Pee Wee #15785 Posted December 30, 2020 Share Posted December 30, 2020 Anyone shooting .25-20? Looking for info on black powder loading and will it produce enough smoke. I have an old Marlin chambered in .25-20 and would like to use with my .36 Colt Navies. The .25-20 was a black powder varmint round, it was used more for yotes and smaller animals with some deer and humans in the mix. Shooting smokeless with both Pb RNFP or JHP it shoots much better than the .17. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cemetery Posted December 30, 2020 Share Posted December 30, 2020 7 minutes ago, Pee Wee #15785 said: Anyone shooting .25-20? Looking for info on black powder loading and will it produce enough smoke. I have an old Marlin chambered in .25-20 and would like to use with my .36 Colt Navies. The .25-20 was a black powder varmint round, it was used more for yotes and smaller animals with some deer and humans in the mix. Shooting smokeless with both Pb RNFP or JHP it shoots much better than the .17. I tried shooting my 25.20 with real black, used Swiss 3F and Old Ensford 3F, smoke is similar to or less than a .38 spl. Ended up using APP 3F, more smoke, and didn't foul out like it did with real black. Losing brass at matches is a heartbreaker though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warden Callaway Posted December 30, 2020 Share Posted December 30, 2020 I shot this Marlin 1894 in the first match. Smokeless powder. Casted bullets and loaded with old loading tool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pee Wee #15785 Posted December 30, 2020 Author Share Posted December 30, 2020 Warden that is a picture of mine. Cemetery how much powder did you use. .25-20 Info I have a Model 1894 that was made in 1907 or shortly thereafter. The special-order 26" barrel is 2" longer than the standard 24" for this model. The special-order sights look like Beach and/or King's but could also be other brands. A nice set-up for bunnies and other small game. The folding front sight has an ivory bead, it probably is a Lyman #5 and not a Beach. The tang sight with locking lever is a Lyman #2A. The rear barrel sight is either a Lyman #6 (should have a white diamond, not a line) but has a white line, it may be a Winchester Express sight. Marlin offered Lyman sights through their catalogs so I would tend to think most of the sights, if original to the gun are Lyman sights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Boy Posted December 31, 2020 Share Posted December 31, 2020 Pee Wee ... simple powder charge determination... Stevens 25-20 caliber: ....25=caliber and 20=Grains powder charge and the grade would be FFFg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evil dogooder Posted December 31, 2020 Share Posted December 31, 2020 Pee wee when the 25-20 came out it was labeled and advertised as the ideal deer rifle. It works very well for one as long as you don't shoot the deer in the butt and expect it to die. 25 20 and 50 70 are the only 2 bp rounds I load. Subs will give you more smoke, just remember smoke is subjective. It all depends on weather conditions. Ive shot matches with trail boss and had more smoke than bp shooters that were deemed acceptable Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pee Wee #15785 Posted December 31, 2020 Author Share Posted December 31, 2020 I started shooting SASS when they set aside the 2000 numbers for LIFE. Didn't join till 1998 as it was a vacation trip to find a club shooting east of the Mississippi at first. Started shooting black in the fifth grade (I am now 75) on a neighbors grandpa's 1860 Colt carried during the states rights conflict. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Three Foot Johnson Posted December 31, 2020 Share Posted December 31, 2020 I bought a Marlin in March for a decent price, and have shot it in several matches. I've got a few properly marked .25-20 cases, but most are made from .32-20's. I know folks who say they just run 'em up into a .25-20 die and never lose any... I have to call Bu****it on that one, as I was losing about 15% with that method, even annealing them, so I bought a couple sizer dies from eBay and neck 'em down in two steps, then a final size in the .25-20 dies - 280 Remington and .257 Roberts, I think. It takes more time than necessary to explain why you can't just cut these down, but you run out of threads, so I push the shell into the neck portion of the die with the extended shell holder rod from a Redding .40 S&W push through die, then pop it back out with a 1/4" bolt with the palm of my hand. If there is any defect in the mouth, either clean it up with a trimmer or use it as a .32-20, because that's where it will fold over. It takes a little time to run each case through 4 separate dies to size 'em, but I haven't lost a single one since I started doing it this way. (.32-20, .280, .257, .25-20) After sizing the neck down, bell & load just like anything else. I'm loading 3.6 grains of Unique and an 85 grain flat point from Missouri Bullets. Did you know the 2nd largest typical whitetail in the Boone & Crockett book was taken in 1914 with a .25-20? It was number one for nearly 80 years until a larger one was taken in Saskatchewan in 1993 by Milo Hanson. An even larger one was taken in Wisconsin in 2006, but a bullet hit one of the main beams down low and it broke off. Even though the broken side was recovered, it was of course disqualified for Boone & Crockett scoring, leaving the James Jordan buck of 1914 as still the largest officially scored typical whitetail ever taken in the United States. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cemetery Posted December 31, 2020 Share Posted December 31, 2020 16 hours ago, Pee Wee #15785 said: Cemetery how much powder did you use. 17 grainsish. Loaded up to the bottleneck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pee Wee #15785 Posted December 31, 2020 Author Share Posted December 31, 2020 Three Foot Johnson Back in the late 90's a local reloading shop was going out of business and I ended up buying 1000 Winchester brass and still have 300 in unopened packs of 50. Your information I will pass on to a friend that loves the .25-20 and was telling me he needed to find some brass or make it, hinting I should let him have 50 of mine. I have 2 Marlins in .25-20 the old one and one that is a 94CL NRA Ducks Unlimited Commemorative that I exchanged half mag tube to a full mag tube on, and several kids has used for SASS over the years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adolph Vancinghand, SASS #28923 Posted December 31, 2020 Share Posted December 31, 2020 18 hours ago, Pee Wee #15785 said: Anyone shooting .25-20? Looking for info on black powder loading and will it produce enough smoke. I have an old Marlin chambered in .25-20 and would like to use with my .36 Colt Navies. The .25-20 was a black powder varmint round, it was used more for yotes and smaller animals with some deer and humans in the mix. Shooting smokeless with both Pb RNFP or JHP it shoots much better than the .17. Pee Wee, like you I'm a big fan of the tiny .25-20...but I stick with smokeless for this one! My 1892 is a 1912 vintage piece that my father had Winchester re-barrel to .218 Bee back in the '50s. He used it for both deer and (primarily) turkey and I used it to take my first whitetail. I kept it around for close to twenty years after Daddy passed, and then decided to do something special with it in his memory. Gunsmith Robert Shuck fitted a new .25-20 barrel and magazine tube and stocked it with a gorgeous piece of walnut. Before final assembly, he sent the action, lever and butt plate to Turnbull for their color case hardening magic. It's a shooter with factory 86 grain JSP Remington ammo and not bad with 86 grain lead RNFP loads, but it really shines when I load it with the Hornady 60 grain jacketed slug. I haven't taken a coyote with it yet, but that day's a-comin'! "Ad" Vancinghand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pee Wee #15785 Posted January 1, 2021 Author Share Posted January 1, 2021 that is some good looking wood Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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