Considered by many as the most balanced of the "quarter bores" for hunting medium-sized game, the .25-06 Remington remained in obscurity as a wildcat cartridge for nearly half a century before being standardized by Remington in 1969. Its design was based on the .30-06 Springfield cartridge necked-down (case opening made narrower) to .257 caliber keeping a similar cartridge length of its parent case, thus being chambered in standard-length actions. Nominal bullet diameter is 0.257 in, and bullet weights range from . History Charles Newton necked down the .30-06 Springfield cartridge in 1912 to accept a 117-grain .25-35 Winchester bullet, but the resulting .256 Newton cartridge did not catch on. Newton's early modification encouraged commercial release of a shortened case (from 63 to 49 mm) as the .250-3000 Savage in 1915. Frankford Arsenal developed an experimental .25-06 during World War I; and distribution of surplus United States military equipment through the Civilian Marksmanship Program following the war encouraged independent gunsmiths to experiment with the cartridge. A. O. Niedner of Dowagiac, Michigan, introduced rifles for the .25 Niedner in 1920. Niedner Arms Corporation retained the 17° 30 .30-06 shoulder chambering .25 caliber barrels rifled with one twist in . Similar cartridges were identified as the .25 Hi-Power, .25 Whelen (analogous to .35 Whelen), or .25-100-3000 (to indicate the ability to achieve 3,000 feet-per-second with a 100-grain bullet rather than the 87-grain bullet used in the .250-3000 Savage). Greater case capacity offered minimal velocity improvement over the .250-3000 Savage case with contemporary smokeless powders. Availability of DuPont's Improved Military Rifle (IMR) powders encouraged commercial release of the .257 Roberts using the 57 mm Mauser case in 1934. Release of IMR 4350 in 1940 and availability of surplus 4831 powder salvaged from Oerlikon 20 mm cannon cartridges after World War II greatly improved performance of the full-length .25-06 case. Performance Most .25-caliber bullets have high ballistic coefficients without being heavy, which, combined with the large case capacity of its parent .30-06 case, allows relatively high muzzle velocities without heavy recoil. The combination of high ballistic coefficients with high muzzle velocities gives the .25-06 a very flat trajectory as well as retaining kinetic energy down-range. The cartridge is capable of propelling a 117 grain (7.6 g) bullet at up to 3,200 feet per second (980 m/s) and energy levels up to . Bullets lighter than 75 grains are available in .257 caliber but were designed