25-30 Waters or .25/30-30 Improved?

Blaze

New member
Does anyone know of or if it's possible to neck down the 7-30 waters to quarter bore or neck up the 6mm/30-30 Improved to .25/30-30 Improved?

I've got too much time on my hands and I am just bouncing ideas around in my head. Thought it might be interesting out of an Encore if it exists?

Blaze
 
Quite easy process actually. If it were me I would use new 30-30 brass and go down to .25. 7-30 Waters brass is more expensive and more difficult to find.
I make up 6mm 30-30 Imp brass all the time and I have a pretty standard procedure for doing that. Start by running 30-30 brass thru 7-30 size die. Then I made up my own form die for the neck to get down to 6mm....same could be done to .25 cal....make up fire form loads and go for it.
If you go to the Bullberry website and look thru the chambering possiblities you will find that Fred has a 25 Bullberry and a .25 Bullberry Imp. (identical to 25 30-30 Imp.) listed. He also has loading data...check it out.

To be quite honest if it were me and I were doing an Encore....I would go 25-06. But I don't have 'too much time' lol.
 
It sounds like your reinventing the 25-35 WIN. or maybe a 25-35 impoved. I shoot a Sav. 99 in 25-35 WIN and it's a great little coyote gun.

AWS
 
Similar to the 25-35 but in a break action gun it is desirable to have minimum body taper and sharp shoulder angle. This reduces back thrust and promotes case life.

25-35 has long body taper and little shoulder angle...while they would work well it is not ideal. You will have 8-10% increase in case capacity in a 25 30-30 Imp. maybe slightly more.

Kind of depends on how much trouble you want to go to in order to make up cases. In an improved .25 it is concievable that cases could last 20 or more loadings.
 
AWS, skb2706,
I was looking at the .25-35 Winchester but liked the minimal body taper and shoulder angle of the improved loads. How accurate is the data published at the Bullberry site compared to your own experience? I don't need or want all of the case capacity of a .25-06 if I was looking for a standard rifle chambering I'd probably look at the .250 Savage or .257 Roberts. I don't mind making cases and I like taking the road a little less traveled.

Blaze
 
It also sounds to me that you are reinventing the 25-35, a cartridge that became obsolete because there is nothing the 30-30 does'nt do better. It sounds like a lot of work to come up with a mediocre cartridge. However, I too have been bitten by the "tinkering bug" more than once.--2MG
 
2much

That was a mean thing to say about a fine old cartridge. It does make a nicer fur harvesting gun than the 30-30. It must have had some merit, it was quite popular for european single shot stalking rifles and drillings.

I bought my 25-35 to have an old time coyote gun, some times it's fun to leave the scoped guns and camo home and slip into the buckskins and moccasins and grab a light muzzleloader or old lever gun and roam around the hills.

As far as how it compares to the Bulberry data I have no idea. I worked up a mild load (3031 and 117gr RN) that the 26" octagon barrel and Marbles tang sight seem to like. When my eyes are up to it, it will shoot groups just over an inch.

AWS
 
The information on the Bullberry site was nearly exact to what I got with my 6mm 30-30 AI (aka 6mm Bullberry Imp.). It is very conservative and I have worked up a bit from what Fred did. I get about 3400 fps with 58 gr. Vmaxs. I would expect that you would get nearly identical data with a .25 cal.

I originally started the 6mm project as a way to pass those cold winter days.....besides it keeps me out of the bar..lol. Making cases from scratch is tedious but once done they last a long time. They require multiple sizings, trimming, annealing, neck turning and fire forming. Once you have successfully completed a batch of cases you will have learned more about the process of handloading than you may have ever wanted to know.
 
Ackley"s Handbook for Handloaders contains the info you're looking for. 25-35 AI is a real hotrod in weak actions. I shoot a 257 JDJ in my Contender which comes close to the specs in Parkers book. I also shoot a 25-40AI which pretty much duplicates 25-06 velocities in my Contender (87 gr. Sierra at 3400) Your Encore would probably do better.
 
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