If you are seriously looking for 25-20 single shots, the 70grn Sierra and 75grn Hornady are both plastic tipped varmint bullets that do nothing but help the 25-20.
I shot a deer with the 70grn Sierra Blitz out of mine, but I was loading them for a repeater, and filed off the tips. Bullet exited, deer died, estimated velocity 1750fps....which actually leaves quite a bit of running room for that shell case and bullet combo. The flat point 75 grn Speer didn't open up much during testing, so I came up with a different solution.
Good to know there are more options for jacketed bullets. How was the accuracy with the filed off tips?
Accuracy was fine with the 75grn Speer, and almost as good with the 70grn Sierra. Going by memory I was going with 10.8g H4198 for the 75, and 11.8g H4198 for the 70. Accuracy of the 75 was better, around 1/2" at 40 yards, and just a tad bigger with the 70. The 70 did hit 3/4" higher with the same hold, which is just fine for what I was doing. Those loads are in the lower end of the spectrum. The 25-20 is capable of over 2000fps with that 70grn in a firearm that isn't an antique.
My 25-20 is an 80+ year old pump Remington, and was not the strongest action even when new. As I was set up, swapping the 75 Speer for small game or the 70 Blitz for bigger game was a solid plan.
If I had to do it all over I would go with a fairly stout single shot, and stick with the tipped bullets like the 70 Sierra or 75 grn V-max for everything, or mix in a harder bullet for small game. A stout single shot would let you ramp up the speed, and not have to file off tips reach a certain COAL.
