From: dons@eunice.bv.tek.com (don schaefer)
Newsgroups: rec.guns
Subject: Adventures in Reloading
Date: 6 Nov 92 20:00:19 GMT
Article-I.D.: tekgen.1502
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton,  OR.


	

	Once upon a time Remington made a nice little pump action rifle
	(model 14 I think - not stamped on gun) chambered for the 
	25 Remington cartridge. A friend aquired one of these when his
	dad died with a small handful of shells.  Beings that this is
	a old cartridge and that the bigger the better syndrome has
	taken over in the shooting world, this cartridge is no longer
	in production, or even in current reloading manuals.  So after
	searching the ancient archives (friend's 25 year old reloading
	book) I came up with the magic formula to reload this fine
	old cartridge.  This is a interesting little gun.  It has a
	spiraled tubular mag, which allows pointed bullets.  In the
	reloading spec's it also has an over all cartride length.
	After searching the shelves of the local suppliers, I found
	a 100gr spitzer with a cannelure (remember the tubular mag).
	Oh so carefully trimming the case, and adjusting the dies,
	I got the dummy round to chamber.  I thought I really had 
	something here, so I tried running it through the mag into
	the chamber - at this point I was reminded about the over-all
	length of the cartride.  After a few !#$$@! words, I put the
	gun down, cycled a cup of coffee through, went back to 
	the fine art of removing the round from the gun (At this point
	I was glad I followed the basic rule of creating a dummy 
	round). Back to the trimmer, .005 at a wack- how far can I
	go and still have the crimp work on the die - .025 of an inch.
	Will this be enough - lets read the reloading spec's before
	inserting into gun- still way, way to long.  What to do, what
	to do.  I know, let's file the exposed lead off of the bullet.
	Well, now the over-all length was still to long, but it cycled
	through the gun.  Next concern was what would it do to the 
	weight of the bullets, 99grs on 6 that I weighed.  Close
	enough for this gun with a peep sight, and no ammo to shoot.
	Next problem was lack of brass.  The local ancient gun shoot
	had a coffee can of 30 Remington brass.  Sprayed Dillon
	case lube on 30 cases.  Crushed 1st case, crushed 2nd case,
	relubed with RCBS and resized the reset without problems.
	The Dillon lube works great on normal resizing, but it didn't
	work for necking down from 30 to 25 cal.  I will still use
	the Dillon because it makes lubing cases a breeze.  The next
	concern was about the thickness of the neck.  Measured outside
	neck with a bullet seated in both the 25 and 30 cases.  They
	were the same.  I didn't believe it so I loaded 2 more cases,
	and they were the same, good enough.
	Loaded up the newly created 25 Remington cases with a fire-
	forming load (just above the min load), Took them out to the
	range, setup a target at 50yards and bang - it was in the bull.
	Lucky shot- bang - in the bull again- after 10 shoots and a
	4 inch group with a peep sight and a filed tipped fireforming
	load, I was pleased.  With the light departing fast, and the
	fact that I wanted to reload all the rounds again, I ran them
	the action fairly fast.  On the next bench at the range were
	a couple of kids, young adults, (does this mean I'm getting old)
	blasting away with an AK47.  They looked over at the iron
	that I was making noise with, and decided to come over for a
	closer look.  After a short dog-and-pony show about the gun,
	one of the young adults just said COOL.
	After reloading these rounds up again, I wanted to check them
	out, sooo back to the range.  Setup a metal chick at 50 meters
	and bang-clang, moved the chicken to 100 meters and another
	bang-clang, good enough for now.  This gun will be used next
	year by my friends 12year old son for deer hunting.  The gun
	has a mild recoil (almost none) and fits his boy.
	TOOLS/EQUIPMENT used during this adventure were: Pacific (now
	Hornaday) 007 single stage press (I started with a starter 
	kit and still use it for special projects, but I do use a
	dillon 550B for mass quanity loading). Kinetic bullet
	hammer (would have been lost without it), forester case
	trimmer.  
	It is really ashame that in todays one-size fits all, and
	bigger is better mind set, we lost some classic guns
	and cartridges.