I've just acquired one of these with a Lyman flip up tang sight. Pretty good shape overall. I have brass, and in the way of suitable bullets have some Hornady 60 FP and some Speer 75 FP. I also have a piece of a box of some really neat looking old WW 60 gr. HP, which I think were originally made for the .256 Win. And, oh yes, a good supply of cast bullets which weigh in around 87 gr I think.

Any favorite .25-20 powders or loads, and any special advice on this nice old gun?

quote:

Originally posted by Stonecreek:
any special advice on this nice old gun?

Have many hours of enjoyable walk around plinking. roger

IIRC, the huge Jordan typical whitetail that was shot in Wisconsin around 1915 was shot with a 25-20.

I have a Marlin 62 in 256 Win Mag and used to load it with the 86 grain Remington 25-20 softpoints. They worked well on turkeys and the occassional coyote or 'chuck.

Jeff

Stonecreek: Sweet rifle and cartridge. Any chance you would post a photo of your rig?

There were several versions of the Model 25 Remington. There were both rifles and carbines, and the rifles came with both "rifle" butts (and buttplates), and "shotgun' butts and buttplates. (There may have been more, but I have only owned those three versions, so they are the ones I am aware of). Which is yours?

I don't think you will ever find a handier "tractor" gun....dimensions weight and "fatness-wise" of a slim .22LR pump, but plenty of power up to maybe 75 yards for just about anything one would run onto on the farm....unless he farms where there are bears or elk. And, holds enough rounds to last all day if a guy is just woods-prowling or field-loafing, taking live targets of opportunity.

I sold my .25-20's but still have an engraved carbine in .32-20. You've got a GREAT rifle there......

Best wishes,

AC

I'll be glad to post a picture when I get a chance. This is the rifle version with a 24" barrel, pistol grip, and crescent buttplate. The factory rear sight has been removed and a Lyman tang sight installed. It's not new (what 80 year-old gun is?) but it is pretty clean and original (other than sights). Haven't even tried putting a shell in the magazine since I didn't have any loaded ammo on hand, but the specs I've seen indicate it holds 11 rounds. Hey -- that makes it an ASSAULT weapon by today's standards!

I don't know when I'll get around to actually working with it because I've taken in four "new" rifles in the last couple of weeks, all of them small calibers and at least three of them look like keepers. Alberta's been helping me out with one of them. Thankfully, I hauled a similar number of guns to a dealer friend for disposal.

quote:

Originally posted by Stonecreek:
I'll be glad to post a picture when I get a chance. This is the rifle version with a 24" barrel, pistol grip, and crescent buttplate. .

Heeeyyy Stonecreek! I think that description makes your's one of the later, more deluxe ones. The earliest ones I am aware of, which also had the rifle buttplate (curved rather than flat), had straight grips, not pistol grips. I am not a Remington collector, so that is not gospel...it is just based on the ones I've owned.

Somewhere around here I have "year of manufacture by serial number", but don't know for sure where that's at, at this moment. None of them are younger than you are, though.

Can't seem to get photobucket to work tonight, but I'll keep trying.

The serial number is 100xx out of about 33,000, so your guess is as good as mine as to the date of manufacture. Sometime in the '20's I would suppose. My grandfather's Remington Model 24 .22 LR (Browning patent take down) was purchased in 1929, so this gun must be very close in age. Also similar would be my wife's grandfather's Model 14 .25 Remington -- with it's 2.5 power Lyman Alaskan with dot reticle, it makes quite a neat little deer gun.

Curiously, my wife's grandfather and great grandfather operated the most prominent gun store in this part of the world from the late 1800's until past WWII. There's a good chance that this gun came from that store. Remington used to ship directly to their dealers; wonder if there is a record of who this one was shipped to?

I have a Savage 23 in 25-20, lots of fun to shoot. Best powder I've found seems to be IMR 4227. Low to midrange loads shoot best in my rifle.

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I also have a piece of a box of some really neat looking old WW 60 gr. HP, which I think were originally made for the .256 Win.

Here's an original box of those cartridges and they were originally made for the .25-20 and later used in the .256 WM.....
Note they were called OPE and not hollow points.....OPE=Open point expanding!

Also the hand marked price on the box is a good indicator of the age of this box of cartridges.

