The Epiphany of a Mouse Shooter

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Dr.Rob

Dr.Rob

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So I'm scouring the local Sportsman's Warehouse looking for cheap plinking fodder for my .25 Colt. I keep noting a box of 50 ronds is like $11-12 just for FMJ (as if I'd trust a 25 with anything but). Now something occurs to me as I see a box of .25 autos marked $7.

Oh wait this is CCI Blazer. It's aluminum cased, you can't re-...

Wait a minute. Does ANYONE reload .25?? How can you even see to hold a case that small.. and you sure can't load that tiny hole with big flaky red dot. I don't even OWN .25acp dies. If I bought them I'd have more in the dies than in the .25 acp I own (it was left by a renter). I'm not even sure I've ever successfully picked up a .25 case.

Now I know that Fiocchi out of my 25 is hot and sparky, but my .25 is just a fun gun. So into my cart went a box of blazer 25acp.

Until now I could think of no reason to buy CCI/Blazer.
 
I met a man who loaded .25 ACP.

This was twenty years ago... closer to thirty. He was an older gentleman.

He said it was a technological challege and fun to get the "silly thing" to work right. I am sure he was right.
 
A buddy of mine loads .25 ACP, or at least did at one time. Several years ago he bought several thousand once fired .25 ACP cases from an ad in Shotgun News.
I think he loaded FMJs. He said the charges were pretty small.

I have loaded .32 ACP. It was an interesting experience especially since I'd been loading .38 Special just before. When I reefed on the press handle like I did for the .38 I crinkled quite a few cases.
 
Speer doesn't list data for .25. Lyman does, let's see. . . start about 1 grain and peak about 1.3 or 1.4, for most powders.

I can't even adjust my Uni Flow powder measure down that low.

Like the man said, more for the challenge than anything else.
 
I have done it, mostly as an experiment. Needless to say you have to be very careful with the press-handle. Powder measures don't work too well and weighing is a good idea. The really hard part used to be finding bullets of any kind or weight sized to .250, not .257.

This led to the development of the World's most worthless wildcat - the .22/25 Pussycat (.25ACP bottlenecked to .22). but at least you could buy bullets. Bullets will expand (slightly) and it's ideal for defending one's self against a charging grasshopper.
 
$7 is worth giving the Blazer ammo at least a try! Usually find it for about $2 more, that's a pretty good deal.
 
.25 Blazer works pretty well. Bro-in-law (long time cop) investigated several murders where the Blazer worked better than anything else they had seen in .25.
 
I shoot Blazer 9mm when I don't have Winchester ammo or if I get a really good deal on it. I don't reload for the 9mm yet but I have the dies. I'm not sure it is worth it when I can buy fully loaded 9mm for $5-6 a box. It is also nice not to have to pick up cases. I pick up all brass cases even though I don't reload because I may need them in the future and it seems like a waste. No guilt with Blazer ammo, just let them lie.:)
 
Neck it down to .177 ....

Now I should have thought of that. Maybe I'll have to start over.

Of course I'll need a three-step set of dies ....
 
Twenty years ago when I briefly owned a Baby Browning I loaded ammo for it.

If I had one now I would probably buy a bullet mould and that would solve any problems with bullet supply.
 
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