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Getting Started With a 25-35
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Great Basin
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August 11, 2024 - 3:39 pm
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I’m planning to hunt with this pistol grip, set trigger 1894 in 25-35.  It’s not a tack driver – at least not yet anyway.  I haven’t developed loads for the 25-35 in the past.  Can anybody help out with loads that have worked well in 1894’s?  Thanks

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August 11, 2024 - 6:21 pm
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Another cool video.

I have no experience with the 25-35 but I have a lot of loading manuals.

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August 11, 2024 - 10:05 pm
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  Mark,

 I bought a 1894 rifle two years ago and played with loads with what I had. I came up with 23grs of 3031 under Hornady 117gr RN Interlock bullets .257″. Shot accurate and was available at the local gas station. Had some 86gr Remington jacketed flat point for 25-20 and they worked good with the same powder load, faster and accurate. Tom

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August 11, 2024 - 10:45 pm
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Another awesome video Mark , thanks for sharing , only ever shot my old 25-35 with factory ammunition. Thanks again and keep the videos coming !

Aim Small ,Miss Small

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August 11, 2024 - 11:41 pm
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Mark,  I load the .25-35 and PLAY shooting metallic silhouettes with it.  I say “play” as at 200 yards the ram often won’t go down unless I hit in the horns of the target.  Yes, I have taken the buffalo down a few times but often it takes several hits to edge it back on the stands.  My load is a bit more adventuresome than above.  It is as follows:  A Remington 9 1/2 primer, 24.6 grains of IMR 3031, and the Hornady 117 grain bullet seated to crimp in the cannelure.  It is nearly a 2200 fps load.  Now a caveat.  I have a newer vintage rifle which has problems chambering my cartridges as the ogive on the Hornady is a bit more blunt than the factory Winchester bullet.  Net result is it hits the rifling and is a bit hard to chamber.  I am thinking of trimming my brass a few thousandths shorter to allow a bit more space for that rifle.  My two barrel set 1894 with its .25-35 barrel has absolutely NO problems with my loads.  Also, IMR 3031 is temperature sensitive and is a bit off in the cold or a bit hot in hot weather.  AS always, use care in developing a load for your rifle.  Tim

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August 12, 2024 - 1:36 pm
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Hey Mark, I’ve got an old 1894, but the barrel is toast so no cast bullets in this one. Here are a couple of loads that work fairly good in mine that I’ll pass along for you to try if you want. 24 to 26 grains of IMR-4320, 117gr. Hornady round nose seated to the cannelure for an overall length of around 2.600″, W-W brass, if you have them CCI BR-2 or Winchester LRP. Velocity in my 94 is from 1950 to 2100 f.p.s. Keep cases trimmed to around 2.033″. The problem with this load is DuPont quit making 4320 so if you don’t have any try this load. 27/H-380 with the above mentioned bullet. Only I use the WRP instead of the BR-2. I don’t know if Winchester quit making the 117gr. round nose for sure, but I have not seen any at the stores for years, so another bullet I’ve used with good results is the Remington 117gr. spitzer. Because it’s a spitzer you can only load one in the chamber and one in the magazine tube only, but they shoot very well. Besides that’s one more than a good shot like you needs anyways. LOL. If you don’t have any of the 117gr. Hornady’s let me know, I have some extra ones that I’ll send you. Good luck with your loads and hunting.     RRM

                   

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August 12, 2024 - 2:09 pm
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Thanks a bunch, guys.  It certainly helps to get started with proven loads.  Fortunately, I have quite a bit of both 3031 and 4320 powder.  I’ll have to see what I have for 25 caliber projectiles when I return to Cody. 

I recently had the opportunity to buy a huge cache of reloading equipment, supplies and components from an estate in Wyoming.  There are more than 400 sets of dies alone.  Erin and I hauled three pickup loads home.  I’m still trying to sort and organize things.  Hopefully, there are some good 25 caliber bullets to choose from for this project.  I’ll check back as the load development progresses.  Mark

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August 12, 2024 - 5:40 pm
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Hodgdon owns IMR.  If you really need the IMR 4320 it is still available on many sites.  Best to stock up now.

