I love the .25 ACP!

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Attackers tend to run the second they discover their victim is armed, even without a shot fired.

This illustrates another challenge the 25 faces and that is they are all small. Makes them harder for the BG to see. Frank Serpico pulled a 25 on a hooker he was arresting when working vice. The hooker didn't believe it was a genuine gun until Serpico put a shot into the mattress. Skeeter Skelton said the 25 (or 22) is not a round to take to a gunfight but you might be able to bluff your way out. I agree with him on this point.

range while the .22 Stinger is almost 200 ft. lbs.

191 according to CCI's ballistics chart but keep in mind that would be out of a rifle. Substantially less (close to the 25) out of a pistol.
 
Substantially less (close to the 25) out of a pistol.

pistol 1395 ft/sec - 138 ft. lbs. still double the .25
 
Over this Christmas holiday I've been carrying a .25, really a matter of circumstances rather than choice.
Perhaps it's not a elephant gun or heck even a manstopper but the way I figure it's better than nothing at all.
 
Attackers tend to run the second they discover their victim is armed, even without a shot fired. They really run with a bullet in them (if they can). They usually don't take the time to discuss ballistics when they're bleeding and in a hurry to exit. If they are able to run with a bullet in them, they'll get arrested at the ER if they live long enough. I wouldn't recommend the .25 for bear protection tho

Your statement might hold true for “Normal people”, but mean dysfunctional people with a good mad on usually don't stop until they're unconscious. People who are drunk or drugged up can be the same way. Gang bangers are notorious for not going down as long as they can still fight. They're more worried about humiliation than death.
 
1395 ft/sec - 138 ft. lbs. still double the .25
No. Out of a 2" barrel, the .22LR Stinger will give about 1000fps or about 72fpe, which is about 8 lbs more than a normal load .25ACP. Like I'd said in my previous post, if one is a masochist, one can hand load and get it close to 100fpe if the pistol is a non soft metal piece. With that said, neither is a good SD round (even the Stinger from a short barrel).
 
I believe, the 138 ft lb estimate is for a rifle versus a handgun and not even a shorty.

I like 22's A LOT, but for self defense, it is not the best choice. Better than rocks of course. I generally favor 380acp or larger for this task. Personally, I use a 38spl revolver mostly or sometimes a Glock Model 23 (40 S&W). But I am not a fanatic on carry in general and frequently choose not to carry, but have the loaded gun with me in my vehicle which I often work out of.
 
I was a kid who grew up on a farm. Dad would let me shoot anything in the cabinet except his beautiful and prized Browning A-5 with no supervision. I did allot of penetration experiments because in my mind, a gun was only as good as what it would shoot through. The 30-06 and Mosin Nagant would shoot through a fairly large tree, the .22 rifles would pierce the body panels of the "shootin car", the .22 revolver would make a good dent. I found that the .25 auto pistol barely chipped the paint! I goofed with the .25 some more and found that it would not penetrate 3 paper feed sacks! I am confident that a jacket and sweat shirt would stop this round as well as a vest would.

If I pulled that pistol on an armed attacker, I am confident it would get me shot or stabbed. I would rather comply with an attacker and hope for mercy than escalate the situation by firing a toy noise maker at him.
 
I saw an attempted suiside with a .25 when I was a kid. A notorious drunk was having an argument with his wife on his front lawn several houses down. He staggered out by the street and held a small shiney silver object to his head and POP! He fell to the ground and lay there as his wife ran screaming back into the house. After a while as nobody paid him any attention he finaly got up and staggered back to the front porch and sat down. That is when the ambulance arived. The neighbors all gathered to see the specticle. As the paramedics worked onm him it looked like someone had stubbed a cigar out on the side of his head. The tiny bullet had actually bounced off his skull! After medical treatment for the minor injury he was taken to the behaviorial health unit. That is when I learned that small habndguns don't do the job.
 
Yea; personally, the 22LR is a better caliber than the 25acp. And if you understand the difference between bulk pack plinking ammo, and some good quality ammo like CCI stingers, then you know you can get very good reliable results from the 22LR. Basically, there is nothing better about the 25acp compared to the 22LR if you're using quality ammo. Matter of fact; with ammo like Stingers and some other high-velocities, you can do better than the 25acp. Also, with the 22LR, you can buy a box of 500 rounds for $20 and practice 20X more often.

And being it sounds like you already have an love your 25acp; and that is perfectly fine if you want to stay with that; at least realize that using Hollow Point ammo is the WORST thing you can do with that ammo. It's a small blowback pistol. You need the best and most reliable feeding possible. You also need as much penetration as possible. Round nose will guarantee you the best feeding and penetration. Whether it's FMJ, LRN, or maybe even buffalo bore or similar might make a hot round. Either way; stay with penetration and feeding, and stay away from hollow points. Just my opinion.
 
