This last year hunting bucks and later shooting culls on the Texas ranch near LLano Tex...I tried out my 25-35 Win SRC on Texas Hill Country deer..Having used it many times on deer and 5 or 6 elk in my youth, I am comfortable with it, but always thought as opposed to the 117 gr bullets at 2200 FPS;; A lighter bullet would be a dandy, had in mind a flat nose monolithic of about 95 grs..Got in touch with GS customs, and he came up with a 97 gr. bullet that got me about 2570 FPS with CFE-223, In a later and modern gun like a 1930ish mod. 94 I could probably get somewere near 2600 to perhaps 2700..

At any rate I shot a number of does with it and the results were outstanding, all but a couple were killed instantly, a few made it 15 to 30 yards..All shots were at 75 to as far as 175 yards with a few at a full 200 plus or minus 25 yards.

Its always nice to add new life to an old gun. I enjoyed shooting again the rifle of my youth. I never found fault with the old 117 gr factory loads at 2000 FPS as long as you kept within 150 to 200 yards on deer, and about a 100 yards or less on elk..

My old gun has a dark bore, rough bore, but shoots under 2 inches most of time and never over 2.5"s with a tang peep sight on average..

Nice report Ray.
Do they cycle through the old lever okay or do you have do baby them ?
I've always wanted to find a 25/35 of ANY vintage but never did.
My brother had a 25/35 in a 99 Savage but the rifle was stolen.
Would love to find a 94 or 1894 in 25/35...

Ray, you take me back to my youth in the 1950s. My first cf rifle was a 7.35mm Italian Carcano, which I bought when I was 12. Coincidentally, I paid around $12 for it and received it by mail.

My second was a Model 94 Winchester in .32-40 Winchester with a 26”(?) octagon barrel. I swear that I believed I could hear the bullet making its way to the 100 yard target. I could unscrew the barrel by hand! It was really accurate with its iron sights.

Dumb me . . . I sold that rifle. To my eternal shame and discredit.

Snel,
Nope they cycle like poop thru a goose, My next project is a Lever action 336 marlin with a 24 inch barrel and topped with my Leupold Alaskan 2.5X in a set of old stith mounts, when I find a good cheap donner Marlin..hopefully with a straight grip, but whatever..the GS Custom 97 gr. bullets are beauties and long with a deep wide hollow point and knock the socks off any deer big Muley or Little whitetail .. this bullet increased my range to about 300 yards using the scope and that 97 gr. GSC at 2500 to almost 2700...I shoot my old SRC at 2500 but my Marlin will get me a full plus 2700 fps and that's getting right up there, also being a monolithic Im betten it will shoot thru a cow elk broadside base on what Ive seen on deer..Well see in July we have a depredation cow hunt coming up I think..

Ray, my hat is off to you! Despite your somewhat vintage eyes, you are able to use iron sights out to the extreme limits of a lever action. I can do good work with high viz sights on black on white bull targets....if the rifle is on sandbags and I have plenty of time to figure out which one of the three front sights I can see is the proper one to sight with. Using those sights and aligning them on a deer down in the thick stuff is impossible. It sure would be nice if I could deer hunt with my 1886 again. Keep up the good work!

The scope makes it longer range no doubt about that, but Im good to at least 200 yards with my 30-30 and 25-35 even off hand if I have to, but prefer a rest..Ive never taken a 300 yard shot with my 25-35. Had a couple of lucky shots at long range with my 30-30 as a kid..but after wounding a couple and getting thrashed and whipped with a nylon rope by dad for creating a long tracking job for him, I learned a hard lesson in discipline..

Hook, a good pair of glasses might work wonders for your shooting, they did me.