My father's favorite gun was a m-92 Winchester in .25-20 WCF When he passed on, he left it to me. He had ordered a higher front sight for it many years back because he wanted to shoot the 60 grain OPE bullet as mostly the gun was for hunting jack rabbits in the corn rows in the winter. On one occasion (around 1932) he used it in northern Minnesota to take three whitetails with three shots in about five seconds. One was a 10 pointer that still hangs in the shop today. Two years later Minnesota outlawed it for deer and my father wound up with a Savage M-99 in .303 Savage and traded it for a new Savage M-99 in .308 Winchester about 1958. That old .25-20 is still hunting today (made in 1917) as I gave it along with 400 rounds of 60 grain ammo to his great grandson.
I took the gun to Africa and used it on duiker, springbok and a dik dik. The discontinuance of the loading of the 60 grain OPE was a blow to my dad as it was his favorite load and he still had a few left when he passed on. I took to reloading the Hornady 60 grain flat point with great success but watched for many years for the 60 grain OPE......and sure enough after about thirty years I found about 300 of them and immediately reloaded them in new cases and as stated earlier gave them to the current owner.
In it's day the .25-20 was considered a varmint round.....fox was a favorite target as well as jack rabbits and a few wood chucks. It even was used for squirrels but was a bit much for them.
I'll never cease to be amazed that the .25-20 held it's own as a varmint cartridge in the days of the .22 Savage high power, .250-3000, .257 Roberts and the .219 Zipper......but some guns seem to survive regardless of their performance on paper! Long live the .25-20 WCF!!!