I've had good luck with .22 LR CCI Blazer bulk pak ammo, probably gone through 6-7 525 rd. paks with only 1 dud. Another good brand is Centurion, a little more money, by a couple of bucks but it seems to be more accurate when shooting for bench rest accuracy. LM
 
A Kel-Tec P3AT or Ruger LCP is alittle bit bigger than a Colt 1908 yet offers so much more power than .25 ACP, Even a .32 ACP is much better.
 
If the barrel is less than 2" long the .25acp has better penetration than the .22LR. I like the .25acp except for the cost.
 
39 posts and no pictures! Here's my one and only .25acp. I am very surprised at the difference in recoil between the .22 TPH and the .25acp TPH, which is much more powerful it seems. Like the differnce between 9mm and .40. If I had to choose, I'd pick a .25 over a .22 anyday.

tph25011.jpg
 
The first self defense pistol I bought was a little 25acp. I took it into a place I called on because they wanted to see it. While we were passing it around the wearhouse guy came, in picked the gun up and said "I got shot with one of these things in Florence, SC last summer". I asked him what it did to him. He said "It made me so mad that I took it away from the guy and beat him senseless". I sold it the next day. Now I feel naked if I'm only carrying my 380acp bug gun. I usually carry a 357sig CC & keep a 45acp gun in the nightstand & a 12 gauge by the bed. I'd rather error on the side of too much fire power than to get caught with less than I need to live.
 
. While we were passing it around the wearhouse guy came, in picked the gun up and said "I got shot with one of these things in Florence, SC last summer". I asked him what it did to him. He said "It made me so mad that I took it away from the guy and beat him senseless".

It can go either way. A couple friends of mine...brothers...saw a guy get shot in the chest with a Raven .25 pistol in the parking lot of a local honky tonk. He went to his knees...asked the shooter what he'd done to him...fell face forward and died.

Not saying that a .25 is a good choice, but they can be pretty wicked. It depends on bullet placement.
 
I bought the HP's just because I was having trouble finding

You should hang on to that Walther TPH, they are getting very hard to come by.

I have quite a few .25's, probably at least a dozen, I load them up in my progressive press to well over 1000 FPS in 35 grain HP. I bought the HP's just because I was having trouble finding ball.

I wouldn't carry one for self defense if I thought I might have to use it, but really that's what selection choice is always about, isn't it? If I knew I'd get into a gunfight, after every conceivable idea of trying to get out of it, I'd pack my 10MM if I was limited to a handgun.

I shoot target with the little .25's, they are tons of fun! The best ones for that are the Astra Cubs, far from being the most expensive, but certainly the most accurate.
 
I have an old baby Browning made in 1915. It's a great deal of fun for plinking with, but the ammo costs of the .25 don't let us shoot it very often.

Depending on how I'm dressed, my carry guns range from .380 to .357 Sig.

I only carry the .380 in the dead of summer when that's all that I can hide.
 
Back in the mid 70s when I became an LEO a lot of the veteran officers of that era carried .25 autos as a back-up. The Berettas, Colts, and Brownings were pretty common. Can't say as I know of any officer that ever used them. But, they were carried a lot. I no longer own a firearm in that caliber, but, over the years I have owned all three brands.

I have worked suicides where the little .25 was effective. So, they do work.

There are better choices available today. Although, it definitely would not be my "go-to" caliber of choice, before the recent .380 - mini 9mm flood of the market, it was a popular caliber. I remember a few years ago, seeing an old Colt .25 that had been carried through WWI by a US soldier (no claims of usage or effectiveness).
 
For the naysayers, I had a friend who was killed with a .25 auto, guy shot at him five times and hit him once, in the heart.
He bled out and died before help could arrive.
While the shot didn't knock him down or anything like that, it took all the sap and wind right out of him. He walked to a porch and sat down and that is where he died.

Another buddy was shot in the eye socket and permanently blinded by a .25.
Destroyed the eyeball as a matter of fact.
Bullet hit the top of the orbital socket, zipped around the back and came back out the bottom of the orbital socket.
In this case the shot DID knock him down and again, this low powered gunshot took any and all ambitions right out of him.

Don't kid yourself that the .25 acp is a toy or a BB gun. These pistols have killed a lot of people who thought along those lines until they found out different, the hard and fatal way.
 
Here is my Astra Cub .25ACP, one helleva well-built and accurate pistol, I keep it loaded with 50gr Fiocchi FMJ.

Cub3_small.jpg
 
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