25-35

[thpre64]

I picked up a old model 94 chambered 25-35 it’s from 1925 so I’m wanting to use cast
Anyone have any ideas or a place to start? It’s hard to find anything on this old round

[three50seven]

Before the stupidity started, Hornady was making 25-35 as part of their Leverevolution line, so modern ammo and brass does exist. Posting a WTB ad in the classifieds here would probably be another good starting place.

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[cwtebay]

What are your mould options?
And what sort of powders do you have on hand? Are you planning on hunting or plinking? I have a large amount of load data for a variety of bullets for the 25-35 and would be happy to share them!

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[DAVIDMAGNUM]

If you have any, cases can be formed from 30-30 (30WCF) brass. A case forming die is expensive, but if you have access to a lot of 30-30 brass it is an option. 25-35 brass could probably be formed from 38-55 brass. The 38-55 is the parent case to :32-40, 32 Winchester Special, 30-30 and 25-35 . Besides being heresy to reform 38-55 brass it would most likely take multiple steps. Something like 38-55 to 30-30 to 25-35....but this is a slightly educated guess.

[georgerkahn]

I picked up a old model 94 chambered 25-35 it’s from 1925 so I’m wanting to use cast
Anyone have any ideas or a place to start? It’s hard to find anything on this old round

I have a couple of dedicated .25-35 moulds, but both took toooo long to acquire, it would almost be cruel of me to direct you in this direction ;). Instead, as I did while waiting -- perhaps you might seek out a .25-35 RELOADING TOOL! I have two of these which have a mould at front end, complementing the pliers-type unit. Fairly inexpensive -- if I recall both were in the $100.00 each range -- and, bion, the cast bullets work! I used but one to load -- a lot of effort, imho, but this worked, too. (I could almost close my eyes and envision being a cowboy in the late 1800's eating beans (as in Blazing Saddles) while casting a few bullets with reclaimed lead...)
I attached a photo of one similar (this is a .25-20R) for your seeing that which I'm referring to... Good luck!
geo293435

[Outpost75]

The data sheet which comes with the Lee die set is helpful. I use 20 grs. of 4198 with the 117-grain Hornady for 2100 fps. A bit slower than factory, but the deer can't tell the difference. For small game loads RCBS 25-087CB with 9 grains of #2400 or 12 grains of 4227 approximate .25-20 ballistics with the 87-grain Remington jacketed softpoint bullet. With plainbased cast you might need to drop those charges a bit, depending upon bore condition, if your rifle is prone to leading.

The .25-35 is the most accurate chambering in the Winchester 94 because its small bore makes for a heavier, more rigid barrel. Its 8-inch twist handles quiet, subsonic cast bullet loads very accurately, while getting great penetration because they auger on through, if not driven so fast that they blow up.

You can load as little as 4 grains of fast burning pistol or shotgun powder with 85-87-gr. lead plain-based bullets. The 85-87 grain Meister or RCBS cowboy slugs drive inch and half groups at 50 yards with iron sights and make little more noise than a .22 LR, but are far more effective. I’m don’t know whether the factories ever loaded small game rounds for the .25-35 like they did for the .30-30. But when hand-loaded with either jacketed or cast lead bullets designed for the .25-20. the .25-35 WCF makes a fine small game cartridge.

When an Ideal tang sight is zeroed for factory 117-gr. loads at 200 yards, small game loads shot to the sights at 50 yards and gave inch and half groups. RCBS bullets were cast of wheel weights and shot un-sized in reworked .30-30 brass. . Using 4 grains of Bullseye gave 1120 f.p.s. and 5 grains of Bullseye gave 1200 f.p.s. The fastest plain-based cast bullet load which shot acceptably was 7 grs. of #2400 for 1420 f.p.s. For most rifles you can load bullets as-cast and unsized at .259-.260" lubed with 45-45-10 or Lee Liquid Alox.

Some years ago I got a quantity of Remington 85-gr. JSP .25-20 bullets. Firing expansion tests in water jugs confirmed my memories of factory .25-20 loads. At 1250 f.p.s. using 8 grs. of PB the soft points perforate without expansion and penetrate deeply. Bumping the velocity to 1330 f.p.s. using 9 grains of #2400 expanded them 0.30 caliber, with no appreciable weight loss.

I had the best luck forming cases from Winchester .30-30 brass. I used Imperial Sizing Die Wax and the die spacer which comes with RCBS .38/.357 dies to back off the FL sizer for the first pass. This decaps and partially forms the neck and shoulder, without finishing the case taper..

