Got this in the early 70's

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Everybody keeps talking about a Raven, so I thought I would post mine with the only other 25 I have. It’s a Beretta 1919. The Raven was $20 and the Beretta was $90, so I couldn’t pass them up. I’m a sucker for a cheap gun.

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Hey Everybody,

Don't leave me behind - I'm in this game!





This one should be from about 1919, so fast approaching 100 years old. It runs flawlessly with both magazines.

Curl

I have a few of the ones already posted here, but I'll post something different for variety:

Plainfield Model 71


Can swap from 22lr to 25acp. Surprisingly pleasant shooter thanks to its chunky size and weight and decent SAO trigger.

A Walther PPK my dad brought home from N. Africa and Italy at the end of WWII is shown here. It is a little banged up, but still fires and functions well. Having tested and cleaned it, I've retired it to the safe with its cousin, a Beretta Model 1934.

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Loving retirement!

Very finely crafted.

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Astra Model 1916 .25 with loaded chamber indicator



Helfircht Model 3 .25



Colt Model 1908 .25

Whoever shot that bear had a helluva lot of courage and faith in that pistol.

In the mid 60's I traded something for a .25 Baby Browning thinking I actually needed a pocket gun. Shooting into a seasoned oak backstop I got a straight on bounceback into my leg, just breaking the skin, and making me mad. Not impressed. Traded it off. I was also careful about that backstop after that. It don't have to be a .45, but it helps.

I believe that I would have more confidence in the .22, especially if it fired .22 LR, due to the higher velocity. Another story I believe is that the Japenese rifle cartridges used in WWII were .25's, for rifles not pistols. Anyone recall?

.25s I've had:
Numerous Beretta 950B/21As
Early Seecamp .25
Lignose Einhand 2A (miss that little oddball)
BOA .25 with grip safety

The one I replaced them all with and will never get rid of?..............another 950B. Best .25 going!

I've owned several .25's in my the last 5 or 6 years. First one of my own, not my dad's, was a Colt 1908 Vest Pocket Blued in finish and was made is 1912 I believe I dated it at the time. Great little gun that shot excellent and in good shape, all matching numbers, and only flaws was the the bluing was coming off especially on the slide and some pitting on the outside of the slide. So I had bought another slide in better shape from around the same year i believe 1919 to be exact and put it on the gun but kept the original slide being matching numbers. I ended up selling the gun to a so called friend under the pretense once I got back on my feet I could buy it and other guns I sold him back from him, for him to then tell me when I wanted to buy them back, that he refused to sell them back to me and I was just SOL. Regret selling him that gun every day since.
Here are some pics of it:





The second one I bought was a Taurus PT-25 and sold it to a true friend in order to buy a different gun I wanted. Probably won't buy it back as I wasn't that big a fan of it. Although I do currently own it's sibling the PT-22 in .22 long rifle. Here are the pics of the .25 auto.



The third one I owned was a Sterling Arms Model 300 .25 auto which came whith black and light creme colored grips Sold it to my shortly after buying it. Here is the pics of it:



Finally, is the very first .25 I ever shot, which belonged to my dad at the time. It is an old FIE Titan that my dad bought in the 60's I believe like 1966 or 1968, something like that at a bait shop before the FOID card was needed. If I told me correctly. I do know he bought it, then his dad (my grandfather) took it from him to carry for work on the railroad, and he kept it until the day he died, then it was giving back to my dad, and now that my dad passed away in November of last year after a lengthy 9 month battle in the hospital.....this here gun and his others were passed on to me. What I do know is these gun is a family heirloom, he sold it once to old assistant pastor of my parents church for money and that one year for Christmas I bought it back for him, along w/ a 9mm he sold to the old pastor of my parents church. That was the best Christmas he had probably and was so excited to get them both back as he thought they were both gone for good. Anyway I do not dare carry this weapon being a family keepsake and it is my safe queen, with an occasional shooting at range and cleaning. Here are the pictures of it. Might a cheap Saturday night special type gun but still shoots great and accurate.

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Protected by guns & God.