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August 12, 2024 - 5:41 pm
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Mark, eventually will you list some of your haul for sale?

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August 12, 2024 - 10:06 pm
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Great video, Mark. Sweet little shooter, not a cartridge I’ve ever loaded so will be interested in the load development. Sounds to me like having homes in two states is a bit like a two-story house; everything you need seems to be a flight of stairs (or a road trip) away! Do you have a pilot’s license?

 

Mike

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August 12, 2024 - 10:52 pm
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As it turns out, I’ve owned many more Marlin .25-36’s than I have Winchester .25-35’s.  In fact, I’ve never loaded for the .25-35 but I have loaded a fair bit for my .25-36’s. Both are fun little cartridges.  

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August 12, 2024 - 11:56 pm
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  Midway has the Hornady RN in stock at $38.69 per 100. The crimp ring is in the right place.

  My problem was finding head stamp brass but judging from your video you have enough. My hats off to your ability to shoot iron sights standing free hand. I’m impressed!

                       Thanks Mark great video. Tom

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August 13, 2024 - 12:11 am
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Great video Mark!  

I too, have been pleased to be able to find the Hornady 117 grain RN on gunshop shelves again.

By the way, Mark has a recent video on early M1873’s.  I highly recommend it.  Later in the video where he is range testing a M1873, he gives some great advice on cast bullet selection.  

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August 26, 2024 - 6:54 pm
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Mark Douglas said
I’m planning to hunt with this pistol grip, set trigger 1894 in 25-35.  It’s not a tack driver – at least not yet anyway.  I haven’t developed loads for the 25-35 in the past.  Can anybody help out with loads that have worked well in 1894’s?  Thanks

  

A little late to the party, but I have developed a couple of loads for the 25-35. One was a milder load and the other a hunting load. with the 117gr Hornady bullet,  25gr of H4895 was accurate as was the 28.5gr of W760. In fact, that latter load was used to take a huge Texas boar about a year ago:

https://winchestercollector.org/forum/winchester-shooting-and-hunting/texas-hogs-with-a-winchester-1894-25-35/

There are a lot of powders that would work well, and some have already been mentioned in the thread. But that W760 load really worked well for me.

Here’s a chart that lists some possibilities:

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August 26, 2024 - 7:29 pm
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John D. said

Mark Douglas said

I’m planning to hunt with this pistol grip, set trigger 1894 in 25-35.  It’s not a tack driver – at least not yet anyway.  I haven’t developed loads for the 25-35 in the past.  Can anybody help out with loads that have worked well in 1894’s?  Thanks

  

A little late to the party, but I have developed a couple of loads for the 25-35. One was a milder load and the other a hunting load. with the 117gr Hornady bullet,  25gr of H4895 was accurate as was the 28.5gr of W760. In fact, that latter load was used to take a huge Texas boar about a year ago:

https://winchestercollector.org/forum/winchester-shooting-and-hunting/texas-hogs-with-a-winchester-1894-25-35/

There are a lot of powders that would work well, and some have already been mentioned in the thread. But that W760 load really worked well for me.

Here’s a chart that lists some possibilities:

Image Enlarger

  

Thanks a bunch John!

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August 26, 2024 - 9:47 pm
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Mark, I’ll be following along on your progress and really enjoyed the last video! I am currently trying to get my confidence up to bring my 1894 on this years Montana hunt. I have been considering it for a few years but couldn’t bring myself to “gamble” on the hunts success! I am currently working through a sight issue and believe I am making progress with the help and advice from the good folks here on the forum. I’ll be hunting with your .25-35’s twin, albeit in a takedown 30WCF, minus the set trigger! Best of luck to ya!

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August 30, 2024 - 2:21 pm
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Hi Guys,

Thanks for the discussion on 25-35 and I am late to this discussion too.