After pre-forming, case necks are gas annealed. Then you can full-length resize in a second die pass without buckling the shoulder. Cases then must be trimmed to length. Lee can provide a custom case length trim gage to use with their .30-30 cutter and lock stud. You won't need to ream case neck. As long as brass is formed in two stages with an inter-draw anneal between you don't lose any. If you try this with Remington or Federal brass you will wrinkle shoulders on half of the cases. Wrinkled shoulders will work once for hunting loads which you “Pop and Toss,” but will develop pin holes if you reload them repeatedly.

[woody1]

If you can access Castpics, there are some older Lyman Load books on there that have 25/35 data cast and jacketed.

[Bad Ass Wallace]

My 25/35 is built on a Martini Cadet frame with a 1:10 twist. Very accurate with powder coated 100gn RCBS cast boolit. It came with 200 Winchester cases and Hornady loading dies. A wonderful cartridge and well worth finding all the components to make it roar!

https://i.imgur.com/2tDJ9vFh.jpg

[Hickok]

Mike Venturino did an article about the Winchester model 94 in 25/35. The cast boolit he used was a RCBS 100 gr flat nose. The only way he could get it to cycle in the 1894 was to seat and crimp the boolit in the first LUBE groove. This made it the proper overall length for the rifle.

It he seated the RCBS boolit to the CRIMP groove, the loaded round was too short for the rifle.

This RCBS mold seems to be discontinued.

I would contact Tom at Accurate Molds and see if they can make a good mold for the 25/35. His molds are about the same price as Lyman and RCBS.

[dverna]

BAW,
That is a very nice gun you have there!!!

[square butte]

I don't think Tom at Accurate does .25 cal.- I wish he would go smaller than .28 cal.

[Hickok]

I don't think Tom at Accurate does .25 cal.- I wish he would go smaller than .28 cal.That's a bummer, as he makes good molds. There just aren't too many good molds for the 25/35 to choose from nowadays.

[gc45]

I would think cast bullets are availible stiil from bullets makers. I bought 1000 75gr bullets some years ago as I didn't want to mess with making small bullets; these boughten bullets are hard cast but shoot very well in my antique 25-35 Win at about 1800 fps and without very much leading plus easy to clean. Would like to get into coating my own bullets doing some of these little guys, maybe can raise the velo a little that way.

[semtav]

What are your mould options?
And what sort of powders do you have on hand? Are you planning on hunting or plinking? I have a large amount of load data for a variety of bullets for the 25-35 and would be happy to share them!

Sent from my Pixel 5 using TapatalkI'd be interested in some of them. I have 2 94s. Have a couple loads but went to look online for more and there wasn't much out there.

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[Duckiller]

What length barrel do you have? I am acquireing a 1899 Model 94 rifle with a 25" barrel. A heavy gun. Pick it up right after the first of the year when State Police say a 79 year old shooter can have a 122 year old gun that I am going to have all sorts of problems getting ammo. I believe I had two uncles that shot this caliber when they went hunting in the UP of Michigan a long time ago.

[beagle]

I made one on a Marlin 336 with a 1-10 twist Douglas barrel. Best moulds were the RCBS 25-100-FN and the Lyman 257312 worked well too. I sized at .259. You can make .25-35 cases from .25-35 FL dies if you're careful and form in several passes. Otherwise you get wrinkles which don't affect the shooting but look bad. Got a bunch of starting loads if you'll PM me your e-mail address I'll send a Excel spreadsheet as an attachment. Pleasand shooting little round for cast./beagle

[semtav]

Been over 10 years since I've played with them, but 3031 was my go to powder on the 30-30 style cases with cast bullets. ( 30-30, 25-35, and 219 zipper)

And 4198 was the go to powder with the 218 Bee and 25 -20.

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[OverMax]

I have a 25-35 (Lb) rifle from 1905. At a time in history when all brass was available I purchased a couple bags of Winchester brand. Never used that brass to date although I've shot the 1894 rifle at a outdoor range for accuracy than took it afield a couple times. 30wcf swagged to 25-35 >excellent results. First annealed than resized and trimmed to the 25 length. 30wcf brass seems to work well for such swagging purposes. Sometimes I even use my 25-35 brass to create 22 H.P. Savage brass. Its amusing how 30-30 brass is the parent to so many other cartridges. Some fellows think the 30wcf is on the cusp of being antiquated/ obsolete. Personally " I don't think so."