I only have one .25 cal. firearm. I sold all of my .25 cal. autos, I had several of the little Browning autos, a couple were very collectible, and I wish they were still in my collection. This Junior Colt that I have, came to me from a friend. It was in it's original box with all the papers etc, The problem was that it had been in a basement flood, and was in real poor shape. My friend wanted to know if it would be safe to shoot, and was it worth anything. When I told him not in it's badly rusted, and pitted shape, he said, just get rid if it for me! I had soaked it in rust remover, and spent a lot of time trying to make it safe to shoot, but seriously considered trashing it, and maybe should have followed his instructions, and got rid of it, but, couldn't bear to do it, with all of the time spent. It's still not very pretty, but I used some cold bluing on it, to protect it from rusting again, made sure that it would function properly, and still have it. Thanks for sharing it with me.
Chubbo

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I learn something new every day! I never knew JayPee made thigh holsters for the 1908 pistol!

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Yeah, I could thumb cock an S&W revolver, but why bother?

Here's an Interarms TPH in 25acp. They are wicked rare, but not impossible to find. Unlike the .22 version, the .25's are virtually 100% reliable. Given their intended use (1 to 3 yards, multiple rounds expended) the initial double action trigger pull is acceptable.
- Also, magazines for the .25 are inexpensive and easy to find. Magazines for the .22 are very difficult to find.

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Or, maybe it was a case of raw desperation!

Have you seen that ad for a Belgian Clement or Bayard .380 that supposedly killed a Cape buffalo?!

I think it was a Bayard, the one about the size of a big .25 auto.
I think the event was in the then-Belgian Congo. No details, alas.

I wonder where both that .25 and the little .380 hit those animals.

Of course, Harry Wolhuter killed a lion with a knife with a six-inch blade. It had him by one shoulder and that shoulder never healed right. The knife, sheath, and belt, and the lion's hide were displayed for years at Kruger Natl. Park. May still be there.

That holster is clearly made for a larger gun, prob. a Colt .32 or .380. Similar ones were made to fit the steering column on cars.

I once published an article in a knife magazine about whether women could actually carry knives or small guns on a leg. It didn't work out well in practice. The knife or gun was almost always too heavy and would slide around or just drop free as she moved. My model said she was very uncomfortable with a boot knife on her thigh, as she had to strap it on so tight that it was very uncomfortable, and it still wasn't secure. However, she had excellent legs and that helped to sell that article, which was fun to photograph...

BTW, we tried both a copy of the Loveless boot knife by maker Rick Darby and a small Gerber boot knife, also designed by R.W.
Loveless. I think the Fallkniven Garm might fare better, now that I have one.

BTW, the girl wasn't a real life version of Modesty Blaise. She wasn't even normally a professional model. She was a fashion buyer for a major dept. store and thought the idea of hiding a knife or gun under her skirt was a little kinky or perverse. Maybe having a more positive attitude would have let her figure out some mode of carry that worked better. But I doubt it. I think a sheath clipped to the side of her bra would work better, or a knife hung on her neck with a stout string. I have a very small A.G. Russell knife in a hard plastic sheath that'd work for that. And the smallest of the Gerber Applegate-Fairbairn locking folders might work on a bra strap. The main strap, not a shoulder one, of course.

But I think leg holsters are in the realm of fiction. BTW, my model was quite a bit better looking than the girl pictured here with that Colt .25. I'm pretty sure that that helped to sell the story. Knife magazine editors are human, and almost all have been male.

Yes: the rifles you mean were 6.5 mm, about on par with the Mannlicher-Schoenauer 6.5 mm that killed a number of elephants.

The cartridge is not a pistol round.

Some called them .25's, but only because they didn't understand the metric system and tried to equate them to US ammunition. The .257 Roberts would be closest, but is a better round, I think.

In, Guadalcanal Diary, Richard Tregaskis called them .25's, because the Marines he accompanied did. But they aren't.

The Arisaka Type 38, originating in 1905-1906, chambered a 6.5x50mm cartridge. 6.5mm = 0.255906 in. This gave way to the Type 99 (1939), which fired a 7.7x58mm round. This was essentially the British .303 round, but rimless instead of rimmed. Both types were used in WWII.

