Forming 25-20 Brass

rufgr · Jun 2, 2020

A couple of years ago I purchased a Savage 23 in 25-20. Brass was difficult to find so I initially made brass by fire forming 218 Bee brass, this worked very well, I formed 50 pieces and did not lose a single case.

I read on the web that it was easy to form 25-20 from 32-20, several people were able to do this by just running the 32-20 case into a 25-20 full length die. This was not my experience. I tried this but destroyed a couple of cases.

Long story short it was necessary to do this in 3 steps. I measured the neck diameter of both cases divided the difference by 3 and made 2 reduction dies to gradually reduce the neck diameter. Final forming was done in the 25-20 full length die.

218 Bee brass is now readily available so I would recommend fire forming to anyone that needs to do this

growr · Jun 2, 2020

Might check with Starline Brass.....seems like they were making 25-20 brass....

Randy

Jetman22 · Jun 2, 2020

Winchester 25-20 brass is available on gun broker. Right now. Not mine and don’t know them.
A lot easier to buy than make.

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DWalt · Jun 2, 2020

I've never personally tried it, but have read that one pass of a .32-20 case through a .25-20 FL die will do the job. How about lubrication? Anytime correct empty cases are available, it's preferable to buy some of them rather than trying to re-form brass of another size, with a few exceptions. For example, it is so simple to form .300 Savage cases from .308 brass, I wouldn't bother to attempt finding .300 Savage brass.

Ivan the Butcher · Jun 2, 2020

32-20 has a 0.010" thick neck, so dose 25-20. 218 Bee has a 0.015" neck (the modern standard). Neck thickness and thinness are important issues if you have tight chambers!

When word got out I had a Ruger No.1 in 218 Bee, everybody and their brother that had an old box of fired 25-20 brass, wanted me to buy them. I turned them down saying I had bought 500 vergin Winchester brass from Midway. I have an additional 100 brass from factory ammo. 70 of which are unfired because of poor accuracy (2.5" @ 50 yards from a rest!) My hand loads are 1/4" or better @ 100 from a rest and 5/8" offhand! Load= WW modern brass, Rem 6 1/2 primer, 12.5 gr H4227, & 52grain Nosler solid flat base (discontinued in the 90's) The best replacement is the Sierra 50 grain medium velocity bullet (Berger used the J4 jacket, but it just isn't the same!) Ground hogs just pop at 150 yards and explode at 75 yards! BTW the bullet is seated out to touching the lands!

Ivan

Scharfschuetzer · Jun 2, 2020

25/20 Savage Model 23

Good advice on sizing the necks down a little at a time. I use an interchangeable collet style neck sizing die to do that. I can also neck size my 32/20 brass with that die too.

My 25/20 Model 23.

cgbach · Jun 3, 2020

I do it in multiple steps as well. I built my own dies.
C.G.B.

Drm50 · Jun 3, 2020

Is this trouble with 25/20 and 22 Hornet maybe caused by reduction of copper in cartridge brass?

DWalt · Jun 3, 2020

Sizing the neck down in stages is fairly common, as sizing the neck up. Trying to size a .22 neck up to, say, .30 in one stage is not practical and can split the neck. Best to do upsizing by around 0.02" to 0.03" per stage. I once tried converting .220 Swift brass to .303 Savage, and I needed to go .22>6mm>6.5mm>7mm>.30 to get it to work well. It's a good idea to anneal the neck afterward, as it works the brass a lot.

Forming 25-20 Brass

rufgr

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growr

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