[DDriller]

https://www.wholesalehunter.com/Search/217 has brass available

[Wilderness]

If you have any, cases can be formed from 30-30 (30WCF) brass. A case forming die is expensive, but if you have access to a lot of 30-30 brass it is an option. 25-35 brass could probably be formed from 38-55 brass. The 38-55 is the parent case to :32-40, 32 Winchester Special, 30-30 and 25-35 . Besides being heresy to reform 38-55 brass it would most likely take multiple steps. Something like 38-55 to 30-30 to 25-35....but this is a slightly educated guess.

You may find that you can get by without the case forming die, just use the .25-35 FLS die, and certainly no harm in trying. I can tell you from experience that .38-55 form down to .30-30 in one (careful) pass, .30-30 converts to .32-40 likewise, and even .32-20 to .218 Bee. IMPORTANT - lube is anhydrous lanolin. An extra intermediate die always helps, e.g. run the .30-30s through a .32-40 die (without decap and expand stem) if you have one, to do the body taper before the necking operation. Run the case in a little way, pull it out and look at it, check the lube, repeat.

Expect to pick up .025" to .050" extra case length from the squeeze down.

[wwmartin]

If you make them from 38-55s, use the short 2.08 brass. It will cut down on the trimming. I used them to make 25-36 Marlin. I used a 30-30 die the a 25remington form die then the 25-26M.
I built a Remington rolling block in 25-35W to use the Winchester 25-35 brass I originally intended to use in the marlin. I've only used Hornaday 118gr in it to date for barrel break-in.
Good luck with your 25 caliber .

Bill

[kenton]

Hodgdon has load data on their website for a few different bullet weights, one of which is 90gr cast.
https://www.hodgdonreloading.com/reloading-data-center

Western Powders has some data as well.
https://accuratepowder.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/WPHandloading-Guide-7.0-Web-REV.pdf

[ascast]

Brass is readily available; start with Gunbroker - type in search ".25-35 brass". The best mold is Lyman/Ideal 257335, 119 grns, a round noise GC desinged very simlilar to the pld SIlver tip or Cor-Loct factory loads. No fear of primer detonation in the mag. RCBS makes a good mold of a 119 grn, GC FN POINTED. Its a good shooter BUT too pointed for my taste-load one in chamber and one in mag. Other wise watch for an old Ideal tool with the mold on it. You want 119 +/- for deer I think. I watched for about twenty years to find the right Lyman mold 257335. They are not common. I think one of the new mold makers make a RCBS copy that maybe could be modified to flatter nose.
good luck

[Texas by God]

I've been a .250 Savage fan since 1986 and a 25-06 fan since 2008. I would love to have a 25-35 single shot to go along with them.

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[JohnH]

Its amusing how 30-30 brass is the parent to so many other cartridges. Some fellows think the 30wcf is on the cusp of being antiquated/ obsolete. Personally " I don't think so."

Not to be a butt, 38-55 is the parent. And I do agree, the 30WCF is far from finished, I also think it's time has likely passed. The AR is definitely going to replace the 94/336 as the rifle of choice it if it has not already; the question is what cartridge is going to stand in it's place. The 30 H'AMR is the closest to being a true ballistic twin, I don't know if it suffers from being a proprietary like JD's 300 Whisper. But notice what happened when Advanced Armament Corp. took their spin on the concept to SAAMI and the 300 Blackout was blessed. Everybody began to offer it and at a club of about 1300 people, I find 300 BLK brass on the ground at least once a month even in these times of shortage, and that's been the case for 7 years now. I see so much 223, again, even in these times of shortage, I don't even bother to scarf it up anymore even though I use it to reload and to make 300 Blk from. In the mid 1980's when I started casting and reloading, it was common to find 30-30 and 30-06 brass with that kind of regularity. Now I rarely find them. I find 308 a good bit, I see 6.5 Creedmore about as often, and I see 6.5 Grendell more often than one would think.

People like us who grew up on the 30-30, and still use it for a gun to take our grandkids hunting with will always have, keep and cherish the cartridge and rifles which gave it life but there is a generation upon us that has eschewed the once venerable 30 WCF as antiquated and out of date. It will certainly always do the job as it always has but like the 38 Special and 45 Colt, I think it's time at the top has passed. It is not pleasant to admit that, doing so may well mean my time has passed. I think of the story of one of Henry Fords lawyers asking a banker if he thought investing in Ford Motor Company would be worth the risk. The banker relied that he thought the automobile was just a passing fad. The lawyer invested $5,000. Within 5 years he was a millionaire. "Other People's Money" is a movie worth watching as well. Danny Devito's character tells an interesting story about buggy whips. Ruger revolutionized the snub nose revolver with the LCR. I wonder how many more LCP's they sell, as I almost never see the LCR in the display case. Sometimes it sucks getting old.

