Yesterday I iced a big doe with my Contender Carbine in .25/35 Win. I shot a coyote with it last year but this was its first deer. I used the Winchester factory load and the doe ran about 50 yards before cashing it in. Seemed to work about as well as anything else with complete penetration on a slight quartering shot and plenty of blood to follow. I've also got a model 94 Trails End in the same caliber that I'll try to break in soon. Anybody else do much deer hunting with this Golden Oldie?

I have not done much deer hunting with the 25-35 but have shot one deer with it. A big doe at about 50-75 yards while she was quartering away. I fired one shot from a Win 94 carbine which entered her left rear quarter which penetrated up into her right front quarter where the bullet fomed into the perfect mushroom. As a matter of fact I was using Remington 117 Corelokt SP bullets which are no longer factory loaded. That particular rifle came from a family friend who shot "a pile of deer" with it as he stated. He and his brother bought it and another one brand new in the 1940's. The brother moved to Washington State where he not only shot deer with it but bear and elk as well. Cool round!

Which reminds me, I've been meaning to take my wife's Grandfather's Model 14 Remington in .25 Rem out for a deer. The .25 Remington has been called a "rimless .25-35", although that's not quite true as the cases have a very slightly different shoulder shape, but ballistically they're twins. A lot of hunters today think it takes a minimum of a .300 magnum to kill deer, but the "old timers" in the early part of the last century -- who had a lot fewer deer to hunt -- seemed to drop them with regularity with much less powerful guns.

By the way, the .25 Remington (and .30 & .32 Rem) live on today: The 6.8 Rem uses the same case slightly shortened.

I remember going deer hunting with my dad as a teenager along with another dad and his son, with the other kid using an ancient 25-35. I looked at that case and wondered if it would be effective on deer. Later in the day that kid shot two does (we were in a two deer area) with that rifle at around 75-100 and both went down immediately. The rifle was all patina and could have been a 94 or 92?

I used it as a youth on my "section" west of Eugene, from a M94 octogon barreled carbine.
I have another, in the "trails-end carbine" iteration now, but have not yet used it again on game or pests.

I consider it a very good "round the farm round" for deer.,'yotes, thar sort of thing. I do NOT feel it is a reasonable round for elk, bear, so on , in most hands under most circumstances.

I have always wanted a 25/35 in a 94. My brother had one in a Savage 1899 and I always had a soft spot for that. I prowled the hills with a 30/30 and a .32 1894 rifle with the long octagon barrel and a crescent butt
Alberta Canuck where abouts was your section west of Eugene?
I grew up out there too. We lived in B.C. from my birth till I was about 4 and thats when we moved out west of Eugene. I hunted the hills surrounding our little farm from Spencer's Creek to just below the junction of Coyote Creek until I graduated High School and sadly I moved on. We were not far from Crow, my relatives started the lumber camp that was the town of Vaughn so I am very familiar with "west of Eugene" spent lots of time in Veneta, Elmira, Walton, Triangle Lake, Lorane etc.
I left after 1979 with a few trips back between Alaskan Commercial fishing trips.

Sorry about the rambling hijack I do think the 25/35 is very cool for deer.

Hi, Snellstrom, this really is a small world.

My place was up Nelson Mountain Road from Walton, toward Triangle Lake. Chickahominy "crick" ran right through the middle of it. I worked for a while at the mill in Vaughn when putting wife and I through U of Oregon. Had a really good "shooting friend" who lived in Crow, but now can't even recall his name....think it was Dick something, but just can't bring it out of the cranial recesses. I was also a lookout for Western Lane in the Noti and Walker Mountain towers, helped re-build the Walker Mountain tower after the Columbus Day storm in '62 blew it off a several hundred foot cliff, and later was fire crew foreman for them too...including the year of the Oxbow Fire which burned, if I recall correctly, about 75 square miles of old-growth timber. Also used to buy all my oat hay over on a place on the road from Vaughn to Crow. Did you ever know Jim Bayes or his brother Pat? They went to Veneta High but also worked at Vaughn. Jim retired from the Navy and now lives in Brownsville.

