25 Stevens now goes bang

[northwoodneil]

Just got lucky and the fact that they haven't made ammo for it in 80 years helps. I ordered a bullet mold for it after spending a couple hours facing off my 86 grain bullets down to 65 grain bullets. I've got 20 made and had enough of that. I'm cheap but not that cheap.

[northwoodneil]

This old Stevens has a round firing pin tip. I'm thinking of making a new one with a chisel tip to hit a bit more of the rim. My test case (just thinned on the Lathe to chamber) fired 5 for 5 but it's not leaving much of a mark. I'm sure it will look deeper when I actually get some powder and a bullet ahead of the acorn blank. Resizing die and chucking reamer show up this week then I can start forming brass in ernest.

[uscra112]

Again I ask: reformed Hornet cases? Are you boring them on-center?

I've done chisel tips in guns that didn't have enough ooomph behind the hammer. Stevens used a rather large round tip, so that the same breechblock (and thus pin location) would catch all three rimfire sizes, .22/.25/.32. The pin impression is thus larger than it needs to be.

The Bullshop has a good 65 grain mould, if you prefer. A couple of years ago you couldn't buy one, so I ordered a few hundred from him. He custom casts, so I specified the alloy and had him send them as-cast so I could size and lube myself.

[northwoodneil]

Yes, reformed 22 hornet. I bored my test case, to see if the firing pin would work, straight on. I plan on resizing the cases with a 25 ACP die and just trimming off the ridge left straight on. This won't be a problem for that last 1/4 inch will it? I know my test case is thin above the rim. I can feel it give by squeezing it. By resizing and moving the metal in, then trimming the belt above the head I should be able to retain the most metal possible in my mind. This is one of the most drastic case reforms I've done, and others were with much larger cases like 30-30 45-70 ect.

[uscra112]

Cram that case as far into the 25ACP as you can with the strongest press you have. Stopping 1/4 from the rim will probably leave you with an extremely thin ring after you turn off the "bulge".

Don't have a Hornet example, but here's a .223 case swaged down to .25-20SS. Do section a case so you are sure.

[northwoodneil]

Success! I started with 90 hornet cases and ended up with 83. Once I figured out a routine I could turn out a 25 Stevens case in about 5 minutes. What was the most time consuming was changing out bits to make the primer pocket. My Lyman mold showed up (#257420) which is a gas check bullet. With 30-1 alloy it drops at 75 grains. If I can't get it to shoot with the heavier bullet I'll machine off the gas check which should bring it down to 65 grains. Right now the gas check it pretty handy for getting that little bitty bullet started in the really thin case mouth. You don't want to rush loading these, if you hook the case mouth on a die it's crushed (2 of the 7 I lost). I'll get around to putting it on paper to see what this old Stevens will do but for now I know it will ring my 10" gong at 50 yards 8 out of 10 times with iron sights and old eyes. Thanks for the help. Neil

[ndnchf]

Well done! I have 2 of them and enjoy shooting them both.

[uscra112]

Good show!

[northwoodneil]

ndnchf, thank you for your you-tube videos. It took me awhile to decipher your cast boolits user name and connect it with you.

[ndnchf]

Glad you got it figured out. I really like the .25s. I have rifles in .25 Stevens, .25 Stevens centerfire, .25-20 and .25-25. All are great fun

[Rockindaddy]

I was given a couple of coffee cans full of 25 cal nail gun loads on plastic strips. They just fit in my old 25 rim fire Stevens rifle. I use a 25 cal H&N 31gr pellet in my Beeman Super 12 PCP rifle. The nail gun cartridge really drives the little lead pellet. Wonder how they would work in a 25 caliber rim fire revolver??

[dtknowles]

Don't think there are many 25 rf revolvers.

Tim

[uscra112]

Only the mildest nailgun loads are really safe in the old boys' rifles, even the strong ones like the 1915 Favorite and the Remington #4. Although that tiny airgun pellet will keep pressure down. Don't use anything heavier.