I've heard brain surgery was easier.
To Each their Own it seems.
I load .25ACP on a Single Stage Press one charge At a time using a RCBS/OHAS Balance Beam Scale.
200 Cartridges a sitting is reasonable for Me.
Your "Reasonable" may 'Vary'.
Your Charges May 'Vary' Also. I try To stay within .05 grains on my charge weights, which is difficult enough with the 0.1 grain Marked Resolution of the Scale.
Chev. William
Last edited by Chev. William; 08-27-2017 at 02:29 PM.
1.5 grain of Red Dot? I haven't tried Red Dot yet for my 22lr. But was planning to. I like the fact that you can use about half of the amount you would use for some other powders and that makes it super cheap. I was going to use 1.3 grains to 1.5 grains to propel a 40 grainer out of a 22lr. So about 5k rounds to a lb of powder. The other ingredients are comparatively less expensive. I got er down to under a penny a round.
My 12 year old son loads his 25auto on my lee turret press. He has small fingers and it works better.
woo! many questions to answer!
the 25 league really isn't a "league" once a month they have a "25" tournament ...15 yard bullseye contest
i haven't competed there, but they did have oodles of brass to sweep up the next day each month.
thats where i got the brass.
we shoot at a place in oklahoma out side just for giggles.
my piece is a raven by phoenix what sets mine apart from the jam-o-matics is that it's a very low serial number.
that means when they were trying to make name for themselves the put a little more quality into the early ones
so 's not to scare away any future buyers when they started to produce ****.
mine will not fire reliably with any factory ammo ...but with careful study of bullet profile and powder loads i have come up with the perfect ammo for "MY" phoenix raven....your mileage may vary.
with my ammo it very rarely has any problems at all ...and believe it or not ...at 20 to 25 yards is wicked accurate.
i reload 14 calibers for pistol and use a lot of red dot ...i currently have about 30 pounds of red dot...and 120 pounds of 22 other pistol powders.
i do use a dipper since the first post i found that getting a perfect 1.3 grains of powder each time was quicker with a dipper than using a electric measure...oh , i still pour it out of the dipper into a pour pan on a electric scale...but i don't trickle meter it any more.
i use a lyman "T" mag press....and usually do 3 to 4 hundred at a time.
You Seem to "live right" to have such a Good Rapport with your Raven. I still have my Late Wife's Raven. I tried it after She Died and found the Original Magazine it Had with it would not Feed Reliably; Inspection discovered Dinged Feed Lips so I bought a Pair of replacement Magazines.
The New Magazines Solved the Feed Problems, but after one box of factory Ammo I noticed it was Beating itself To death on recoil (impact Dings on Slide and lower) so I stopped Shooting it. It is now a "Safe Queen" in memory of my Wife.
I now have a 10-5/8" inch barrel Ruger Single Eight Revolver to shoot .25ACP for Fun.
chev. william
mozeppa, how many rounds do you reckon you have on that raven?
maybe 5 or 6 thousand.
if it wears out or beats it self to pieces....i'll sell the 16 mags i have for it and buy a beretta .25 ( may buy one anyway!)
I bough my son a Phoenix arms, he has at least 700 rounds through it. He first had an erma werke ep25 but wore it out in 3 years. The slide would actually lift up off the frame. The Phoenix is only 2 years old, so we are hoping it lasts for a while. Reloading 25's is now a family tradition.
I just set up the RL550 and ran off 600 of the little beggars, 35gr GoldDot, 1.5gr titegroup, Fiocchi sp primer at .865 oal. took about 2.5 hrs start to finish, and the Lyman 55 was dead nuts on all the way thru... I did have to turn and polish the powder drop/expander to get the proper neck tension, but all in all it went smoother than I expected..
My wife's got a Taurus PT25. It's a nice little gun for practicing trigger control at 25yrds. Doesn't take more than a box of 50 to get back to square or cramp your hand up!
A couple of years ago I loaded up 2K using 3 Lee Reloaders mounted next to each other. Once all the cases were primed it went rather quickly.
"Unnh, Negative. I am a meat popsicle."