Sorry for the hijack. Our area was a good-'un just made for the .25-35, wasn't it?

I was born with a M-94 win. SRC in 25/35 in my right hand, I shot my first and many more Mule Deer with it as a kid growing up on a West Texas ranch and on a leased ranch in Mexico. I also shot my first 3 elk with it and my dad probably shot near 25 or more elk with it..Get close and shoot them in the heart and they won't make many tracks at all.

This week I will take my grandson hunting and I will be packing my 25-35 and I will kill my yearly Mule deer with it in Idaho and a couple more in Texas, and probably a whitetail also, maybe some hogs or javalinas..

I have a lot of guns, but I still enjoy hunting with the 25-35, I have to hunt with it, not just shoot and I keep shots to under 200 yards on anything..I sometimes pass up some really big bucks that are out of range as that goes with the territory with this caliber, but I have shot enough big bucks and thats fine with me, its not about the big bucks anymore, its about a better time and place, it takes me back many years and a lot of good times, besides lots of young folks out there that would like that big buck I passed on, that I could have easily taken with a 300 H&H or whatever, and that suits me even better.

quote:

Originally posted by Atkinson:
I was born with a M-94 win. SRC in 25/35 in my right hand, I shot my first and many more Mule Deer with it as a kid growing up on a West Texas ranch and on a leased ranch in Mexico. I also shot my first 3 elk with it and my dad probably shot near 25 or more elk with it..Get close and shoot them in the heart and they won't make many tracks at all.

Ray , not for a moment do I doubt what you are saying. Is there the possibility that an old Guru is sending the wrong message to some noviciates? If a young hunter showed up to have you as a guide for an elk hunt and he was carrying a 25-35 what would you tell him? roger

Two years ago I had 5 25-35s in Winchester model 94s.There was one old one a 1908 or 1905 and 4 brand new trails end 25-35.I didnt shoot any of them sold the whole lot.I hunted with a Savage 1899 in 25-35 and loved it .It was a rebored 22 high power.I have to get a contender barrel in 25-35 I guess .The brass is hard to find though as well as ammo.Its a shame its not made in more rifles.I bet marlin could sell a few of their rifles in it.The 25-35 ackley improved caught my eye.If the 94s had not skyrocked I was going to have one of the new trails ends rechambered for the 25-35 ackley improved.Its very close to the 250-3000.

quote:

Originally posted by dgr416:
Two years ago I had 5 25-35s in Winchester model 94s.There was one old one a 1908 or 1905 and 4 brand new trails end 25-35.I didnt shoot any of them sold the whole lot.I hunted with a Savage 1899 in 25-35 and loved it .It was a rebored 22 high power.I have to get a contender barrel in 25-35 I guess .The brass is hard to find though as well as ammo.Its a shame its not made in more rifles.I bet marlin could sell a few of their rifles in it.The 25-35 ackley improved caught my eye.If the 94s had not skyrocked I was going to have one of the new trails ends rechambered for the 25-35 ackley improved.Its very close to the 250-3000.

I picked up a Win. M1894 rifle (26" octogon barrel, made approx. 1910) in Japan about 10 years ago. I've taken it to the range though I've never hunted with it as it isn't in the best condition. Rough bore and chamber, so the accuracy doesn't inspire confidence. After firing three rounds extraction is a sometimes thing. Still the price was right at $95.

Ammo was never a problem when I was living in San Diego, as the .25-35 was popular in Mexico. The local gun stores stocked it to meet that demand.

quote:

its about a better time and place, it takes me back many years and a lot of good times

Amen brother!

I've an ancient 94; in fact, this will be its centenial deer season.

My grandfather shot more than a few deer with it in NW Wisconsin...legend has it that he "found it in the woods" one Spring.

The legend lives on!

friar