The little 25/20 - Obsolete??

[gunnie]

More importantly, yes please BAW! I will certainly grab some of your BAW's Ballistic Magic 257cal pills. I'm planning on coming up for the casting week-end, so can collect then. I'll bring the 25-20 up so we can slug the bore & then test your product.

I'll start researching loads for it & see what powder/s I need to buy. Is it better to gas check or just shoot the cast pills without & just keep the velocity low?

[Gunslinger1911]

A buddy of mine has an old Winchester and newer Marlin, I'm still looking for one.
Great little cartridge !
I got an NOE mould for a sweet 62g flat nose.
He has the same problem as everyone else - no brass.
I'll give Load X a shot.
cwtebay would you be comfortable posting their price ?

[Drm50]

I've had 25/20 & 32/20 for over 50yrs. I have a nice 53 Win and an turn of century Marlin 1894 rifle. I have plenty of brass and several boxes of factory loads. I've found that all the 25/20s I've owned do much better with cast boolits. I've loaded thousands of 25/20s over the years and don't bother to load Jackets anymore. I had both the Marlin 94 remakes and their accuracy didn't impress me.

[cwtebay]

A buddy of mine has an old Winchester and newer Marlin, I'm still looking for one.
Great little cartridge !
I got an NOE mould for a sweet 62g flat nose.
He has the same problem as everyone else - no brass.
I'll give Load X a shot.
cwtebay would you be comfortable posting their price ?

I gave $65/100 in September. I believe that was with shipping. I purchased 3 or 400.

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[FISH4BUGS]

I was gifted a Savage Sporter 23b in 25-20. Perfect condition, but no magazine. While I was looking for an original magazine, I assembled my 25-20 reloading and casting goodies.
I have two moulds (plain base and gas check) and a hollow point mould gas check for it. I was able to purchase 300 brass formed from 32-20 from a man here that recently passed away. I also traded for some 200 25-20 headstamp brass so I should be all set.
I bought 400 Hornady 62 gr jacketed bullets. Those will be used for woodchucks. I also got some 400 or more cast powder coated bullets. I'll resize them and try them out.
I found an original magazine for $150 (!). It didn't feed too well so I took it to the gunsmith who redid the retainer spring in the rifle and now it works fine.
I am looking forward to shooting this plain Jane nice gun. Factory letter puts it at 1924 manufacture!
Attachment 241915

[Gunslinger1911]

Thanks cwtebay ! That's up there, but everything else I've seen is higher.

[Gunslinger1911]

Had an email convo with Steve at Load X today. Super nice guy by the way !

$65 / 100 + shipping.

Real Starline 25-20 brass. They had a custom run made.

I didn't see anywhere on the web site where brass was available, but email confirmed they have it.

Good times guys !!!!

[cwtebay]

Had an email convo with Steve at Load X today. Super nice guy by the way !

$65 / 100 + shipping.

Real Starline 25-20 brass. They had a custom run made.

I didn't see anywhere on the web site where brass was available, but email confirmed they have it.

Good times guys !!!!

I try not to lie!!! And Steve is an incredible resource. I amortized my brass investments out. I'm into it $0.055 right now counting losses / destruction. That ain't love, but that ain't bad.

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[Greebe]

I hear ya there BAW!
Picked up the Mod92 last week, and its an interesting item in its own right. So had begun the chase for brass. I tried the re-size from 32-20 as I have a bag of new Remington brass. Yeah it works, but prefer the brass to match correctly.
So my only option was factory ammo. Geez, sell you liver & first born! Order one box of Remington factory 85gn jacketed & began to prepare myself for the pain in the wallet. It still smarts when I remember the wallet coping a ***-whooping for $176 !!!!!
I then lucked onto a contact who managed to get me 3 boxes of factory at a far better price. But then again, thinking about it, $140 a box of 50 is still a belt to the face with a 1 pound hammer!

Oh well, at least I'll have a stash of 100 while I play around with the first 100.

I'll be chasing you up for some 257cal pills BAW.

$600 for only 200 cartridges? Holy cow, you could have reloaded for two lifetimes on that much money. I load 50 rounds for only $2.25, so with a little math, I can load 13,333 cartridges for the price you paid for 200. You really should reload these!

[Greebe]

BTW, I have a box of the Factory Remington 86gr .25-20 I would be happy to sell for $150 with "free shipping".

[ole_270]

Me too

[gunnie]

Well I only bought the one box at that price of $176. The intent was always to reload and I usually work on a minimum of 100rds or cases to start with.
Thankfully I have a good mate, who is a gun dealer, who has contacts, and he managed to score me three boxes of Remington factory ammo at cost. So I picked up 150rds for $315 rather than $528! Not good I know! That's another second hand Winchester just in ammo. Well at least I'll have my hundred to start with and the luxury or a spare 100rds just in case. Or if needs be I can always sell them off for a slight profit eh!

