Winchester .25-20

[dway87]

ok this weekend my girlfriend's grandpa wanted to sight in his .25-20. It's a Winchester model 1892 i believe. It's an old gun. Anyway he wanted to sight it in at 100 yds and it was shooting all over the place. We tried all day and and finally got it to shoot where he wanted it. I don't know much about the 25-20 so i was wondering if anyone could tell me what it is mostly used for. the bullet is small so im thinking it is more for varmits. but he wants to use it as a backup deer rifle because his .243 broke so while he is getting that fixed he wants to use the 25-20.

[longrifle1000]

Winchester currently has a load available, is this the one he is using?

http://www.winchester.com/products/catalog/cfrdetail.aspx?symbol=X25202&cart=MjUtMjAgV2lu Y2hlc3Rlcg==

It only manages 407 ft-lbs at the muzzle. I would say if shots are kept very short, it would probably work. Out at 100 yards it is down to 272 ft-lbs. Personally, I would suggest he finds another rifle to use. But that is my opinion. Others use the 22 hornet for deer, and it is pretty anemic as well, but has more energy at 100 yards than the 25-20 at the muzzle.

[dway87]

i am not sure what load he uses but it was a hollow point. they were old bullets. came in a small yellow box with super x on it though.

[alsaqr]

This is a long ago discontinued high velocity loading for the model 1885 Low Wall single shot and 1892 Winchester rifle. I knew folks long ago who killed lots of deer with the .25-20. Got to get a neck shot or a shot just behind the shoulder.

[DM]

I took a likeing to the 25/20 WCF a long long time ago, and in fact had a custom "K" frame S&W revolver built and chambered for this round...



You can also see in the pict. (left to right) a factory 25/20 WCF round. Acustom "swaged" (by me) 25 cal. "Keith" style SWC bullet handloaded round. Andlastly, a roundloaded with a pointed bullet, showing why i designed a SWC bullet just for this revolver...

Another trick i've done quite a bit of in the past, is to take a spent shotshell primer, take it apart and use it for a jacket to "swage" a nice 25 cal. bullet for this gun...

I've had a lot of fun shooting this S&W, and i've also harvested quite a bit of small game for my table with it too....

DM

[Pawildman]

Neat!!

[alsaqr]

That is a beautiful revolver.

[AZ Hunter]

As luck would have it, I was just given my great grandfather's Winchester Model 1892 25-20. I did some research and found that it was produced from 1892 through 1932 and based on the serial numbers, a little over a million of them were produced. The estimated last serial number produced was 1001324 in 1932 and serial numbers 1 - 23701 were produced in 1892.

I discovered that mine was produced sometime in early 1906. I was also given a Winchester X box of shells that contained 15 factory rounds. The nose is blunt due to the loading style of the rounds. You do not want a point nose resting on the primer of the next round in the magazine.

The thickoctagon barrel and small caliber round make the gun look like it would last forever and it is quite heavy.The lever action is still real smooth, but the firing pin does not always hold when itscocked. A little cleaning may resolve that issue.

I went by Sportsman's Warehouse and actually found some Winchester brass and they had one RCBS die set! I was totally amazed to see it on their shelves. I went to see if they had a box of factory rounds.

I also found some reloading information on some powder company web sites and some brass and loading measurement specs on some other sites. I am anxious to see how it shoots.

Would not hunt deer withsuch a lightround unless I planned to shoot them in the head from short range. Too much risk of just wounding and never finding a deer otherwise.

If anyone has any additional information on this caliber of gun, I would be real interested.

Thanks AZ Hunter

[UncleNorby]

It would be a good backup deer gun, if it was left back up at the house, back up on the rack. If any other ordinary deergun is available I'd use it first.

If I had a 25-20 and I wanted to take a deer with it for sentimental reasons or whatever, I would do it. ButI would severely limit the range and the kind of shots I took.

Ithink that the Jordan Buck, the record typical whitetail for quite a while,was taken with a 25-20. That deer took more than 1 bullet before it fell, and even after it was suspected dead it flopped enough to fall into a river. It was recovered some distance downstream.

[younggun308]

I had a friend who's dad had a .25-20 Winchester Model 92, and he said they treated it more as a collector's item, not a utility rifle, even though they would shoot it sometimes, but they never hunted with it.

I agree with longrifle1000, tell him to get another gun.