[ulav8r]

I've been a .250 Savage fan since 1986 and a 25-06 fan since 2008. I would love to have a 25-35 single shot to go along with them.

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Why not a repeater on a small ring Mauser?

[390ish]

It was not cheap but I bought a really nice Ideal 257306 mould (115 grain gas check) off ebay this year and took a 6 pointer with one of the bullets this fall. I worked up a load using RL-7 on quick load. I will try to look at my notes tomorrow. Had to oven harden wheel weights when shooting full throttle but no leading. Such a great round.


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[Texas by God]

Why not a repeater on a small ring Mauser?You know that won't work......[emoji16]

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[cwtebay]

I've been a .250 Savage fan since 1986 and a 25-06 fan since 2008. I would love to have a 25-35 single shot to go along with them.

Sent from my SM-A716U using TapatalkI'm thinking an Italian 1885 (with a minor barrel change) would be amazing!!
I am with you on this project Texas by God. Especially with a deep throat and rifling changes for a longer ) heavier boolit!!

p.s. kinda jealous that I hadn't thought of that!!

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[Eddie Southgate]

Any of the older pre 1970 Lyman manual will have plenty of loads for 25-35 . Bullets and Brass has Hornady brass at about $47 per 50 . Says it is in stock now .

[Shawlerbrook]

Since we are talking the quarter bore now, I am holding a McGowen 250ai barrel for a donor Marlin 35 Remington. Just need the donor and a gunsmith to do the conversion.

[.45Cole]

If you do a little waiting you can buy 25-35 brass, I just got 100pcs new WW for a decent price by searching a little here and there. You might look at Pet Loads for a good load, Waters usually included cast boolits with his write-ups.


Not to be a butt, 38-55 is the parent...
Interestingly enough the Marlin cartridges are based on the 38-55 and the win cartridges are based on the 38-50. Beings nobody knows about the 38-50 I'd say that the 25-35 is based on the 30-30 (vs the earlier 25-36 marlin, based on the longer 38-55). You can see this by looking at the length of a 32-40 & 38-55 & 25-36 vs the length of a 25-35 & 30-30.

[woody1]

Any of the older pre 1970 Lyman manual will have plenty of loads for 25-35 . Bullets and Brass has Hornady brass at about $47 per 50 . Says it is in stock now .

Lyman 44 does not nor does 45. 45 is dated 1970.

[Red River Rick]

I found this in the Lyman/Ideal #39 Reloading manual. If you can't read it, let me know and I can forward you a larger image via email.
Hope this helps.

RRR

294025

[ulav8r]

If one had a small ring Mauser that would feed 30-30 and that also used a barrel nut, it just might also be possible it could be fitted with barrels in 25-35 and 38-55.

[Eddie Southgate]

Lyman 44 does not nor does 45. 45 is dated 1970.

Try page 53 of #40 and pages 71&72 of #41 . Never had a #44 but I know the #45 by heart and am aware it is not listed in it even in the back among the cartridges that they listed as obsolete and semi obsolete . Have not looked in the Cast Bullet Handbook but I would think at least the older versions would have some loads for 25-35 .

[35 Rem]

LoadData.com has a good bit of 25-35 load data.

[Good Cheer]

http://i.imgur.com/t1C9Z6M.jpg (https://imgur.com/t1C9Z6M)
25-35 is just flat made the way a cast boolit cartridge oughta be.
After tinkering with the cartridge for thirty years it's still entertaining.:drinks:
Had the NEI #257-114GC but now using these.
http://i.imgur.com/4MvEv1s.jpg (https://imgur.com/4MvEv1s)

[farmbif]

RCBS might just still be making the 85 or 87 grain cowboy and the 100 grain molds. I've looked into casting for my old winchester but after getting a few hundred Hornady 117 RN bullets and a case of seiller Bellot 6.5x52r ammo, ive got plenty for as often as I shoot that gun. its funny how that gun is 114 years old and its the smoothest operating winchester ive ever owned

[NorthMoccasin]

NOE makes 25 cal molds, watch ebay for older Lyman and RCBS molds. Forming brass from 30-30 is easy. an intermediate neck die say 270 or 7mm helps. Hornaday makes universal neck dies that work well. Neck down to 270 or 7mm, anneal, and then size in a 25/35 FL die. The Lyman 257418 (100gr or the 257420 (69gr) with 14-15 gr 5744 has been quite accurate. 7 to 8 gr Unique is also good. the 69gr is awesome on tree rats.

[gordie]

Hornady Handbook vol. #2 lists some data.

Hodgdon magazine 2011 has some data... for pistol.