Hey all! Merry Almost Christmas!

Recently I've become interested in mild little cartridges such as the .25-20 WCF for plinking, small game, and occasional varmint use. I know little about them, I've Googled up a few good web pages but that's about it.

I have the impression that favorite handload types are an 86 grain cast FP at pretty slow speed for edible small game and paper punching, and 60 or 75 grain jacketed HPs at higher velocity for varmints.

Sounds great, but I know there's likely to be accuracy problems when switching between yellow and gray bullets. I'm always leery of scrubbing the snot out of rifle bores, but it doesn't seem practical to blow through 100 or more rounds just to wipe the bore.

Aside from having a Contender or Encore with one barrel for jacketed and another barrel for cast, what could be done to improve switching between cast loads and jacketed?

stick to something closer to 70 grs when using cast in the 25-20 many of them don't have a twist rate favorable to the heavier boolits.
if you are going to swap back and forth i'd shoot the cast loads first.
lead will grab onto copper fouling much easier than copper will grab onto lube left behind from the lead.
once you find a good lead load that shoots in the 1400+ range you'll not be shooting any copper in the gun anyway so why worry about it.
i use a rapine 72 gr plain base flat point in both my model 92 carbine and rifle i haven't shot any jaxketed rounds since.
the little 25-20 will knock over the rams at 100 yds in levergun silhouette matches, and take small game easly enough with that same boolit.
so why pay 20 dollars for 100 bullets when i can make all i want?
having said that, the hornady 60 gr flat point is a good choice for under 100 yd use.
it's most excellent of stuff like geese and turkeys and will take a yote easy nuff.
so will my cast boolits.

I don't know why you are "leery" of cleaning a rifle barrel. Lead is no more difficult to remove than guilding metal - unless the load is so bad that it leads terribly. Both bullet types leave deposits behind that interfere with accuracy, but a proper cast load will clean up enough with a few passes of a tight bronze brush. Fire a couple jacketed bullets afterwards if it will make you more comfortable, but 100?



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I have a little martini cadet in 25-20. I still have to put some play time into cast bullets, but have a good supply of 60 grn horn and they shot soooo good I cant stop shooting them. The 60 grn should'nt be used on anything edible though, as they make a mess going 2200 fps.

I've fired a couple thousand cast bullets out of my old M94 Marlin 25-20 and never felt the need for Jacketed bullets. I used Lymans 257420
gc bullet for several years over 13 gr. 4198 for a chronographed 2050 fps out of my 24" barrel(Lyman 45th addition manual). No leading at all but a bit destructive of small game on anything but head shots.
The last few years I've gone to a custom 6 cavity mold that casts 80 gr. gas checked bullets that are a bit more accurate in this rifle. What small game I've used it on didn't show the quite the damage as the lighter bullet.
Haven't been shooting the old timer much the last few years, need to get it out and change that.