JA-25 & Lee 252-50-RF

[Ranch Dog]

I've been working pretty serious on a number of projects and once I got a bunch of big boolits cycled through a sizer, I decided to goof off.

One item laying on my bench was a Jimenez Arms JA-25 and a bunch of boolits cast from a Lee 252-50-RF that Lee sent to me. I purchased the pistol because I've been curious about something that cost so little. My pistol has the black "combat type" finish, I think it is black Teflon if I read right, and it is really a very attractive firearm. I shot a bunch of UMC ammo through it earlier in the week and I wasn't overly impressed with the performance. I had a number of jams and the JRN bullets where all over the place. Some of this goes to UMC and the brass was very inconsistant... some would fit in the shellholder and some wouldn't. Today, I pulled the pistol apart, pulled out the Dremel tool and started polishing bits and pieces of it. It's small, so after about 20 minutes I had a pretty slick functioning firearm. I even hand lapped the little 2.5" barrel!

This week I had cast with the 252-50-RF and I had these boolits tumble lubed and waiting. I cast with 1 to 10, tin/WW and they are .252" and 50-grains. I didn't bother to size them. I uniformed the primer pockets and flash holes of the spent UMC brass, charged them with 1.6-grains of Unique and off to my range we (pistol & I) went.

I think the gun and boolit shot great! I shot from my bench to the 25-yard berm and using the fixed sights on a 4" aiming square kept all the hits within about 8" of each other. I shoot at a butcher paper target I make, 18" X 18' with that 4" square in the middle. All my shooting struck the targets low/left quadrant with many boolits repeatedly hitting the same hole till the paper tore. No jams with rapid fire, I'm very impressed with the gun and the boolit.

I see a six cavity TL252-50-2R in my near future. I've got a couple of bags of Mag Tech brass standing by and it didn't have any problems passing the "shellholder" test that the UMC failed so I'm looking forward to more play time with the JA-25.

[kywoodwrkr]

Michael,
I've been reloading for the little 25 for many years now.
My first sizing lubing die was a Herters 243 polished out a little.
Bought a Hollywood Carbide sizing die before everyone else started providing good dies.
I have the Lyman 252435 in HP as well as the RCBS mould.
Been looking for a nice little pistol as I have sold off all of the little buggers.
My favorite pistol to date was either the Colt made by Astra or the Astra itself.
Good to see someone else damaging their fingers!
Good luck with it.
Dave

[Ranch Dog]

Interesting cartridge for sure! I've been reloading it for a while for my dad's pistol but wanted one of my own. I looked at all the big names but just didn't want to spend the money these pistols are demanding. My JA-25 cost me $95. I got to say that part of the purchase was because of a lot of the contraversory surrounding Brenco and Jimenez Arms. You get what you pay for and this isn't a Bobcat but I think it is a servicable firearm.

I didn't want to spend the $$$ for the RCBS mold and while talking to Pat at Lee about one of my group buys he said, wait a minute... and came back on the phone and told me that he had this mold. He wasn't sure how it ended up on the shelf but it had been sitting there a very long time. A couple of days later it was sitting on my bench!

There is definitely an art to casting such a small boolit but I've learned to fill the cavities REALLY slow. This mold has a traditional lube groove near the base of the bullet and it doesn't hold the Liquid Alox very well. As the Alox flows off the boolit, with the boolit sitting on it's base, it just pools near the groove and then runs off on to the wax paper. If I special order from Lee, I'm going to place the lube groove half way between the base and where the boolit is being crimped and use the modified Micro-Band I'm now using on all my boolits.

I'm using the Lee dies and special ordered a Factory Crimp Die so I wouldn't have to worry about the crimp with untrimmed cases. It's a very interesting cartridge. I would love to have a target grade pistol chambered in this cartridge instead of say a 22RF as I love the reloading end of things as much as I do the shooting.

[Poygan]

I have the RCBS mold for the 25acp. Interesting that you have a Lee boolit...I asked Lee a few years back about making a mold for the 25 and they said that there wasn't enough demand. I use a Beretta Jetfire and it handles the loads quite well, although I haven't tried any accuracy testing. I wish Lee would make the 25 in a TC style. There are times when I wonder if I shouldn't be using a tweezers in the sizing and reloading process.

[45 2.1]

Interesting cartridge for sure! I've been reloading it for a while for my dad's pistol but wanted one of my own. I looked at all the big names but just didn't want to spend the money these pistols are demanding. My JA-25 cost me $95. I got to say that part of the purchase was because of a lot of the contraversory surrounding Brenco and Jimenez Arms. You get what you pay for and this isn't a Bobcat but I think it is a servicable firearm.

I didn't want to spend the $$$ for the RCBS mold and while talking to Pat at Lee about one of my group buys he said, wait a minute... and came back on the phone and told me that he had this mold. He wasn't sure how it ended up on the shelf but it had been sitting there a very long time. A couple of days later it was sitting on my bench!

There is definitely an art to casting such a small boolit but I've learned to fill the cavities REALLY slow. This mold has a traditional lube groove near the base of the bullet and it doesn't hold the Liquid Alox very well. As the Alox flows off the boolit, with the boolit sitting on it's base, it just pools near the groove and then runs off on to the wax paper. If I special order from Lee, I'm going to place the lube groove half way between the base and where the boolit is being crimped and use the modified Micro-Band I'm now using on all my boolits.

I'm using the Lee dies and special ordered a Factory Crimp Die so I wouldn't have to worry about the crimp with untrimmed cases. It's a very interesting cartridge. I would love to have a target grade pistol chambered in this cartridge instead of say a 22RF as I love the reloading end of things as much as I do the shooting.

If you can find an "Ortgies" (sp), you will have a very good surplus pistol. They are quite accurate for a 25 and reliable. You should be able to find one for under $150. I've shot a couple for 10 years or so and find them better than any other model i've found so far.

