Thread: Making 25 rimfire reloadable brass

I got a very nice Winchester 1885 25 RF recently.
Circa 1910
Very good condition mechanically and an excellent bore

Original idea was chamber 25-20 and convert to center Fire.
But it's so original I decided to try making my own rimfire brass !

First job was to test fire with vintage black powder 25 RF ammo



Then plan it out the case to take acorn caps as RF primers



Check the RF firing pin



Make a case from 22 hornet brass



Test it for firing pin strike

So now I want to go live fire
Parted off 3x 120 grain 257 bullets to around 60 grains



Sit them on 2.0 grains of trailboss
First shot low and sub sonic
Correct rear tang sight
Next 2 shots in the bull at 35m



So proof of concept with 3 or 4 cases made.
Turn out 25 serviceable cases

So today a bag of bullets arrive courtesy of a kind forum member
67 grain Lyman
75 grain NOE
85 grain

Straight to the workshop
67 grains over 2.5 grains of trailboss
First 3 shots 12mm at 40m
And supersonic





Try the same powder under the 75 grainers and much more open groups

So back to the 67 grainers and sub 20mm 40m groups all the time

Reloaded the 3 cases 5 times with one case split but no drama

Put together 5 rounds to go for a late afternoon hunt
Shot this hare at 45m



Straight through the top of the heart and what a lot of damage



So this evening I have done myself 10 rounds



But I have to ease up as I'm already short of 67 grain bullets

But the good news is a good friend has brought me a Lyman 67 grain 257 bullet mould and I expect it will be the same model as the one that made these bullets

So if anyone wants to get a vintage 25 RF shooting good clean safe new RF ammo I can show them how to do it

BUT it is not easy to make the brass
And I have spent a stupid amount of time on these tiny little rounds

And it was still worth it to have a very collectable rifle that I can shoot as an every day carry !

Hi great job in making food for the ole girl
i am building a 25 acp single shot and wish to know how to change the 22 hornet brass to 25 acp
or find some empty 25 acp brass .
Have you thought of using 25 cal air gun slugs 25cal x 44 grains RN solid lead they can be bought from from Amerzon
Cheers AR7

Originally Posted by AR7

Hi great job in making food for the ole girl
i am building a 25 acp single shot and wish to know how to change the 22 hornet brass to 25 acp
or find some empty 25 acp brass .
Have you thought of using 25 cal air gun slugs 25cal x 44 grains RN solid lead they can be bought from from Amerzon
Cheers AR7

@AR7 Making 22 hornet brass to 25 hornet is really easy.

But then I used a 25 ACP carbide sizer die to take the body taper down to the 25 RF diameter. This only partly works because the sizer doesn't go to the rim of the case due to the thickness of the shell holder

I have some 36 grain cast airgun pallets coming from within NZ. But I realistically expect them to be undersized because 25 air rifles seem to run about a .254" groove.
But you never know.

Well if I were doing a single shot rifle like you mentioned I would be using a case with a rim. The 25 ACP is going to be very tricky to make a rimless extractor for.
The 25 hornet or a wildcat based on Hornet brass that doesn't need a huge amount of modification would be nice.

The up side of a single shot rifle is once you have made 100 cases you are unlikely to loose them as you would with a repeater

@AR7 Thinking about your project I think if it was me doing that single shot I would run with the 25 ACP chamber and leave the 22 Hornet case rim on it.
Cut the chamber
Cut the rim rebate for head spacing rather than the mouth of the ACP case
Better brass with less removed
Better extraction
Way easier extractor to build and 100% reliable
With the limited capacity of the 25 ACP chmber these would be everlasting cases

Excellent work and clever thinking! Over the years I have seen and been offered several of these rifles, but never bothered to take it any further cos ammo was almost impossible to obtain. Then if you did find a box of genuine rimfire ammo, you needed to find another box as soon as you shot them all off. Cool wee rifles.

great work!

Originally Posted by Husky1600#2

Excellent work and clever thinking! Over the years I have seen and been offered several of these rifles, but never bothered to take it any further cos ammo was almost impossible to obtain. Then if you did find a box of genuine rimfire ammo, you needed to find another box as soon as you shot them all off. Cool wee rifles.

And the older ammo was black powder.
That's what I tested in this for function and it was seriously filthy and hard to clean the bore

Which makes it amazing how good the bore is on this one

well done and good thinking mate
i think your vintage 22lr's have just become redundant.

Originally Posted by rambo-6mmrem

well done and good thinking mate
i think your vintage 22lr's have just become redundant.

You just want to buy them !

Originally Posted by akaroa1

You just want to buy them !

Actually not really interested in 22’s these days Tbh
If a good 25rf pops id possibly be twisted into another rimfire
But the smallest caliber I own now is 6.5 Grendel