That's one of the luxuries you fellas in the USA have, more manufacturers, wider choice ergo lower prices due to competition. Here we don't have that luxury. There is really only the one brass maker, Bruce Bertram. He covers a wide range of different cartridges though the focus is the old or more obscure. There is Aust Defence Industries and they do produce brass that is sold via sporting suppliers, but the range is severely limited.

Anyways, now I can spend some quality time on the range, firing off 100 factory loads to see how the rifle shoots. Then, after collecting some of BAW's little 257cal gems, have even more fun working up some cast loads for the Model92.

[Bad Ass Wallace]

Holy **** Gunnie, with that many cases I had better make you another 500 boolits!

[john.k]

Little bit of exaggeration here ,I think.......In Qld,the customs/import form is free,and doesnt take long to come............its dealing with the US is the problem......anything rifle is ITAR,and as mentioned most wont risk a stretch in the federal pen if they make a mistake.........however with all the anti Iran,anti China,prohibited exports list ,it getting to the stage ,nothing can be exported from the US without a team of experts reviewing its status within a thousand different laws and regulations.

[gunnie]

BAW: well, it's gonna take me a little while to burn thru that first 100, well maybe not! LOL
A few hundred will be gold mate. Once I've learnt the casting dark arts from the master, I'll be able to cast some myself.

JK : that's it in a nutshell mate. It isn't this side, it's dealing with getting it out of the US.

[Dusty Ed]

I bought a 1894 Marlin from Buffalo Arms ,Chambered in 25/20 for $800.00 but it had 200 New Brass 200 bullets new dies and a Marbels tang sight.

[indian joe]

BAW: well, it's gonna take me a little while to burn thru that first 100, well maybe not! LOL
A few hundred will be gold mate. Once I've learnt the casting dark arts from the master, I'll be able to cast some myself.

JK : that's it in a nutshell mate. It isn't this side, it's dealing with getting it out of the US.

Theres craziness in both directions
I have a L C Smith side x side shottie and a couple 92's a bit different that woulda made good money in the US - thought I could cart one over on a trip and pay for my ticket - WRONG!! Australia is one of two countries on the planet that USA will not allow firearms entry from (that is for sale or import - I understand you can take one over to compete so long as you take it away again?) Owens told me this was some deal cooked up between howard and bush - put the kibosh on a neat little deal he (RO) had going where he bought up old 92's in Qld and sent em over to a mate stateside. (I still have the LCSmith - nice gun - specialty grade, single triger, ejectors,)

I brought 348 shells home in 2013 - declared on all paperwork - hadda have an ammunition import paper for Aussie customs and hadda have the original to hand in at the counter - gal that processed me had two brothers were shooters - her comment - "jeez! empty bullet shells, dunno who the fool was dreamed this idea up but we all get to wear it"

[Bad Ass Wallace]

That is why any old Winchester rifles in good condition in Australia sell for a premium. I have a '92 in 44/40 made in 1896 that is mint, and appears never to have been fired!

The best buy about 12 years ago was a pair of '92's in 38/40 that have consequetive serial numbers (only 4 digit) and made in 1892, the first year of production!

[uscra112]

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/814730077

Happened to come up from a search for .25-20 Stevens

[9.3X62AL]

I bought a 1894 Marlin from Buffalo Arms ,Chambered in 25/20 for $800.00 but it had 200 New Brass 200 bullets new dies and a Marbels tang sight.

D-Ed......

I am another owner of the late-series Marlin 1894CL leverguns in 25/20 WCF. One caveat concerning some of these--shooters have noticed that many examples of this variant are "chambered long"--that is, the shoulder in the chambers are cut more deeply than SAAMI-standard. My example has this quirk as well. Brass life is very short if the reloader sets the shoulder back after each firing. I have come up with 2 options for dealing with this condition--

A) Use your full-length sizing die to "partial-full-length-resize" your fired brass, setting the die high enough in the press to not let the die's shoulder touch the case's shoulder, or.....

B) Scrounge up a 25 ACP sizer die, and use it to neck-size the brass. Every 4-5 firings, you will need to partial-F/L-size the case again.

About 8 years ago I attended a gun show in Boise, ID and found a guy selling a lot of 450 new/unfired 25/20 WCF cases, all in 38/357 cartridge boxes for $100. I didn't hesitate or dicker on price. At my age (64), that is likely a lifetime supply if I mind the sizing regimens as above.