[Ranch Dog]

Interesting that you have a Lee boolit...I asked Lee a few years back about making a mold for the 25 and they said that there wasn't enough demand... I wish Lee would make the 25 in a TC style. There are times when I wonder if I shouldn't be using a tweezers in the sizing and reloading process.

I take it that Lee had this mold sitting around because it was a left over from a Special Order. Near or after the first of the year, I'm going to do a Special Order for a TL252-50-2R.

[35remington]

RD, you are definitely one of the loonies that Barsness keeps talking about, only with a pistol that most wouldn't bother with.

I think you might find it educational to slug the barrel. I have a Bryco .380, and one of the features that seems to be endemic to the brand (your gun is in the same family) is oversized barrels. Mine slugs .362", and I took to casting soft lead roundnose bullets that would bump up under the .380's low pressures and fill the grooves, after a fashion. I'm guessing your .25 would run more like .256" or more rather than the nominal .251" of the .25 ACP.

And yeah, they are fun, aren't they? I shot a friends Beretta (the tip barrel .25 ACP) and it's a ball to shoot. Quite reliable, too. It was such a fun plinker that now you've got me thinking about another gun I don't need.

I never said I was practical; I just like to shoot.

[Ranch Dog]

I actually slugged the barrel... not real technical about it as I took one of my alox lubed boolits and forced it through the barrel. I didn't have any fishing sinkers that size so I thought, what the hell. It was a good solid fit all the way through! I also dug some of the boolits out of my target berm and they all had good impressions of the rifling.

I've actually killed a couple of critters with my dad's Raven. Skunks and a dog. This was with jacketed factory ammo so I think the soft lead would be even more impressive.

I'm like you... not practical; just like to shoot (and I will add... reload)! I sit here looking at my Marlin 39A and wish it was chambered in 25 Auto....

[35remington]

Well damn, sounds like you might have something more than meets the eye. My Bryco shoots into around 5 inches at 25 yards with bullets that don't fit the barrel.

I wouldn't trade it for a two inch .38, but they are fun to play with.

How's that .25 work on critters? I wonder if it would feed a bullet with a flatnose?

[Buckshot]

............If you shoot someone with that thing it'll really piss'em off :-)!

..............Buckshot

[Ranch Dog]

............If you shoot someone with that thing it'll really piss'em off :-)!

..............Buckshot

Hey Buckshot... I think the idea is to shoot them six times. Also spending time perfecting the art of changing clips would be a good goal (it came with two clips). If nothing else the little pistol might cause a bad guy to stroke out because they are very loud! That pinch of Unique also puts out a nice flash! I really polished the ramp into the chamber as the cartridges where jamming on the way up. The pistol seems very reliable now.

The dog I shot with it died, graveyard dead, quick. One shot to the chest cavity. My dad walks up to the cattle guard every morning and sometimes I go with him. He ALWAYS has his Raven in his clip holster on his hip. As we approached the cattle guard, I saw this dog running down the highway toward us. It was a large mutt and I told my dad "this isn't good", just from the look on the dog's face. The distance was closing rapidly so I told my dad to shoot him. My dad hasn't actually ever practiced a quick draw from that holster and his hand was being fouled by his t-shirt (at this point I was again spewing threats to fire him as a ranch hand). I drew the pistol from his belt line and as I raised it to shoot the dog was now at the cattle guard about 10 yards away. I hit him in the chest with the first shot and it was lights out with those front legs slipping between the pipes of the guard. I drug the dog down into the bar ditch and the buzzards where on him in about 20 minutes. I don't know where the dog came from, most likely someones bad dog from town that got a free ride out-of-town the evening before.

I went on to shoot a couple of skunks with that Raven and they croak just as quick if you can hit them with these little pistols. I think a good soft lead boolit is going to do a better job than the hard little bullets offered in the factory ammo. Rather than a TL52-50-2R, I have been thinking of a "-RF" to help the boolit flatten. My next move is file a bunch of boolits and see if they continue to feed as the RN boolits have.

[Ranch Dog]

Here are a couple of links for the pistol...

Shinning Star, Distributors for the JA25 (http://www.shiningstardist.com/JA%2022.htm)

This is a pretty good history of the these firearms (http://brycoarmsjenningsfirearmsjimenezarms.quickseek.com/#Jimenez_Arms)

[Wayne Smith]

I'm using the Lee dies and special ordered a Factory Crimp Die so I wouldn't have to worry about the crimp with untrimmed cases. It's a very interesting cartridge. I would love to have a target grade pistol chambered in this cartridge instead of say a 22RF as I love the reloading end of things as much as I do the shooting.

Custom Factory Crimp die for the .25?!! I sent them one of my .41LC cases @1.08" long and they refused to make one. They said it was too short a case to make a custom die! How long are your .25 cases??

[Johnch]

And I thought I was slightly off to cast and load for the 32 auto .
I have a Bereta Tom Cat .
I have a OLD 1 hole 60 gr mould ( unknown brand ) and a set of Lyman steel dies .

I will tell the gang at the gun shop about casting a loading for the Jimenez .
They will have a laugh .


I have a Jennings ( old name for the Jimenez ) but in 22 LR .
Accurate enough , I use it for a trap line gun .

Johnch

[Ranch Dog]

Custom Factory Crimp die for the .25?!! I sent them one of my .41LC cases @1.08" long and they refused to make one. They said it was too short a case to make a custom die! How long are your .25 cases??

They are .615" (see drawing). It might just be the 41 Long Colt. I tried to get Lee to make me a Special Order set of their pistol dies and Pat wouldn't even discuss it.

The FCD is the die in the operating position of the turret press (see photo in first post), next to the knob on the handle.