Posted in Reloading, but I thought this might be an appropriate place also:

I recently came by a nice old Model 94 in .25-35. As you might expect, ammunition and components are a bit scarce, particularly appropriate bullets for something like deer.

We've always been warned not to use pointed bullets in tubular magazine due to the possibility of the sharp nose of one round setting off the primer of the round in front of it which it rests against in the magazine.

Hornady has addressed this in some calibers with their Leverevolution plastic-tipped bullets. Has anyone ever tried using Nosler Ballistic Tips in a tubular magazine? I can see the tips getting just a bit flattened, but I can't see the polycarbonate tip being hard enough to dent the primer it rests against.

What say ye, oh learned gentlemen of wisdom?

Definately NOT, IMHO.

The "plastic" tips of the Hornady Lever Evolution are a LOT softer, and specifically designed to be used in a tubluar magazine.
The plastic tips of the Ballistics are quite hard, and quite sharp.

I have one of each in my hand as I type this.

I see a Darwin Award in the making......

If you want to use a Nosler BT in your levergun. The safe thing to do is make it a 2 shooter. 1 round loaded in the chamber, then a second in the tube.
Recoil in that particular round is very minimal, you could get away with it, but in my case, I don't want to be holding onto a metal pipe with rounds of ammo exploding in it! You would not see me ever doing that!

So who has ever seen a blown up tubular magazine? Not me, and I haven't been able to find any pics on the interwebs either. I did find references to the fact that 35 Remington is offered in pointy bullets and many guns have tubular magazines for it, but no 35 Rem kaboom pictures online either.

I suspect this is one of those things from another time when there was a caution that made sense but is not that valid any more.

That said, have you tried lining them up on a table top to see where the tips line up on the primers? And lastly, you could also try taking a file to the plastic tips if you think it might help with your flinch.

The Remington 35's had spiral grooves in the mag tube to keep the point of a bullet from touching the primer of the round in front of it...

I have seen some 44 Mag rifles with tube magazines, blown up by semi pointed bullets.

You can make plenty of 25-35 brass out of 30-30 brass...and unless you want to turn your rifle into a destructive device you will use FN bullets or use two rounds in it. I've
been doing this for years now.

Just teach your self to load two rounds quickly...a very easy and pleasant way to have fun with your shooter.

This topic has been addressed, for the same caliber, several times before on AR. Do a search on AR, Beartooth, Marlin owners, Graybeard, and the levergun forums for lots of information and thoughts on this subject.

Hornady designed their "Gumby" bullets(as they are often referred to) specifically for use in tubular mags and the tip is MUCH softer than a Baltip.

Remington makes a very nice 86 gr FN, Hornady a 60 gr and there are several cast lead bullet makers that have excellent bullets. Besides a pointy bullet doesn't add much in the way of ballistics to the effective range of the 23-35 even if "Ackley-ized".

I got my first 25-35 Win 94 SRC when I was 8 years old as I recall, been handloading it since I was 15 years old as I recall...I still have it and still hunt with it on ocassion.

The only bullet that will handle the carbine twist is the 117 gr. Hornady and its a darn good deer bullet and I have shot several elk with it also and it worked just fine..Of the many 25-35s Ive owned none of them shot the 86 gr. Rem. bullet, nor the 75 gr. Speer, in fact everyone of them scattered those bullet over a 12 inch target at 100 yards..Those bullets were designed for the 25-20....Maybe someone has owned a gun that shot them, you never know, but I would have to see it to believe it.

I would never shoot a pointed bullet in a tube magazine, other than a Rem mod. 14 or 141 with a spiral magazine, but even then I would only use RN bullets, that's just flirting with your left hand coming apart, to think otherwise reminds me of the addage that you can't fix stupid.

Yes tube guns have blown up from the use of spitzer bullets, early on the 30-30 was an offender, but that was many moons ago, and the intelligent populace figured it out, the factories refused to load them, and the incidents quit happening, have not heard of it in a number of years..I knew and old wildcatter who like to squeeze every little bit out of whatever and he had a 94 converted to a 30-40 Krag, nice gun and shot well and of course he wanted it to perform with the 06 and went to Sierra BTSPs and it blew up and he lost is little pinky and welded his wedding ring to the magazine, a marriage made in heaven? I think not. He continued along that path until he lost an eye with his mod. 71 348 necked down to a 7mm as I recall, got hellacious velocity until it gave way at about 60,000 PSI is my guess.

WW and Rem make 25-35 brass, try Huntingtons, Hornady still makes the 117 gr. RN for us..the new CFR-223 powder that cleans the bore while you shoot will get you an amazing 2400 plus with the 117 gr. Hornady, regular powders will get you 2300 FPS and thats still suits me and its a 200 yard deer rifle and a 100 yard or so elk rifle broadside only, with me and iron sights, thats my self imposed limits and its worked for a long time..Factory ammo is abundant around these parts and in West Texas, always has been.

Like any borderline caliber for the game hunted the 25-35 only fails when you can't shoot, don't know your limits, and try and make it into something it was not ment to be.....