I have been looking at this for a while , how common was this round in the 44 I know that the action is not a strong one .

In my opinion the .25-25 and .25-21 are not easy ones to find. The .25-21 seems to be much more common. Still see them on Gunbroker quite often. Best to stick with  black powder or black powder equivilant loads in the 44 action. The smaller calibers are a hoot to shoot espcially with black powder. The .22-15-60 I recently picked up has been a lot of fun. Just ordered some .228 60 grain flat nose bullets from the Bull Shop and 20 rounds of brass from RMC for it.

Quote:

Sources for 25-21 brass:
*Rocky Mountain Ctg: $55.00 - box of 20
*Roberson Ctg: $99.80 - box of 20
*Bertram: $149.00 - box of 20
*Buffalo Arms: $163.99 - box of loaded - Out of Stock
* Next is dies -$100 plus
I have CPA 44 1/2 - Stevens 25-21 and it is a fun caliber

I agree that the .25-20SS is much more common than the .25-21 Stevens. I see far more .25-20SS rifles in both 44 and 44 1/2 than than .25-21.
But either caliber is not too much for a 44 frame, unless somebody starts trying to hotrod this old caliber.

Allyn Tedmon wrote an article somewhere about 1930 advocating an "express" loading for the .25-20SS, at 1850 fps.  Even that calculates in QL to somewhere about 23,000 psi, which a 44 will stand for a reasonable period of time.  I used just such a load to exterminate woodchucks when I lived in Michigan, but in a 44 1/2.

John Boy wrote on Apr 6^th, 2019 at 6:58pm:


I wonder who wrote that entry.  Read it for a chuckle or two!

uscra112 wrote on Apr 7^th, 2019 at 12:18pm:


The magnum or 204 Ruger brass can work in a pinch. It ends up about .100” short. Not sure I would breach seat with it, but in fixed loads it work.

I use it in a rifle with an oversized diameter chamber, it allows me to keep stretch at the web to a minimum.

The other option is begging for 25-25 brass with split necks and cutting it down.

I apologize to the OP if this thread has veered off course somewhat, but I have/had considerable passion for this caliber.  I haven't tried the 223 brass as the donor yet but I will.

When I first got the Ballard in 25-21, the seller, not knowing any different told me it was an oddball 25-20 Win but he'd never shot it and he'd owned it for several decades... The price was right and after a chamber cast it was fairly easy to determine what I had.  I spent a little time looking for brass to no avail so I'd placed an order with RMCC - delivery was a few weeks.  I couldn't wait that long to shoot it so I wrote a program and made a few on one of my machines.  It was still a process because it was two setups, I didn't have a sub spindle machine yet.  I used 360 brass, and following about 4 loadings I had issues with separation and splitting- just my experience with turned brass. (my loads were in the high teens pressure-wise)  Annealing helped the splitting but separation is what it is.  I did make 5 cases using the Everlasting idea and with smokeless it reduced capacity or improved density, however you care to look at it.  The targets shot when I had time to experiment with these loads showed considerable promise, sub 1/2 MOA - for me, I'm pleased with that at a 100 yards.

Phil, I made tooling for nibbing or stretching brass in a lathe just because I had to see how it was done.  In the 45-70 case, growing it a 1/4" was a non-issue and case wall thinning was surprisingly minimal - to grow the case that much the wall thinned .001-.0015" if I remember it right.  The die was almost identical to the resizing die, and the actual nibbing tool I made from 1/4" diameter rod with a piece of carbide silver brazed on the end and polished to a high finish in spherical form.   There is a learning curve as to how much pressure is applied to the tool, the feed rate, lube and annealing.  Once I got it going, the process took about 20 minutes to do 50 and I still shoot these in a 45-90 - probably 25-30 reloads on them.  There is a how-to article somewhere and I know I have a copy of it - just haven't laid my eyes on it for a while.
Greg