Home Forums Hunting & Shooting BPCR ISO .25-20, .32-20 ammo and/or brass

Needle in a haystack time: A friend of a friend needs to feed his .25-20 WCF lever gun. Can anyone help with a source for ammo or brass/bullets? I'd be happy to handload for him, since dies are available on fleaBay. One idea would be to neck down some .32-20. Is any of that available? Thanks!

Took me about a year of serious searching at gun shows to come up with enough brass. Remington makes an occ lot of factory ammo once every 1 or 2 years and it's 125+/50. RCBS makes a dbl cavity 86 gr fn mold they run about 140+ try BACO for that. Tough row to hoe..nb

Necking down 32-20 is hard. So hard matter of fact, that it's almost a fools errand.

You'd be better off starting with 218 bee brass and necking it up.

Good info. Thanks to you both.

You can nibble down .32-20 brass to .25-20 but as stated it can be a fool's errand if approached haphazardly. I've done it as an academic exercise, when .25-20's could be readily had if you can believe it, and found that intermediate dies were necessary plus annealing at each step. The problem lies in the thin brass involved in the venture, it doesn't take kindly to egregious shaping. The issue with intermediate dies is there are none available off the shelf (at least that I know of). I solved it by making my own out of 7/8-14 all-thread rod (for use in a standard reloading press), chucked in a lathe and bored/reamed to desired internal diameter with a chamfer at the entry to closely approximate the shoulder angle of the .25-20. Obviously just the neck is being dealt with. Two stages: an oversize 7mm first, then 6.5mm. Both holes done in the same piece of all-thread about 3" long, coming in from each end and flipping the die end for end in the press. Annealed cases before each pass, entering the hole(s) incrementally and wiping lube off and (lightly) re-lubing for each incremental insertion. Finish up in the .25-20 die, fireform with Cream of Wheat to correct whatever wonkiness exists in terms of straightness and shoulder discrepancy.

Note: no need to harden the home made intermediate die. The soft steel won't wear appreciably unless you plan on doing 10,000 cases or something. Heck, I make oddball-size cast bullet sizing dies for experimenting/small runs out of brass and they hold up fine.

A lot of damned work for little return, especially since store-bought .25-20's could be had at the time. But now the situation's changed and such antics may be necessary - but finding .32-20's ain't no picnic either. I got out of the .25-20WCF game and sold all the fixin's, and I have a decent stash of .32-20 brass but I'm hoarding it for when the perfect .32-20 revolver comes along.

Now, if you want a real adventure in small case forming stay tuned for the trials and tribulations of swaging .25-20 Single Shot brass from .223 cases. Now there's an exercise that'll drive the Dalai Lama to drink.

As ever, gnoahh brings a wealth of experience and a creative solution. Thank you, sir!

Then there is the 8x57 R/360. Which is not the same thing as a 8x57R

Almost have the first few cases done, so I can fireform and send to Redding, to make custom dies...

I had the same problem a few years ago. Redding make an intermediate form & trim die to help neck down 32-20 brass to 25-20. You will also need an extended shell holder.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1012624638?pid=592926

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1012460980?pid=329805

I bought a heap of Starline 32-20 brass to form, but before I got around to doing it we had an import of Win 25-20 brass, so I bought 500 cases.

For bullets you’ll likely need to use cast bullets, either your own or store bought stuff. Lyman make a useful mould:

https://www.midwayusa.com/s?searchTerm=Lyman+257420

I mist be doing something wrong. I have been forming .25-20 brass out of Starline .32-20 for some time without an intermediate die and without annealing. I remove the decapping/expander ball pin and lube the top half of the .32-20 neck (staying away from the shoulder) with Imperial wax, run it into the .25-20 die a short way, back out, rotate the the case in the shellholder a bit (roughly 120 degrees, run it in a little more, rotate another 120, and run it the rest of the way in. I might lose the occasional case, but nothing to lose sleep over. I have no idea why this rotational method works but it does. I've also done it necking .30-30's into .22 HP without an intermediate. I might lose an occasional case, but for the number I use, I don't lose any sleep.

For the OP: I believe my son got the bullets we use from Missouri Bullet Company. (Powder coated 85 grain cast IIRC. I can't check because all my .25-20 stuff and my Marlin 1894 are at my son's place. He and my grandson have kind of appropriated it.)