John

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- Cogito, ergo armatus sum -

my Beretta is a .22 short. tried carrying on bicycle rides, sweat started rusting it, switched to NAA .22 LR works and feels good (stainless). usually carry the NAA .22 Mag.: 5 shots, no reload. defensive get out of the area gun! shoots to 20 yards accurately lighter and smaller than the Beretta.

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Al

While differences in "power" are minuscule, when both cartridges are considered in the typical the vest pocket automatic, the .25 ACP will whip the .22 Long Rifle high velocity cartridge for speed and penetration and does it with a heavier, larger diameter bullet while giving more dependable feeding and function.

Now put the .22 Long Rifle in any sort of longer-barreled pistol and things change.

European cartridge designation 6.5mm's use a .264d bullet generally .
The 6.5mm comes from the European designation of caliber description of using the bore diameter ,,.254/256d,,,, instead of the groove dia.
That groove dia of the bbl is .264/.268.

Most all US designed cartridges with a 6.5mm name hold to the .264 bullet dia.

It can get confusing when Euro designations are given to US cartridges.
The 25-35 WCF is good example. It uses a .257d bullet.
The European designation for the round is the 6.5x52R. In this case they went with the bbl groove/bullet dia to describe the round. '
If they had stuck to their old rule of the 6.5 designating the bore dia,,then 25-35 round would have a bullet dia of .264". I guess you just have to know what's what.

One 'field check' of a European 6.5 (.264 groove/.256 bore d) bbl for a worn muzzle is to insert a .25 cal rifle bullet round (257 Roberts,,250 Savage,,ect) into the muzzle of the 6.5cal bbl.
The .257d of the 25cal bullet should refuse to enter the bore of the 6.5cal rifle fully if the 6.5 is not worn. If it swallows the 25cal bullet past the bullets ogive portion, the muzzle at least is worn.

It's a Colt Jr. and astra was licensed to make them, then 68 GCA and Colt went in-house. They shoot great. I have a before and after. No difference in quality.

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A republic if you can keep it

Always loved my mouse guns. Carried a 950 in the 80's, taught my kids to shoot with it, they make a good single shot.

Carried a Model 21 in .22 for a long time, now I have one in .25.

EIG Titan, Colt Junior, Beretta 950, Beretta 21

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SWCA #2817

Yep, everybody should have one! Had an opportunity to trade for this several weeks ago..finally to replace the one I stupidly traded away many years ago. all matching #'s. Just superb quality.

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I picked up this one last week. First .25 I've ever had. This was James Bonds first carry, and I figured if it was good enough for him, it was good enough for me.
Irv

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This 105-year-old vest pocket is well worn and yields too many FTEject and FTFeed. Maybe I'll look into having it refurbished. I have not fired it in a dozen years.

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Seems to me I replied to this thread but I cannot find it so here goes. I have to tell this story.

I have owned a .25 Auto for more than 40 years. My first two handguns were .25 Autos, a Walther Model 1 and a CZ-Duo. They were literally both mailed to me, USPS, in a shoebox tied with string, to where I then worked, a pharmacy in Brooklyn, NY.

I was stunned when I received that box - it was a Federal felony to mail it to me and a NYC felony for me to possess those two guns but possess them I did - what was I supposed to do after they arrived? Who, what, and why they were sent to me is not important - he did it, it made him happy, and now I was on the hook for them. So I took them in a briefcase to my local bank and locked them away in a safe deposit box. I would visit them occasionally.

A few years later I found myself moving to Texas. How I got those guns to Texas is a story in and of itself but, suffice it to say, they were legal to own the moment they arrived here. My unintended criminal adventure was over.

As far as I was concerned the Walther was broken so eventually I sold it to a Walther collector in Arkansas. The NRA identified the CZ Duo for me as having been made in German occupied Czechoslovakia in 1944 (it's really obvious once you know what all the markings on it mean). I brought that gun to my mother's home in Florida so I could always have a firearms available when I visited her. After she died I brought it back to Texas. I still have it.

In the late 1980s I bought a Beretta 950 BS and I carried that gun daily until 2002 or so. I called it my go anywhere pistol.

