32 Long Colt/25 cal.

[ejh69]

I have received a lot of a custom converted 32 L. Colt to .25 cal. brass from my uncle's estate. This brass is brand new, never fired so I am sure he never completed the project. Can anyone identify . I have done my own research but came up with nothing. This looks like a smaller .256 Win. Uncle made all kinds of unique cal. and guns.

[uscra112]

Converted to .25 caliber by necking down? I have an old Bay State rifle that uses the .32 Colt, and there's a number of old leverguns that use it, so I'm not unfamiliar with it, but I have never in all my years heard of necking it to .25, nor does Cartridges of the World mention it as a standard or a wildcat. Can you post a picture? It's the kind of thing that piques my interest, being a fan of odd cartridges. Mighty be just the thing for my next Stevens 101 project!

[ejh69]

No way to post a picture, I am still in the dark ages. I also did research in the Car. of the World and found nothing. Best way to describe it is as a .256 Win but smaller. I just wanted to see if anyone might know something.

[Bambeno]

Sounds simular to a 25bee, did he have anything chambered in it or maybe custom dies? That sounds like an interesting little round.

[Guesser]

Did he make inserts for the chambers and sleeve the barrel? More particulars please, this tends to intrigue.

[ejh69]

Uncle passed away several years ago and his immediate family [ I was not included] cleaned out his gun room. They removed what they wanted and brokered out the rest. This may be hard to believe but they had some 140 plus firearms of all kinds that were liquidated. He was a custom builder of all kinds of cartridges, made custom bullets, etc. I have no other info. on this except the brass. I got dies and odd and ends of stuff I have no idea what it is. Just stuff to think about. He must have been a ballistic,handloader, whatever individual. I even got 45/70 boxes of cartidges[loaded ammo] loaded at the Frankford Arsenal January, 1894.

[Bent Ramrod]

The .32 Long Colt and the .25-20 Single Shot cartridges share the same head and rim sizes. However, the .25-20 SS is much longer than the longest specimens of .32 Long Colt that I have seen. It sounds like your uncle had designed a rather unique wildcat.

Did you find any reamers or forming or loading dies for this cartridge, or a rifle or barrel?

[ejh69]

I received no dies for this, no rifle or barrels: however, I do remember a bunch of loose barrels laying around but nothing is left now.

[Bret4207]

I can't help with an ID, but don't ya just love family? We had a new member of ours throw out my great grandmothers Bible which had birth, marriage, death records going back to the Revolution.

[Mk42gunner]

Sounds like a neat way to use a .25 rimfire barrel. If I were doing this today; I would use .32 S&W Long brass, due to availability.

Remember you can pick your friends, but you're pretty much stuck with family.

Robert