Is 25-20 adequate for pistol caliber silhouettes?

[stubbicatt]

Hey all: I'm looking at a 1900s Marlin lever rifle in caliber 25-20. I would intend to shoot cast boolits in it. Does anybody know if this boolit will carry enough steam to take down the ½ size targets to 100 yards?

Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Stubb

[Nobade]

Most certainly. Loaded to over 1200 or so FPS it has plenty of hit. A fellow we shoot with has one, uses very light loads in it, and never has failed to take a target he hit.

-Nobade

[Baja_Traveler]

A lot of the guys I shoot silhouette with use the 25-20 - I'd like to also, but I haven't found one I can afford yet so I'm sticking with my 32-20 in the mean time...

[Irascible]

Great gun/caliber for silhouettes. I started with the RCBS 25-85-CM then switched to the NOE 260283 FN for a little (not much) flatter trajectory. Both bullets are plain base and lubed with Ben's LL and shot over 6.4gr of 2400 with a small pistol primer. Very accurate and a killer on all the Pistol caliber (1/2 size) silhouettes Recoil is like a 22 mag rifle.
You can also use the Ranch Dog bullet if you can find one.
PS - From my testing, all these molds seem to be more accurate lubed with Ben's LL rather then with BAC or Bee wax/Alox lube. At least at the velocity I am using them which is under 1400fps

[stubbicatt]

Thanks fellas. I'll keep all this in mind.

I guess one buys starline brass, and simply runs it through a 25-20 die to get suitable cases?

[runfiverun]

right now yeah.
I was buying win and Remington not too long ago.
but I'm fine buying star-line brass for anything I own.
the 32-20 has a slightly thinner rim than the 25-20 brass does [found this out making rimmed cases for my 30 carbine revolver] so it works one way but not the other.

[Irascible]

try Huntington's for brass, also I heard that Ballistic products had brass. I think that I read that the Starline needed annealing first.
Also, you should go over to the Marlin forum. There is a 120 page thread called 25-20 reloaders which is just chuck full of good info.