New 25-45 Sharps

[Admiral Unknown]

I was at SHOT Show this week, and I came across something fascinating.

The reps at Springfield were shooting the bull about the show girls, and made mention of a booth right around the corner. This booth was for the Sharps Rifle Company. This in not the same Sharps from back in the day, the days of the Quigleys are long behind these guys. What caught my attention was that thw booth was full of ARs, and a new cartrige offered by SRC, the 25-45 Sharps. This is basically a 223 with a 87gr 25 cal Hot Cor stuffed in it. This differs from the old wildcat of 25-43, as the 43 was trimmed by 2mm to accomodate the hevier bullets.

Now heres the boondoggle, Sharps is offering dies from both RCBS and Redding, but I cannot find data anywhere. They are also offering barrels and BCGs, though the bcg is the same as any 223 ar bolt in terms of size, but has some enhanced design features.

I think this will be a great round for the hunting markets, but will need load data available for it to take off. I plan on picking up a bbl and set of dies, so any help with load data will be greatly appreciated

-AU

[tonyjones]

You might try 6x45 load data with similar weight bullets for your starting loads and work up.

Regards,

Tony

[Jupiter7]

Search for 25/223 data. This is not new, SRC paid and had it SAAMI spec'd, that's it. They released it 2yrs ago at shot show. There is a long running thread at ar15.com about the cartridge. Now that the barrels are available I may build one. I'd love to see a major manufacturer pick it up. It'd be nice in a CZ527, Ruger scout/ranch or mossberg MVP set up in a scout style rifle.

[bruce drake]

Aw jeesh! I just told the Mrs that I wasn't planning any rifle purchases for the immediate future! I just went to their website and they have a bunch of 16", 18" and 20" AR barrels in stock!

Bruce

[dkf]

Search for 25/223 data. This is not new, SRC paid and had it SAAMI spec'd, that's it. They released it 2yrs ago at shot show. There is a long running thread at ar15.com about the cartridge. Now that the barrels are available I may build one. I'd love to see a major manufacturer pick it up. It'd be nice in a CZ527, Ruger scout/ranch or mossberg MVP set up in a scout style rifle.

^^^ What he said.

[texassako]

I guess they forgot the history of the low end .25 caliber cartridges when they started marketing this 'new' cartridge. I have a wonderful little semi auto rifle in the safe that shoots an 87 gr .25 caliber jacketed bullet at about 2900 fps. It is a 1907 Remington Model 8 in .25 Remington. The .25 Remington and longer lived .25-35 died off because they were not considered varmint cartridges, but not powerful enough to be reliable deer cartridges.

[bbqncigars]

Hmmph! I will just stick with my 25-20 Marlin 1894.

[bruce drake]

Powder development 100 years ago with the 25 Remingtons were introduced in the early autoloaders are many generations removed. There are plenty of newer powders that safely can launch these 25 caliber bullets in the small .223 Rem cartridge case with a velocity that equals or exceeds those early cartridges. And being an effective deer killer is really about proper placement. A larger bore cartridge will offset some of its rougher accuracy with smack down power.

Me, I've already told the Mrs. that my change jug is now dedicated to purchasing one of this company's AR barrels.

Bruce

[dk17hmr]

Powder development 100 years ago with the 25 Remingtons were introduced in the early autoloaders are many generations removed. There are plenty of newer powders that safely can launch these 25 caliber bullets in the small .223 Rem cartridge case with a velocity that equals or exceeds those early cartridges. And being an effective deer killer is really about proper placement. A larger bore cartridge will offset some of its rougher accuracy with smack down power.

Me, I've already told the Mrs. that my change jug is now dedicated to purchasing one of this company's AR barrels.

Bruce

Bullets are better also.

I have been running a bolt action savage 25-223 for a couple years now.....it kills Antelope very well with a 110gr Accubond at 2700fps....I killed a good sized buck antelope at just about 240 yards with it. I have also drawn blood on p-dogs as far as 902 and 911 yards with 85gr Ballistic tips at about 3100fps.

[jwhite]

I have recently put together a 25-45 Sharps on a Ruger Ultralight .233, got a Pacnor barrel, 20" & 1-10 twist, had them copy the factory contour to the frowned tip and then stop the taper and carry that diameter all the way to the muzzle. This extra heft in the barrel was perfect and the rifle carries and holds like a dream. While the rifle was apart i installed a Timney trigger and bedded the action when putting it back together. This rifle shoots better than i can for sure, i am still working up loads and breaking the barrel in but so far i am very impressed. I have not shot any cast in yet but as soon as the barrel is fully broken in i will give the 257420 a try. First loads were the 86 grain remington 25-20 bullet and a light load of RL15 for about 2100fps, these would all go into a 1" target dot at 80 yards and make a nice walking around bunny load. My first attempt at full power loads was with H322 and it kept the 87r TNT's and the 90r Sierra Blitz Kings right at 1" at 100yards. The next load was with H335 and the BlitzKing put three shots into .390" and the TNT went into .6", needless to say i am very happy with it so far. Not sure if i can or need to improve on the H335 & 90r BlitzKing, seems to be about perfect. Second picture show a .233 on the left, and then a 70r. Sierra, 75r Speer 25/20 bullet and the Remington 86r 25/20 bullet
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[Newtire]

Just bought one of these in AR platform and the guy I got it from threw in a truckload of bullets, powder, as well as some load info. One thing I got out of it was that you had to trim back the cases to 43mm to get the neck to keep the ogive from sinking in below the case mouth. If the bullet is left sticking out, you will have a great single shot AR as the loads will be too long for the magazine. Looks like will be a fun round to play around with. A Caldwell case catcher is on it's way from Amazon.

[square butte]

If I could come up with a source for the 86 grain Remington bullets that would make me awfully happy. Have not been able to come up with any of these lately. Has anyone looked at the 100 grain Swine Smasher that the Sharps Rifle company is offering in loaded ammo only? I wish they would offer these as a component so we could load our own. Kind of reminds me of the old lyman 311-441