Allright so I finally got an old model 8 in 25 remington put back together. Broken firing pin had it out of commission for years. I found some old western brass that looked to be in good condition that I loaded with 26 grains of IMR4895, CCI200 and 100 Gr Remington PSP. Long story short I shot twice and both of the cases split towards the base about a 1/4" above the casehead. I guess my first question would be-is 26 grains to much powder? I found conflicting load data for this round and thought that 26 grains was a safe load for the cartridge/bullet combination. The primers are intact and do not show excessive flattening. Old weak brass? Ideas? I have some new production 25 remington made by Jamison that I will try as soon as I get a few replies here. Thanks in advance!

I have an old Lyman manual that shows loads for the 25 Rem. and the 25-35 Win. The load data is interchangeable. Use load data for the 25-35 and you should be OK. For a 100 jacketed bullet Hodgdon shows 25.0-28.0grs of H4895, so your 26.0 of IMR isn't that far out of line. I'd say the brass you used has seen better days.

Thanks craigster! The brass was my first thought as well but it looked so good. Perhaps it is just frail from age. They quit making ammo for 25 Rem in 1950 so I figure the brass is at least 60 years old. I will try the same load in the new Jamison Brass that I have and see what happens. It should have been more depressing than it was but I was just happy to have the primer detonate after the whole firing pin drama. It was a goose chase to say the least finding a proper pin and getting it put back together. These guns are very cool and I recommend trying one out if you find one. I also have a 30 Remington in the model 8. Nice thing is that they feed from a box magazine so you can load spitzers. Found some stripper clips for them too which I guess are fairly rare!

You're welcome. Although I've never had one, I've always liked the Rem 8's and 81's. Also the 14's and 141's. They do have that "cool factor" going for them.

.30 Remington brass is available as newly-produced brass from Remington (however, it is produced on an irregular basis and may not be available at any given time). I bought 100 rounds of new .30 Rem brass quite a number of years ago for my .25 Rem (Model 14 pump). Just run them through the .25 Rem FL sizer, check the length, and chamfer the mouths. I don't think I lost a single case. My load is 29 grains of IMR 3031 behind a 90 grain Sierra HP. H4895 would be an excellent choice, also.

Stonecreek, thanks for the lead on the RP 30 Rem brass but I found a 100 of those cases at a gun shop around 2 years ago. I like to have proper headstamps on my cartridges so I looked for ever for some 25 Remington brass. Found it on Midways website for a good closeout price. It is stamped Jamison and 25 Rem. Does anyone have expierence with this brass?

I'm using Jamison brass in my old 303 Savage, haven't had any negative issues.

I don't have a 25cal Model 8 anymore but did more than a few years ago.
I used 25gr IMR 4895 IIRC in my loads w/100gr jacketed bullet IIRC. I made brass from 30-30 brass at the time. Turning off the rim and cutting a new extractor groove. They come out a bit shorter than the real stuff but work just fine.

I have 2 Model 8's in 30Rem now and a supply of SuperX brass from some 60's ammo that came with one of them and it loads up just fine.
I use a minimum load of 30gr IMR4895 and 150gr (30-30) bullets. It works the action fine and the paper targets never get away. I've come into some 110gr JHP bullets and will try some reloads with those this spring too.

Watch the brass OAL and trim if necessary. That may have been the problem with the old 25Rem brass you have.

May have been used in a pump and not necessarily the semiauto.
The pump actions seem to stretch the brass a little more than the autos.
The brass from both usually get FL resized in reloading so it gets quite a workout very quickly.
Sounds like it may have been fired more than a few times and stretched out too far.

Never used Jamison brass, so I can't offer any opinions on it for you.

Fun rifles for sure. Congrats on getting it back in order and shooting again.