Hi Folks,
Have been away for quite some time....lots of water under the bridge...some good and some bad.
Since my last post I have fired over 3k rounds thru my little Uberti RB .25 Hornet...all with cast bullets. No leading...ever. I never really clean the bore. Just brush the bore and chamber with a bronze brush and run a dry patch thru the bore and done!
This rifle was primarily built to shoot ground squirrels in the high country here in Montana. So far I have killed 1600+ ground sqirrels, 4 prairie dogs and 3 badgers....all with the 257420 cast bullet of around 70+/-gr.
I started with some 900 of these bullets from an estate on Gunbroker. They were 68gr Hollow points. They really whacked the ground sqirrels. I picked up another 750 plain nosed bullets from another source and these worked well too. Maybe not as good as the HP bullets but good clean kills.
A few months ago I picked up a new Lyman 257420 mold. I had a friend who owns a cast bullet company offer to cast me up a thousand. He cast them up using pure linotype from a bar that I supplied. These shoot well up to about 1900 fps. These bullets do not flatten out at all, but still produce good clean kills.
To test out this cartridge, I decided to compare it to a popular rifle caliber used here in Montana for ground sqirrels. So, I purchased a Savage .17HMR std barrel with the accu-trigger. I mounted a Burris 3-9 Rimfire scope...sighted it in and was ready to go. I recently went to one of my favorite spots and shot around 100 ground squirrels. I carefully observed how well the .17HMR killed as well as seeing the damage done to the carcases. (Hope this doesn't gross anyone out!). I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that the .25 Hornet is a better killer. More clean kills...less wounded animals.
This is going to be a short ground sqirrel shooting year. We have had LOTS of rain...probably the rain that Colorado wished they had. The grass is getting high weeks early this year. Unlike paririe dogs, ground sqirrels do not remove all of the tall grass around their burrows. Instead, they make tunnels thru the grass from burrow to burrow. A big squirrel stands about 9-10" high. So, when the grass gets over a foot high the shooting becomes very challenging. In Montana's high country, the grass can get 24" high. It is getting in the 18" range at this time and seeing the little buggers is almost impossible.
I don't have any trouble sharing my loads. I shoot Hodgdon's Lil'Gun exclusively. With the 257420 bullet I use 7.8gr in fireformed Winchester cases in front of a CCI 500 primer. The small pistol primer gives excellent uniformity. Velocity is a little over 1800 fps. This gun will take up to 9.0 grains with velocities over 2000fps....BUT the accuracy in not there...not near good enough for 75yd shots and over. My best accuracy is with the 7.8-8.0gr load.
The chamber on this rifle was cut using a JGS reamer and the dies are made by CH4D. Case life is excellent...even with repeated full length resizing. I have tried Remington cases and have over 50% losses during fire forming and case life is poor. The Winchester cases are the ticket with virtually no losses.
Fire forming is done using a .22 caliber bullet (I have a larger quantity of no good 22 caliber J bullets) ahead of 6.0gr of Bullseye +/_ 1/2 gr. When using this method DO NOT USE ANYTHING OTHER THAN A .22 CALIBER BULLET...CAST IS OK TOO....otherwise dangerous high pressure may occur. The .22 bullets (of any weight) have enough blow by to give good fire forming without too much pressure. There is no jacket fouling using this method.
I have tried neck expansion using a neck expander and the cases come out much too short. Properly fire formed cases require a little trimming. I trim my cases to a length of 1.380".
This little cartridge is nothing short of amazing. Non existent recoil, modest noise, and very good killing power even on tough badger sized animals.
I am adding a picture of the rifle in the field. Hope no one is offended.
All 'til next time,
Bearmn56 (Bill)
Montana Territory
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Originally Posted by JeffinNZ
