot whitetail and mule deer with both, instant stop and the game expressed no preference.

In my experience, magnum cartridges offer an edge to a person who has sufficient skill to put it too work, or where the settings for a hunt are extreme and the edge would be meaningful and the occasional barrel replacement for shot out throats is expected.

Back to the Savage Model 110 Hunter

As noted in Part I, the Savage Model 110 Hunter is available in twelve other chambers for folks who would prefer something other than the 25-06 Remington round, everything from varmint hunting to taking down a big bear. For the most part, I did not notice the rifle during all of the shooting, which is a good thing; no awkward fit or grappling to accommodate and unfamiliar feel. The recoil pad and synthetic stock soaked up recoil, report was not so bad for an overbore cartridge and the trigger pull was consistent throughout all shooting sessions. The action’s stroke was smooth, feed and eject were tediously reliable and after shooting clean up was easy. I did take advantage of the AccuFit stock and trigger, changing comb risers and recoil pad spacers to accommodate shooting from the bench, or shooting prone, kneeling or sitting. I do believe I would use two configurations, one for the bench and one for the field.

All and all, a very… robust, hunting rifle that would last through many seasons.