Chuck
I've owned on nickled Baby Browning and neighbor had a Beretta 950, neither ever malfunctioned. At 1.3 grs thats less then 2 lbs of Red Dot per 10,000 rds. 50 rds of .25 ACP is anywhere from $15-25 per box.
CD
De Oppresso Liber
Irag: 91,03,04,05,06,08,09',15', 16',22-23'
Afghanistan: 09,10,11',14',17'-21'
I found a Sale on Outdoor Unlimited and Bought 1000 Rounds for about $260 including Shipping.
All from a single Lot of 50 Grain FMJ By PPU and It is My "Reference Cartridge" for setting up my chronograph with my Ruger Single Eight in .25ACP at the Local Commercial outside Range.
I find it consistently chronos about 2.1% lower than Factory Advertised Velocity when fired from My revolver Possibly due to the "venting" between Cylinder and Barrel.
Chev. William
More Puttering:
This Morning, while it was Cool in the Morning Overcast and Fog, I finished De-capping my last Batch of Once Fired 5.7x28mm Cases, found one with a Live Primer AND a Bullet Inside!
Set it aside until i had completed the De-capping of the rest! Total Usable Count in this "1000 piece Lot" was 1007, plus one .22LR case and the one Over Expanded one.
Then used my Lee "Universal Expander Die to Over Expand the Neck far enough to let The Bullet drop out, it was a Jacketed Flat Base one that weighed about 30 Grains.
This makes about 3000 Cases de-capped and of that about 700 that have been resized down and trimmed for my Experiments so far, with another 410 in the downsizing process.
I think Now I have almost A "Lifetime supply' for my Experiments.
Most of the Current lot seem to be Date Coded as 2014 Manufacture FNB 'military' as they had Crimped in Primers.
They Probably will reform And lengthen to about 1.230" Length and I will Trim Them as Needed for my experiments.
1.125" for .25ALS; 1.055" for .25 Magnum Auto; .960" For .25ALR as Needed or as they Neck split to extent The useful life. Annealing is NOT a Choice as these Are Polymer coated cases.
Best Regards,
Chev. William
Since My Last Post of Aug. 14 I have Completed de-capping all my "Back Stock" of 5,7x28mm Cases and put them in Plastic MTM 100 round or 50 round boxes stored in two Surplus 40mm Mortar ammo Boxes I bought on Ebay.
These 40mm Ammo boxes hold 17 of the MTM 100 round "9mm" boxes for a total capacity of 1700 rounds in one ammo case.
Then I reformed 400 of them down to .276" body diameter; followed by trimming 100 to .980" length and 100 to 1.055" length with another 100 waiting to be trimmed to 1.125" length.
Also; I have trimmed the "Brass Displacement roll from 100 Reformed Hornet Cases, with about 300 more to be 'de-rolled' yet.
Trimming is Slowed by My Frustrating Problem with my Trimmer not reliably holding these small Diameter/Length Rims. the case being trimmed Keeps coming loose from the holder and I have to stop and put it back.
Best Regards,
Chev. William
A photo of some recent Activity:
Left to Right: Lee Champfer Too modification to use on .25ACP Cases; Dummy Cartridges of My .25ACP "Wildcat" Family; Modification to Lee Universal Expander Tool to Expand .25ACP 'Family' Case Mouths.
Best Regards,
Chev. William
Mr. William, that is some neat stuff. I have often thought of wildcatting a 251 cal, because I have 700 plus 251 xtp's laying around in my stash and no longer have a 25 ACP.
For the record though, and in spite of the heat I may take, I have a Lee Loader in 25 ACP, and used to have a lot more xtp's before I sold my Colt Vest Pocket....
If I remember correctly; the 'XTP' in .25ACP is a 35 grain Jacketed HP Bullet?
You Might consider Converting a Ruger "Convertible Single Six" to fire .25ACP like i have, or building a .25ACP rifle, like i have in The Process.
I am sure You may have More Fun shooting them then.
Best Regards,
Chev. William
Yep, 35gr.
I also have a box of the little seen 50gr HP, which I assume are used for elk.
I was thinking of converting a single shot handi rifle, or some other such platform.
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |