25-35 all arounder

[348win]

How much do you enjoy your 25-35 for big deer?

Black bear?

Is she an all arounder

Or do you reach for the 30-30

I got a feeling the increased velocity of the 25-35 might give it an edge along w flat shooting. Can't shoot the heavy bullets though.

Looks like a 1 load gun @ 117gr.

[Bridger]

Interesting question….energy wise I know it doesn’t beat the 30-30 or really even come close. BUT I really want a 25-35 so I’m looking forward to reading replies!

[348win]

I wouldn't mind having one myself,

Got to peep the local ammo shelves, not trying to take on a exclusively handloaders round

I'd like to try one on some game and some steel.....I don't like being undergunned.

[Scott Tschirhart]

On the wall of the old depot (now a museum) in Columbus New Mexico is a Winchester 94 in .25-35 that was allegedly carried by one of the bandits in Pancho Villa’s cross border raid.

So the cartridge was apparently widely distributed soon after its development.

[marlinman93]

The .25-35 is limited to lighter bullets in the typical lever action, but in a single shot or bolt action it can be loaded with heavier bullets, and becomes a much harder hitting cartridge. I've owned both lever guns, and single shots in .25-35 and while my lever action Marlin could shoot a 115 gr. bullet and cycle it fine, I used a 140 gr. in my single shot.

[AmBraCol]

The "old family rifle" is a Winchester 64 in 25-35 that my uncles convinced my grandma to buy for them way back in the 20th Century. They successfully hunted every big game species in Arizona with that rifle using, as far as I know, factory ammo. It comes back to proper bullet placement and the original 117 RN ammo does good work. I remember the first time I shot it when it came to my custody. That old 64 is one accurate rifle! For a while fodder for it was iffy and I reformed 30=30 brass to keep it going. Then my brother cornered the local market on 25-35 brass and Hornady 117 RN bullets and it's been doing fine ever since. It wouldn't be my first choice for bear, but it did the job back then. I don't recall anyone in the family ever losing a deer shot with this rifle, either.

[LeverGunner]

I don't think I've ever seen factory ammo for sale anywhere in person. I did a little searching and you can find it online. I didn't know that.

[Bill in Oregon]

Francis Sell considered it a very good choice for Oregon blacktails, but with help from Parker Ackley and Chick Donnelly he developed the .25 Tomcat wildcat.

[AJMD429]

.
I always wanted a Contender in that chambering... but never got anything in it, not even a levergun...

My 'all-arounder' choice would probably be a 35 Remington - heavy enough to hit and make big holes in big game, and with proper bullet construction and placement would take any North American game, plus holds enough in the magazine to be at least a decent home-defense rifle, and isn't so punchy to shoot that nobody wants to play along at the range. I think you could light-load it for small game, though I've never bothered trying.

I have so many 'almost-all-arounder' guns though, that the overlap is huge, and the end result is having too many firearms that I don't shoot enough to really wring out and develop the best loads for, or push to their full abilities.

My son is smart enough to just keep a FEW firearms, but trades until he gets exactly what he wants, and winds up with a few incredibly excellent firearms he's good at shooting, whereas I have a bunch of fairly decent firearms that I can sort of shoot ok.... I guess we both have fun in different ways

[ollogger]

Ive shot deer & antelope with the 25-35, bullets were 75 gr. speer FP & 117 Hornady RN
also a Nosler partion 115 gr. loaded as a two shooter, all bullets passed through
A bud of mine shot lots of Elk with his 25-35 all with factory Winchester 117 gr. loads
I asked him how it did on Elk, he said just like deer & antelope they all died & never lost an animal
Ray had one big game gun & that was his 25-35, was surley his all arounder!



ollogger

[AmBraCol]

Also, the 25-35 Ackley Improved shows the most improvement in performance with a very usable extra powder space due to the very tapered body being blown out straight. I always kind of wanted a Marlin in 25-35 AI for a varmint levergun.

[348win]

Ive shot deer & antelope with the 25-35, bullets were 75 gr. speer FP & 117 Hornady RN
also a Nosler partion 115 gr. loaded as a two shooter, all bullets passed through
A bud of mine shot lots of Elk with his 25-35 all with factory Winchester 117 gr. loads
I asked him how it did on Elk, he said just like deer & antelope they all died & never lost an animal
Ray had one big game gun & that was his 25-35, was surley his all arounder!



ollogger

wow
Very cool

[jeepnik]

Have a buddy that thinks it's a great yote gun.

[KWK]

A bud of mine shot lots of Elk with his 25-35 all with factory Winchester 117 gr. loads. I asked him how it did on Elk, he said just like deer & antelope they all died & never lost an animal. Ray had one big game gun & that was his 25-35, was surley his all arounder!

Another Ray, Atkinson, has written about his success on elk with the 25-35. He has more than one gun to choose from, too.

[yooper2]

The 25-35 is my favorite woods bumming cartridge. Not what I pick for any specific hunting task but it'll work on most anything under deer size nicely (and our UP deer are quite large by any standard). I would shoot a black bear if it was close and I could be sure of spining it but it's not really a bear cartridge. Mine is by far my most accurate 94. The hornady 117gr is the bullet of choice.


Eric

[gcs]

I believe it was popular as a prison guard rifle at one time,,,

[kaschi]

I've shot only one deer with the 25-35 using the old Remington 117 gr CLSP ammo. Shot it quartering away from me at 60 yrd in the dusk. The bullet entered the left rear quarter and went all the way into the front right quarter where it turned into Remington's "deadliest mushroom in the woods". I have to say it was pretty impressive.