KAG
New member
Drum roll please......
This is too funny........Sharps and Federal have teamed up for a "New" offering. I guess the one I have on the way doesn't count. Oh well at least its in the wide open 25cal market and should make dies and load data more available. Any progress is good progress. The guys that turned me on to this cartridge and are actively shooting it are going to be in for a surprise to hear its new.
I was trying to convince some guys not very long ago that they should jump all over this cartridge..........
Copied from AR15.com
Announcing (with pictures) the Sharps 25-45
This is scheduled for full release at the Shot Show, but we wanted to give the folks on AR15.com a sneak peak.
We'll save load data and all that good stuff for after a show, but these are the first pieces of brass produced under the joint partnership between Federal Cartridge and The Sharps Rifle Company.
Basic specs:
-Fits Standard AR Bolt
-Fits in Standard 556 magazine (cants slightly due to wider neck, but feeds)
-Shoots flatter than the 556/223
-Heavier loads duplicate 30/30 150-170gr class energy levels
http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=3&f=121&t=522417
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=267891&id=164653802115
Statement from the Sharps Rep:
It is tricky little issue to work with putting a new round in a pre-existing magazine and it doesn't ride out in all mags, just depends on how large the neck bolster is in the magazine or in the case of several companies the trick was getting around the center divider rib that they put in the front inside of the magazine. Troy Industries magazine is a perfect sample. Brought some prototypes over to see if we cleared it and we did, just barely, but we did and it made us very aware that we have bullet ogive limitations we have to abide by. However if they've got that rib that runs along the neck of the cartridge right out to the maximum so it actually touches the 223/5.56 neck. There is no way to avoid some tilt from contact with the neck expanded to take the .257 bullet with a standard length case.
Fortunately, as SAAMI members this will be a standardized release so it should ease adoption and distribution, plus having a partnership on it with Federal is obviously a huge plus. That more rounded weatherby style shoulder is nice, but a real frustration to mass produce. Key for us was to make sure Federal could run it straight through their current 556 production equipment with only a few die station changes. Folks like yourselves and others all the way back to Blackwell and Wooters in the 60's have been tinkering with a case of about this size with bullet in the 25 Cal arena. After playing with it for a while here, we decided to go ahead and push it through the system so everyone could get to play. Like all production items, it has a few compromises, but much of what look like compromises are retained and designed benefits for manufacturing, functioning in the rifles long term, and total ballistic performance. One example is the only way to completely circumvent the neck bolster issue entirely is to pull the case neck back pass the bolster so that the bullet contacts it directly, which since it is 0.257 and the neck on the 556 is 0.253 makes a perfect fit, however that singificantly shortens the case, levels a lot of bullet exposed and riding on the bullet leads to misallignment if its carried and banged around at all or even some variance could be seen by the bottom of the magazine if from the bench. So we played with the shoulder, neck positioning, etc., but just couldn't find a more consistent and reliable lay out that fit the widest array of currently available equipment in use by the shooters in the market place and delivered better performance.
We did tinker with the name too, 25-223 was on the list, but as that's been around for a bit and there are wildcat chambers marked that we rejected it. We finally went with the 25-45 Sharps as it was a tribute to the 5.56x45mm, plus our own name sake tradition of 40-70, 45-110 style naming convention, also its partner in process for release is the 50-70 Sharps Auto, so it made a good match for us. By no means was it an easy call, but it was the one that seemed to avoid the most confusion and in the end was the most Sharps.
This is too funny........Sharps and Federal have teamed up for a "New" offering. I guess the one I have on the way doesn't count. Oh well at least its in the wide open 25cal market and should make dies and load data more available. Any progress is good progress. The guys that turned me on to this cartridge and are actively shooting it are going to be in for a surprise to hear its new.
I was trying to convince some guys not very long ago that they should jump all over this cartridge..........
Copied from AR15.com
Announcing (with pictures) the Sharps 25-45
This is scheduled for full release at the Shot Show, but we wanted to give the folks on AR15.com a sneak peak.
We'll save load data and all that good stuff for after a show, but these are the first pieces of brass produced under the joint partnership between Federal Cartridge and The Sharps Rifle Company.
Basic specs:
-Fits Standard AR Bolt
-Fits in Standard 556 magazine (cants slightly due to wider neck, but feeds)
-Shoots flatter than the 556/223
-Heavier loads duplicate 30/30 150-170gr class energy levels
http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=3&f=121&t=522417
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=267891&id=164653802115
Statement from the Sharps Rep:
It is tricky little issue to work with putting a new round in a pre-existing magazine and it doesn't ride out in all mags, just depends on how large the neck bolster is in the magazine or in the case of several companies the trick was getting around the center divider rib that they put in the front inside of the magazine. Troy Industries magazine is a perfect sample. Brought some prototypes over to see if we cleared it and we did, just barely, but we did and it made us very aware that we have bullet ogive limitations we have to abide by. However if they've got that rib that runs along the neck of the cartridge right out to the maximum so it actually touches the 223/5.56 neck. There is no way to avoid some tilt from contact with the neck expanded to take the .257 bullet with a standard length case.
Fortunately, as SAAMI members this will be a standardized release so it should ease adoption and distribution, plus having a partnership on it with Federal is obviously a huge plus. That more rounded weatherby style shoulder is nice, but a real frustration to mass produce. Key for us was to make sure Federal could run it straight through their current 556 production equipment with only a few die station changes. Folks like yourselves and others all the way back to Blackwell and Wooters in the 60's have been tinkering with a case of about this size with bullet in the 25 Cal arena. After playing with it for a while here, we decided to go ahead and push it through the system so everyone could get to play. Like all production items, it has a few compromises, but much of what look like compromises are retained and designed benefits for manufacturing, functioning in the rifles long term, and total ballistic performance. One example is the only way to completely circumvent the neck bolster issue entirely is to pull the case neck back pass the bolster so that the bullet contacts it directly, which since it is 0.257 and the neck on the 556 is 0.253 makes a perfect fit, however that singificantly shortens the case, levels a lot of bullet exposed and riding on the bullet leads to misallignment if its carried and banged around at all or even some variance could be seen by the bottom of the magazine if from the bench. So we played with the shoulder, neck positioning, etc., but just couldn't find a more consistent and reliable lay out that fit the widest array of currently available equipment in use by the shooters in the market place and delivered better performance.
We did tinker with the name too, 25-223 was on the list, but as that's been around for a bit and there are wildcat chambers marked that we rejected it. We finally went with the 25-45 Sharps as it was a tribute to the 5.56x45mm, plus our own name sake tradition of 40-70, 45-110 style naming convention, also its partner in process for release is the 50-70 Sharps Auto, so it made a good match for us. By no means was it an easy call, but it was the one that seemed to avoid the most confusion and in the end was the most Sharps.
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