42+ years ago a friend's father had a .25-06 on a Remington 700 with an Unertl scope. It was a thing of beauty and would do 1/2 MOA often enough. With varmint bullets.

The .250-3000 Savage came long before and was a revolution . . . but they opted for the lighter bullets to get the velocity up.

THAT has been the flaw of the .25 bore. They should have embraced higher sectional densities, spun the bullets faster, and let the velocities drop.

But then again, if you needed to kill bigger stuff the .30-06 was plentiful and capable. And a gozillion surplus receivers waiting to be sporterized. The .25 WAS a varmint sized bore.

The industry has gotten a bit better with bullet design (though the Hornady SST - maybe too much too soon - some of us want to eat what we shoot).