Cleaning out my ammo shelves I found a bunch of .25-20 Single Shot rifle cartridges. I have a rifle in .25-20 WCF so I picked these up years ago figuring I would eventually shoot 'em up.

Well, once I examined them closely I realized they were too long to be .25-20 WCF, although all the headstamps say .25-20. What the heck? I figured somebody was wildcatting and somehow stretched these cartridges. I threw them on a back shelf and forgot about them.

It's cold and snowy here today, so I decided to organize my ammo stash. Once I saw these shells, I got out my caliper and took some measurements and started looking at some cartridge descriptions in 'Cartridges of the World'.

Bingo, I figured out these are .25-20 SS, the precursor to the .25-20 WCF. All the headstamps are either Peters or Rem-UMC
and they appear to be factory original brass that has been reloaded as all the bullets are the same jacketed soft points.

I really don't have a need for them (unless I go searching for an old single shot rifle). Just another rabbit hole I don't need to go down, ha.

Is it illegal to ship loaded ammo? Would anyone even be interested in ammo that someone else reloaded? I have no clue as to bullet weight or powder type etc. Their outward appearance gives the impression they are in excellent condition and the brass shows no signs of stress or overworking.

This post isn't about 'feeling the waters' or whatever. Just wondering how best to go about dealing with these shells. If I decide to sell them, I will post in the classified section.

photos to follow...

One photo shows a side by side comparison to the shorter .25-20 WCF.

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Small Arms ammo has to go private carrier, UPS, FedEx, ect. I always use UPS. No premium cost , not hazmat. You just have to put ordinance symbol on shipping box. It all goes ground.
I have pulled loads of scarce cartridges since most guys including myself don’t like mystery reloads. Empty brass can just ship USPS.

Wow...kind of rare. I am certain you will find someone that needs 'em......

It's still a popular cartridge with the Vintage Single Shot Rifle shooters.

Good brass is hard to find in that caliber, once in a while someone makes a short run of it. But not too often.

Right now one of the things being done is to convert .223 cases to .25-20 S/S.
But it takes about a 5-ton press and a lathe to do it.
You are making a rimmed case from a rimless.
Many of these guys have the tools to do stuff like that, but many others don't.

You may have an audience for any quantity of decent brass on one of those forums like the ASSRA Forum
(American Single Shot Rifle Forum)

This is a great cartridge. I once owned one of the Pope guns (Stevens 44-1/2) chambered in the slightly long 25-21 version (Pope's favorite). There was also a 25-25 length.

The original brass is great. We used to anneal the brass by heating with f propane torch and then knocking them into a coffee tin of water. So, there is a great market for your cartridges! Shipping is easy via FedEx. Just afix the hazzard label and ship FedEx ground.

I would try listing on GunBroker.com Not sure what to price it at since I haven't bought any in a long time.

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Randy
Provenance nerd

There will be many takers if you put them up for sale. Not sure if anyone is making the new brass today, but there used to be new Australian-made brass available. As mentioned, .25-20 SS cases can be formed from .223 brass but that is a formidable job not to be taken lightly. Someone may have a business reforming .223 brass to .25-20 SS, I do not know.
My guess is that anyone handloading .25-20 is very likely to know what they are doing, and I would not be too concerned about shooting them as-is. Of course, they could be old enough to have corrosive primers, but that is not a real concern.

Cases are still made by Bertram here in Australia and are shown on the Buffalo Arms website as currently available in the U.S.
Cost around $US53 for 20.

Frank.

My "Cartridge Conversions for the Handloader" book says there is no parent case to make .25-20SS from. I only know because I looked it up and passed on a single shot in the cal years ago. Good to know that in a worst case scenario for someone in need, it can be made from common .223.

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Chris
SWCA #2243 SWHF #292

Donnelly's cartridge conversion manual suggests re-body of a .223 case with 3/8" brass tubing. His book explains how that is done. You would need to be desperate to do that.

Empty brass can ship USPS IF you pull the priming but not primed. They make a big difference in the two if they catch you shipping primed brass. For primed you still need to go UPS or Fedex.

I passed on a nice rifle a while back because I never could find a source , reasonable or not , for cases. You will have no trouble selling them. I am one that would not shoot anything someone other than myself loaded but it is easy enough to pull the bullets and dump the powder and start from scratch. Easy to ship as loaded ammo.

PS: It is a low enough pressure round that cases last forever if you take care of them so even a small number is a godsend to someone who needs them and has none.

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Grumpy Old Man With a Gun

Many 25/20SS cases got formed into 22 Lovell back in the day when many were fooling with HV 22 cal cartridges. I have a pot full left from a BSA single shot.

With a big&powerful enough press & a handy Lathe along with some assorted odd reloading dies, you can make about any case from some common brass.

Even the odd size rimmed Stevens 28-30-110 is being made from 30-06 with the above equip.
The Stevens 28-30 brass is another one of the odd oldies from that era.
I have a STevens Mod 44/45 that I built in that caliber. DST, restocking it to PG now.

Yes Bertrum offers the brass and you don't need many cases in the Single Shot rifle game. If you are carefull with them they last a long time.
But Bertum has a poor QC rating among many of those reloaders with the main complaint of their brass splitting lengthwise down on the body on the first or second firing.

The Bertrum brass in that cal goes for around $90/ per 20cases if you can find it.
It isn't cheap but what is anymore.
Access Denied

(I don't know why it says Access Denied..it's just a link to a pic of the brass on the Midway site.)

Discontinued at most sources right now. They only run it once in a while,,,wonder why??

I have a couple boxes of it I got in a very good deal along with plenty of orig Rem brass.
Orig brass was only made from about 1909 to 1915 by Rem.
I don't think anyone else loaded the round back then or supplied empty brass. The caliber was expected to be the next best thing in the Schuetzen game at the time. But WW1 came to be and Schuetzen was quickly not the most popular shooting pastime anymore.

With the low pressures of the cartridge(s) you can afford to gently stress relieve the cartridge body as well as the neck and make the cases last near forever.
Not an extremely high temp annealing, just a 450F or so stress relief heat. No turning the brass red!
It really helps prolong the Bertrum brass & avoid the splits in the case body on the first or second firing.

Been a while since I made brass for the caliber and Lovell. but I made brass for everything... There were many European cals you couldn't easily find boxer brass for. I even made brass for 22 Varminter for. Where I lived you couldn't even find bullets for metallic ammo...cept Herter's. I still have a lot of the case forming dies RCBS made along with my swaging dies and press for 22 and 24 caliber bullets...Rock Chuck Bullet Swage

Hi, Im looking for "bigmoose" to ask him about some 25-20 single shot cases. If anyone sees him please let him know I am asking. Thank You, Bob

Feel free to send him a private message, but the thread is a year old.

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Alan
SWCA LM 2023, SWHF 220