Winchester 1885 Low Wall .25-20 single shot

[samari46]

David, #3 #4 weight barrels are well pretty heavy for a low wall. Most common are either a #1 or #2 and the low wall basically shot the pistol cartridges of the period. 25-20 SS,25-20 WCF,32-20 WCF and 38-40 WCF and 44-40 WCF. If you are looking for a 25-20wcf or 32-20wcf check out TJ's liners.And John Taylor of Taylor Machine is the gent to install your liner.Frank

[Green Frog]

Just to make the original topic of this thread a little more difficult to unravel, around the end of the 19th Century Winchester was apparently a little lackadaisical about caliber markings. I have an original high wall with a musket weight round barrel marked 25 WCF, and it is chambered for the 25-20 SS! I've also heard rumors of others mismarked and have encountered more than a couple with factory original barrels that have been reamed out to 25-20 WCF even though they left the factory as 25-20 SS. I even helped conduct one such

My personal supply of 25-20 SS brass came from the purchase of a couple of hundred rounds of factory ammo I bought about 20 years ago in Richmond, VA at a gun show. Those plastic grocery bags contained a mixture of beautiful stuff that looked about factory fresh all the way down to some stuff that was so corroded I had to hold it up next to a good round to make sure it was the right caliber. There were even 50 or so Winchester Silvertips in the mix... I didn't even know Winchester was making the caliber late enough to have those bullets!

Froggie

[Jedman]

Dave, It sounds like you don't already own the gun, just looking correct ?
Being it has been rebarreled it's not a collector gun I would consider rechambering it to 25-35 if it is a rifle you would like shoot in that cartridge and could be bought at a reasonable price.
Some might say a early low wall could not hold up to a 25-35 but I disagree especially handloaded with cast bollits and not trying to hot rod it.

Jedman

[uscra112]

Just remember that the twist will still be 1:15 or thereabouts, so traditional heavy .25-35 bullets won't stabilize. Have to stick to 60 to 90 grains.

[marlinman93]

And also remember that what you might load safely might not be done the same down the road. I personally feel we have a certain responsibility to not make up such chamberings (especially when factory cartridges are concerned) that could be loaded with hotter rounds in the future.
If the caliber chosen isn't factory loaded anymore, then it will always require someone to hand load for it. But that's not the case for the .25-35, and I feel it's not a good choice myself.

[uscra112]

I just won a box of NOS brass by B.E.L.L. on Gunbroker. Not cheap, $140 for 50 brand new drawn brass cases. There's another box still there; I wasn't greedy. https://www.gunbroker.com/item/802257372 is the listing. He will no doubt do another listing for the box I didn't buy. This is listed as .22-3000 Lovell, but it is unformed. One pass through a .25-20 Stevens sizer will do the trick. (.25-20 Stevens was the parent of the Lovell.) B.E.L.L. made first-class stuff. The company is sorely missed.

[marlinman93]

Yes, I love finding old Bell brass, regardless of caliber. As long as it's a size I need, I buy it. It was all great brass!

[John Boy]

Source for brass: Roberson Cartridge Co ... https://www.rccbrass.com/shop/
Bullets: Gad Cartridge ... http://gadcustomcartridges.com/
Loading data: https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbth...CF_Reload_Info
No source for loaded ammunition