A few years ago a friend of mine gave me a cute little Italian .25 ACP made by Galesi. A friend of mine wanted it so badly so since I didn't need it I parted with it. And then I discovered Precision Small Arms.

PSA makes GORGEOUS little .25s in the Baby Browning style and they are not at all inexpensive. So I waited to get a slightly used one. Here's the best part. When it had an issue PSA replaced it without any money changing hands. That is GREAT customer service.

On occasion I still carry one of my .25s.

I tossed in a Seecamp .32 just because it's so similar.

http://smith-wessonforum.com/members...ip-panels.html

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Back in the 1900s, about 68 if I'm remembering right. There was a man in the town I grew up in [Florence, S.C.] who was a brute of a fellow. Six feet and a half tall and 250+. He was one of 5 brothers who were real rounders. Constantly proving their ill nature to anyone in their path.
One night at the Pure Oil Truck Stop in front of the Florence air port, this fine member of the community, attacked another well known member of the sporting society. Problem was "Sonny" was about 5-7 and 135. He had done all he could to get out of this discourteous giant's reach, up to backing into a corner beside the juke box.
As the town brawler reached for him, he produced a Browning Baby. All who testified at the Coroner's Inquest said a muffled "POP" was all they heard. As the Giant who was felled by David, the big man only uttered one last great statement, "Damn, he has killed me". Indeed he had.
The Coroner's Jury never left the box. No Billed and sent on his way with his Baby in hand, he was never in any trouble again as long as I knew him. Any trouble the Bully caused was in another reign. Having shuffled off his mortal coil, his brothers started down a new path. One of sobriety and less aggressive in manner.
The mouse roared and the Giant fell. That little beat up Baby is today sitting in one of my safes. Resting.....in case his work is not yet done.

Another Browning 25 done recently.
Poor pics, I apologize,,the floppy disc cam and my shaky hands don't help..

A decent original condition blued finish pistol, so I cut the pattern right 'thru the blue'. No polishing off of the original factory blue finish. Saves time and labor & why remove it if it's in fine shape anyway.
Not a lot of engravers will work that way and not every gun is a good candidate for the process.

Then when done I reblue the entire piece with rust blue to match in the fresh engraving cuts to the factory blue. That takes some experience so you don't get a matted finish w/the rust blue as is common with that process.
No high tech to it,,this one being small I did on the kitchen stove top in an aluminum bread pan while watching a baseball game.
It also blues any areas of wear to the original finish like edges, ect that may have been worn. The result is a nice new blue w/a factory polish underneath and an engraving job in between them.

(PhotoBkt worked OK today with these pics, but didn't let me link them yesterday or this AM.
Time to move on from there me thinks...)

Ignore the .32 on the bottom, the Mauser Model 1910 on top is an example of what the Nickl brothers were working on just after the turn of the 20th Century for the popular pocket pistol market in Europe. It is built as you would expect from a Mauser product produced between the wars.

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I've gone through a couple of .25's over the years. The first one I bought back in '82 was a Raven .25 for $50 or $60 bucks new. The little gun always worked. I've owned Beretta Jetfire's, Colt Vest Pocket autos, Sterling's, and a couple more I've forgotten. I don't take any pistol that fires bullets lightly. A hit in the right place with a .25 will put you in a body bag as quick as a larger caliber. Take a look at the scar on Joey Buttafuco's wife's neck (from the Long Island Lolita case). That .25 the girl used on her almost took her out and I think she has partial paralysis on the left side of her face from the shooting. The .25 is no joke...It's a firearm for sure!

Here's one of mine it with it's big brother: Notice: I can no longer get to my pictures on Photobucket so unfortunately I can't post them here. However i was able to go back to my original files and here it is. My picture taking with plated guns leaves a lot to be desired. It is an 1908 Colt with factory MOP grips by non factory engraving and it looks much better then this in hand.
Jim

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Shoots as good as it looks. Jaw dropping accuracy at 7 yards.

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J.Browning designed the 25 ACP to have the same ballistics from a 2" barrel as the 22LR. Check data on Ballistics-By-The-Inch for 22LR and you will see that he succeeded. But most 22LR energy/velocity data is reported for rifle length barrels that equivalency is lost in the translation.