.25 Souper

[georgiaboy]

Anyone own/shoot/have experience with the .25 Souper? I have ended up with some ammo and the cartridge is very interesting to me. I believe it is a standard .308 necked down to .257 but it may have the shoulders blown-out or been otherwise "improved". I wonder why a .25 cal cartridge based off of the .308 hasn't been more popular. We have .243, .260., 7mm-08 all the way up to .358. Any ideas?

 

[georgiaboy]

Thanks, I will check into the erratic pressure possibility.

 

[Randy]

The 25 caliber has always been an "in between caliber." It is too big for varmints and too small for big game. If you want one caliber for both it will get you by but there are much better smaller varmint calibers and much better larger big game calibers. It just falls between and has had a hard time getting out from "between."

 

[Buzz]

georgiaboy, you are right - the 25 Souper is just a .308 case necked down to 0.257". It sounds to me like you may be dealing with a 25 Souper Improved. Why it never became a factory cartridge is a mystery. My guess is that it got lost in all the "Magnum Mania" that has swept most of the firearms industry over the last 40 years. I guess when the .250 Savage and .257 Roberts started losing popularity to the .243 Winchester; there probably wasn't much of an interest in bringing out another short .257" round. Winchester seized on the interest the "midget magnums" stirred up to bring out the .25 WSSM. The .25-06 has been quite successful for a good while and will be with us for a long time.

I guess I am going to have to all the deer I shot with the .250 Savage and all the thousands of other deer \ mule deer that died by the .25-06 that they should have been able to soak up those wimpy little 100 to 120g bullets. A .25-06 shooting a 100g Barnes TSX 3350 to 3400 fps will break down any whitetail or mule deer out to at least 400 yards. Come on Randy, with good bullets, the .25-06 is certainly enough gun for anything up to elk sized big game. There have been quite a few elk that didn't survive the .25-06 either.

 

[georgiaboy]

Randy I think you have a good point as far as general popularity and marketing/sales are concerned. I think that the .257 is plenty adequate for deer though. If the .243 does it then I would think the .25 will do it as well. Maybe next year I will have time to hunt more and I can try my .243 on something more than paper and steel plates.

7x57, I took some measurements and the ammo must be standard .25 Souper because the shoulders are the same as my .308s. I agree that the Magnum Mania probably caused the Souper to not attain factory loaded status. I had been considering a .25-06 and actually had a steal on a #1 in that caliber but for some reason I passed.