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I have a new to me 1907 1892 in 25-20. I have cast 70gn lead boolits for it. They are gaschecked. I have quickload and have been keeping pressure to under 20000 psi. It kills goats and roos pretty well. Quickload says I can go a lot higher but she is an old girl. Does any body use Lil Gun it seems to work well and gives me 1800 fps at my pressure limit. I read on here that the action is strong but how far can I push this little Girl. Does any one know what pressure I can go to?
Regards Kevin
Welcome to the forum. This place is a dandy spot to get lots of good answers and a bit of BS but all in good humor and well intention's.
Kinda hard to answer the pressure question in an old sweety like yours. It depends on a few things such as metal condition, locking lug's condition, porosity in the action, headspace, chamber dimension ... on and on.
If everything checks perfect then the question is of metallurgy in the years of manufacture. Your chamber of 25-20 is going to enable more pressure than say a 44 WCF. This stems from thickness of the barrel metal that surrounds the igniting forces upon ignition. As the bullet gets to be 1.5 inch down the barrel, the area of enclosed pressure is bled off very rapidly. It is the instant of ignition that is crucial.
Worry not, there are folks here that will most likely be able to provide solid numbers in response to your query.
Pictures of your rifle are always responded to in a positive manner as we all really are addicted to "gun porn".
Bigted summed things up pretty well. The 92 have been converted to 357 magnum and 44 magnums over the years. The 25-20 was meant for smokeless not black originally but was loaded with black. Winchester had some loads they marked for the 92 that were higher velocity than for the old 73 and others. The 44-40 was loaded up to about 1700 as was the 32-20 and I believe they had a 60 jacketed loaded up a bit warm for the 25-20. Most do not recommend the conversions to magnums anymore but They do step them up a bit over factory. As you have more of a use for that caliber than I do for my 32-20 (About the biggest varmint is a coyote then we jump up to white tails and black bear) I load my 32-20 fairly mild, at about 1400 or so, mainly to give it a better trajectory. My attitude is that if I need to load hotter I can go to the 30-30. Guy I chatted with was from Alaska and he liked to load his 25-20 around 1500 or so as he liked it for small game and fur bearers. Didn't blow up pelts like hv 22's. I suspect you can go fairly high with an original 92 but I would have no idea how high with your specific 92 without looking at it. Also the life span of those old original rifles gets shortened the more you push them.
DP
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Welcome to the fire, matey ! ;)
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Any Lil' Gun load with a 70 grain boolit that still maintains reasonable accuracy will be fine in your action. Lil' gun is a great powder for us 25/20 shooters as we still have low pressure giving good brass life when we have all the velocity our boolits are capable giving while still maintaining accuracy. My little 70 grain boolit doesn't do real well at much over 2000 fps. and I still have less pressure than I used to have with my Green Dot plinking loads.
I have been sitting on the back deck firing rounds in the rain. 10.4 gns of lil gun gives very rounded primers but slight cratering. 10.6 gns shows a very little flattening of the primer but slight cratering. Velocity should be about 2000 fps which is adequate for my purposes. I will take it to the gunsmith and get him to tidy up the firing pin clearance. 5.5 gns of adi ap100 at about 1700 fps shows no cratering and no pressure.I will stick with this until I get firing pin looked at.
Though watching primers is a good way to go, they do funny things on rimmed cases in levers. Getting hammered in flattening is one thing, but cratering can be quite common. Usually they come together. Checking your pin is a smart thing to do, also headspace if you can. I have a Model 92 in 25/20 and honestly it will crater primers on factory equivalent loads. I've loaded 75 gr Speers to just above 2000fps with IMR 4198 powder, they crater but don't flatten really at all. You will get some great advise here for loads, and if you want some really good info elsewhere, Marlin Owners forum has A LOT of info. The first dozen pages or so will give great info for jacketed or cast.