Okay, Photobucket finally relented and allowed my photos to upload:




(That's my Hartmann's zebra skin from last June in Namibia that it is sitting on )

The more I look the little gun over, the more I am struck by just how much precision hand machining went into these. Even the loading port cover is a precision machined piece of steel rather than a stamping. It boggles one's mind to calculate what this gun would cost to build today.

Wow, what a SWEETIE! Thanks for the photo Stonecreek.

Very very cool little rifle you have! I've owned them in both .25-20 and .32-20, and only discovered one drawback, they are like shooting a Ruger 10/22, you don't shoot just one round! The action is so smooth and the weapon so light and fast handling that you tend to use more lead than needed, well, I did anyway. Result was that I had to handload! I can really recommend those 60 grain hollow points that Stonecreek and vapodog mentioned. I lucked into a quantity of them many years ago and have used them with excellent results in .25-20, .256 Win, and .250 Savage (really spectacular in the Savage). Congratulations on a fine rifle!

I loaded a sample of five 88 grain (actual weight) plain base cast lead FN bullets over 9 grains of AA1680 this afternoon. They chronographed around 1750 fps and landed in a group of around 3 inches at a hundred yards. They didn't appear to leave any lead behind in the barrel. Since I have about 400 of these, they might just become my regular plinker loads. Don't know the alloy, but I'll bet they're not much for expansion so should make good turkey bullets. Armadillos and racoons might run a bit after being perforated by these, but then they should leave a good blood trail

quote:

I can really recommend those 60 grain hollow points that Stonecreek and vapodog mentioned.

The 60 grain FP from Horrnady behind 10.0 grains of 2400 or 11 1/2 grains H-4227 can move out at 2,200 or thereabouts and makes very short work of crows and in one case a Duiker in RSA.

The .25-20 is an ideal tiny ten African rifle.

Interesting picture! I see yours is the model which has the pistol grip AND the rifle butt plate. My guess would be 3rd - 5th year of
production, but now I will make an effort to find the serial number/year chart and look it up. I had forgotten that combo was available, but, your pic reminded me that my father-in-law Les Lindsay had one which looked almost exactly like yours....but his was a .32-20.

Just to make the folks who have never owned one even more jealous, I guess we should mention now that these little rifles are "take-downs", too, so they can be put in shorter traveling bags, and also can be cleaned from the breech.

I've been intending to have a special saddle-leather case made for mine. I suspect the whole thing would be well under 24"long when ready for transport. Guess I'll have to get after that project.

The first rifle I ever "fired" was an ancient Remington 12C. I was about 4or 5 and my uncle held it up to my shoulder and let me pull the trigger and shoot it into the dirt at the back of my grandfather's farm house.
I never have had a clue why the old Remington pumps were not more popular. They were the easiest thing in the world for a kid to carry.

quote:

Originally posted by ireload2:
I never have had a clue why the old Remington pumps were not more popular. They were the easiest thing in the world for a kid to carry.

Me too Imagine a short stroke slide action to handle the 6.8. rogerroger

Yes, and they were well designed and well machined too. Mr.Pedersen (of the "Pedersen device") was the acknowledged designer, according to Remington.

Got a message from Remington today. They say your particular rifle was made in the 3rd year of production (1925).

Hey, Alberta! Thanks for that information! Would you happen to know if Remington offers a research service which will tell you the dealer to whom a gun was originally shipped? I've heard of factories offering this kind of archival information for a fee, but can't find anything on the Remington website to indicate whether they do. On the off chance that this gun might have been originally shipped to my wife's grandfather's store, I'd be willing to spend a few bucks to find out.

Stonecreek -

I don't know if they will provide that sort of info or not. I suspect they can, but don't know where they draw the line on answering questions.

I suggest you google "Remington Country", which will show you the way to a website which has direct contact with Remington. It enables users to directly ask Remington any question they want answered. Whether they will do that research will then be between you and them directly, which is easier for both of you and may get better results.

Good luck.

AC

I still have my uncles old Rem 21C..I also had a Rem M-25 in 25-20 in my mispent cowboy youth..I shot an Antelope with it, took 14 shots and a big rock to kill it..guess I stressed it a bit..The are such a wonderfully made rifle with all the skill a machinest can put into a rifle..I also had a Rem pump M-14 I believe in 25 Rem and it was my best deer rifle for a short time..Love those old Rem and Winchester rifles.

I would still like to find a Rem M-25 carbine in 32-20 caliber...