I have a Winchester 1894 rifle in 25-35 full octagon barrel that I haven’t yet developed a load for so this subject is interesting to me. My first introduction to this caliber was when I discovered that my uncle hunted whitetails with it using a 94 carbine. He said it was an accurate round to hunt with and that he did better with it than he did with a 30-30. That was nearly 60 years ago now so that is about all I remember. But it had sparked interest in me about that caliber ever since. I bought the rifle I mentioned above in 2014 cleaned it up and bought dies to do some reloads for it. I found about 200 empty cases that I bought. And I was able to find a few boxes of new old stock Winchester 25-35 which I figured I could try the rifle out with. Turned out the rifle cycled inconsistently so I just shot it one round at a time. I learned a long time ago not to mess with sights on old rifles before you shot it first. So I just put a few rounds though single shot mode on paper at 50 yards just to see how it went. Boy you’d think the barrel was bent it was so bad and I was using a Lead Sled w/o the lead bags. After 4 five shot groups, group size was all over the place. Although the rifle could be categorized as brown gun the bore is 8+. So I had a Marbles tang sight for a 94 so decided to put that on and forego the barrel sight. After 2, 5 shot groups it was better but nothing great and no consistence that I could detect. I only tried ten shots because I didn’t want to waste the factory stuff I had left.

I put the rifle aside for a while but after a few weeks I decided I needed to take the gun apart to fix the cycling issue and do a deep dive into finding out why I couldn’t get a good group with the rifle. There was a local gunsmith I had used to get some work done on a couple of 1911’s I had so I bought the rifle to him to look at. What he detected was that there was a very slight burr on the end of the muzzle so slight that I could not see it without magnification but it was inline with the end of the rifling. So he corrected that. He then said that I should try the rifle before more work was done. Well, that fixed the problem with getting good groups and a two, 5 shot group at 50 yards gave 1.25″ and a 1.5″+. Nothing to write home on but much better than what I was getting with the burr on the end of the barrel. I am sure with more time working with the rifle I could improve on those groups at least it was going in the right direction.

I have yet to fix the cycling problem and since reading this post I have gotten a hankering to get going with it again. I think I will pull the action apart and examine clean and the parts. The inconsistent cycling has to do with the cartridge lifting, sometimes no problem, sometimes once the empty is ejected the case isn’t lifted when closing the action. There is never a problem with ejection of the spent case just lifting the next round and not every time. If I discover it isn’t lifting before I close the action, a sharp downward stroke of the lever will lift the case. I have taken 1892’s and 1886’s apart and I am comfortable doing that with them. But the couple of times I have taken 1894’s apart I always seem to have problems getting them back together. I could take this rifle back to the gunsmith but I think I would prefer to do it myself. Now I just need to find the time to start this project again! I will be keeping an eye on this subject, thanks for the posts and thanks Mark for the original post!

Rob

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August 30, 2024 - 4:48 pm
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Robert Drummond Jr said
……But the couple of times I have taken 1894’s apart I always seem to have problems getting them back together. I could take this rifle back to the gunsmith but I think I would prefer to do it myself. Now I just need to find the time to start this project again! I will be keeping an eye on this subject, thanks for the posts and thanks Mark for the original post!

Rob

  

Rob,

If you don’t have a copy of “Encyclopedia of Modern Firearms – Parts & Assembly, Vol 1” then you might look into finding one. It has IPB’s parts list, and detailed step by step disassembly/assembly instructions, with pictures. It has been a lifesaver for me with various shotguns and rifles (like the 94), as well as a treasure trove of information regarding most all vintage American rifles and pistols.

There is a copy on eBay right now for $50 plus shipping. Well worth the price, especially if you’re tinkering with guns.

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August 30, 2024 - 6:25 pm
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Some examples from the book I mentioned in my last reply:

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August 30, 2024 - 11:42 pm
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thanks John

I will get a copy great advise. I do have a copy of the Homestead gun Parts guide for the 94 which is good but I really lie your suggestion

Rob

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