Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots 25-20 info

Good morning. I've been thinking a 25-20 in my T/C Contender carbine would be lots of fun so I began looking for ammo, brass and bullets. I've found no ammo or brass so I've not even begun looking for bullets.

Are these items a once a year run for manufacturers or have they just dried up, not to be seen again?

You can shoot cast bullets in a .25-20. I prefer 85-86 grain bullets, either plain based or gas check, but any weight from 60 on up works pretty well. I've also had success with 60 grain and 75 grain jacketed bullets. The only 60s I'm aware of are flat nosed, but the 75 grain spritzers also work well. Look around some and you'll find there are plenty available.

Most 25-20 components seem to be seasonal items. I'd been looking for 25-20 brass for about two years without finding any. I found some at Duck Creek five or six weeks ago and picked up 150. I just looked now and they don't show any. Apparently Winchester ran a batch recently so hopefully you can find some. Hornady 60 grain flat points were scarce for a while but I see them for sale now. Lead bullets are never a problem. Factory ammo is scarce, but around. You'll pay about $1.25 a round though. Starline sells 32-20 brass and I've read of people necking it down. I've not done that, but I do neck their 357 brass down to 256 Win mag without too much problem.

Good luck. It's a fun round. When rimfire ammo was so scarce a while back I shot lots of lead bullet 22 magnum type velocity rounds for very cheap.

I've never done it or even looked into it frankly so maybe it won't work but I'd think you could make ﹰ25-20 from 32-20 brass. I've used Starline 32-20 brass quite a bit in a 30-20 Contender and they've always worked well.

Yes, you can neck 32-20 down to 25-20, I've done hundreds. I wouldn't recommend the Starline nickel cases as the donor. I tried them annealed and not annealed, going slow, fast, in between and the loss was prohibitive. If someone knows something I don't I'd be pleased to know it. I think the loss is because the nickel is harder. Those I got, some of them split the necks pretty quick. Out of 100 nickel cases I'm down to about 70. Necking down brass cases I don't believe I've lost 10 in 35 years and several hundred cases. I seem to get a 25-20, shoot it a while and trade it or sell it, then repeat. At least I kept the dies and I believe I'll be keeping my current 25-20. It is a fun little cartridge. In my rifle 3 grs. of Trail Boss is quite accurate and not destructive on small game. I'm shooting the Lyman, 75 gr. cast bullet out of a Jeffrey Rook rifle that had been re-chambered to 25-20 from 255 Jeffrey. The Daw action of the Rook rifle is not strong enough for full house 25-20 WCF loads.

Thanks for the info. I'll look into some Starline brass. I'm pretty confident I can find bullets without too much drama.

Yes components for this number are hard to find. I'm still on the hunt for more brass. I just loaded up my last batch of new casings. For bullets I would check and see if Speer still makes their 75gr jacketed flat point. This is a very good bullet. Also see if you can find the 86gr Rem JFPs. They always shot very well.

Years ago I stocked up on a bunch of 80gr cast bullets and 86gr Remington JFPs so I'm good on bullets. I wish I would have done the same with brass.

don't be too confident.

I have not seen .25-20 brass in a decade.

I finally got some starline .32-20 (Their website does not list .25-20 but states on the .32-20 page: "This cartridge can also be formed by experienced cartridge converters into .25-20") and tried to resize it to .25-20, I had about 15% failure rate. crushed and buckled necks.

the nice 86gr remington bullets disappeared in the last century, so did the 75 gr speer

I found some 60gr hornady's recently.

86gr cast lead is readily available.

good luck, if you find brass, let me know!

Poole

There's a guy in the Cast Boolits web site classifieds selling bags of factory brass. Not particularly cheap at $45/ 50, but what's a boy to do?

Having messed with re-forming .32-20's into .25's, I would be inclined to spend a little extra for the Real McCoy and spend my time/labor a little more efficiently- like drinking beer.

Thought about one, but decided I'll just load Speer 46gr Bee bullets in my Hornet, squint my eyes a bit, and pretend.

Thanks!

Slightly off topic, but many years ago I handled a custom Ruger #3 in 25-20 that was for sale in my area. Rode around for awhile that day thinking about it, went back and it was sold

One of my all time favorite cartridges. For years I loaded the 75 grain Speer pretty hot, never got satisfactory accuracy doing so. I did kill quite a bit of stuff, beaver, porcupines....stuff that size and it was deadly. Finally started loading the 86 grain Remington flat nose bullets at more traditional velocities and they shot much better. I tried 75 grain hollowpoint spitzers, but never got any kind of accuracy with them. My son has my .25-20 now and plays with it some. If I were inclined to start from scratch, I'd either find some .25-20 brass or form some .32-20's into it. I can't believe it's that big a deal to do. I've made a lot of .22 HP out of .30-30's without a great deal of loss, just takes working out a system to do it gently. I would also get a mold made to cast a bullet like the 86 grain Remington from 30-1 alloy and powder coat them. I think, running them at traditional velocities, one would have no trouble and a lot of fun. It's a great little cartridge.

I have a 92 winchester in 25-20 and find the 86 gr. cast bullet will do what you want. I have a 2 cav. lyman and cast my own.

Components are hard to find and in my gun the necks tend to split so brass life is not the best,

It is a great round and fun to shoot.

I have a nice custom octagon barreled Martini Cadet .25-20 listed in the Free Classifieds. https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/15073102

PM me for photos if you're interested.

I really enjoy the 25-20 and think it is a very useful cartridge bunnies to deer.

I used the 75 grn Speer,which is a pretty hard bullet and didn't expand much for me, so I used them for small game loads. I also used the Sierra 70 grn blitzkings for a deer load, since they do disrupt, but still hold together at the speeds that I was sending them.

I think of the 25-20 as a .22 mag with double bullet weight.

I wasn't loading them hot in my Remington m25R, those actions are fairly weak compared to a Win m92.

I have always thought a Ruger 77/357 rebarreled to .25-20 would be a platform that would support some interesting work with this cartridge.

I would do .256 Winchester instead in the Ruger 77/357.

I have a good sized pile of .25-20 components on hand, no gun at the moment. I expect to inherit my father's rifle ... no hurry, please? I'd just give them to dad but his rifle needs work and he's too cheap to do it. Action went through a fire in the 1920s or 1930s, stock burned off. Barrel was replaced ... installed with a pipe-wrench, still has tracks over the chamber. Headspace is BAD so it eats brass badly. When (if?) it comes my way, it's going to a gunsmith to have the barrel installed and a proper chamber cut, then the trigger cleaned up. I think that '92 was the first centerfire I ever shot. Killed a raccoon or two with it, and 3 black bears. Dad still shoots about half his deer with it. I gave him bullets and brass years ago which he uses a little but he still goes back to a couple boxes of old 60 grain HVHP factory loads for deer hunting. The crazy little thing gets the job done.

If I could find a Winchester low wall Hornet at a decent prices, I'd probably pick it up to rebarrel or have the factory barrel recut. To me that's a match made in heaven. Wouldn't be a bad choice in a Contender carbine, either.

Tom

If y'all think .25-20 WCF brass is hard to find, try doing this for a .25-20 Single Shot. (It predates the Winchester cartridge and is totally different in length and girth.)

I have a couple rifles chambered for wildcats based on that one and the search for brass is never-ending. R2 Lovell and .22 Maximum Lovell by the way. If anybody has or knows of any....

I just sent you a PM for pics of this rifle.
Thanks