PC and the 25-20

[Cheshire Dave]

Had an educational moment. I have two different 25-20wcf's. One is a rather weak Stevens and I cast a bunch of soft NOE 260-85-FN boolits for mild loads. Shot great in the old girl. I then decided I needed a 25-20 I could load a bit hotter. So I bought a Savage Sporter off Gunbroker that the seller said had a "great" barrel. Well his idea of great is much different then mine. It is rough for the 1st 8 inches or so. Spent days cleaning it to no use. It still shot the mild load of 5.5 grains of 2400 with some dacron filler and the soft plain base bullet pretty well but not as well as the Stevens even with it's peep sight handicap. Being lazy and not wanting the drain my pot and use a harder alloy I tried loading the same bullet with 4.5 to 4.8 grains of Unique to try and get some more speed. The bullets that hit the 50 yard target did so sideways. I was about ready to put the gun back on Gunbroker. I knew it might do better with harder alloy but still being lazy I thought I would PC some and see if that helped. The target speaks for itself. I did back off the load to 3.5 grains of Unique but 3.8 grains still shot into around an inch. Next step is to try a harder alloy and PC.

[geslayton]

Those are pretty sweet setups! How fast can you push that round with the harder powder coated bullets?

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[Cheshire Dave]

I'm not sure yet. I've just been trying to get it to shoot accurately. I did try some slow powder 2015 and got it up to about 1,400 feet per second with reasonable accuracy. I have some Lil gun and 2400 to try also. I thought I had some 4198 kicking around somewhere but I can't find it. I think I am going to get to try the 257420 with gas check. I will try powder coating some of those with a harder alloy.

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[ole_270]

I pc the NOE 260283 from a plain base mold and shoot it in my '94 Marlin at just under 1300 with 9.2 gr 4198. I've gone up some, but just use it for small game and plinking so I take it easy on the old gun and the cases last a long time. I used to push the 257420 gc lubed with 50/50 to around 2000 with 13 gr 4198, but it was hard on game and with a 110 year old rifle I decided to back off.

[hockeynick39]

Unless the Stevens is marked 25-20 WCF, it may be a 25-20 Single Shot. Not the same cartridges!!!!!!!!! I have a Stevens 44 with a bull barrel in 25-20 Single Shot that I am working on currently. Got an Arsenal 257283, 4 cavity mold that I sent off to Erik Ohlen and had 2 cavities hollow pointed. Still having a hard time locating a range near me that will allow for testing of loads. I was able to shoot the rifle a couple of months back and it shot well with uncoated boolits.

[Cheshire Dave]

Really well that explains why I have had to drive the cases in with a big hammer. Sorry couldn't help myself. This 44 was relined and chambered in 25-20 wcf before I bought it. As interesting as the 26-20SS is, brass is hard enough to get for the 25-20 wcf. I do have to keep the brass separate for the 2 guns, the Savage has a tighter chamber.

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