check out ny new model 25-5

[oldolds442]

just picked up a new to me model 25-5 yesterday. it had been in a gunshop on consignment for $475. went back several time to work on the owner to try to get him to come down to a reasonable price. was hoping for about $400. guy wouldn't budge. finally, after a couple of weeks, he says that he will go $450. i was on the SW forum and was mentioning this, and a guy emails me to see if i am interested in one just like it, best of all for $350. he lives in the next town, and is a parole officer there. we start talking and we realize that its the same gun as the one in the shop. the guy was trying to make $125 on the consignment gun. glad i waited and got the gun i wanted for a lot less..good ending to the old year..

 

[HSMITH]

BIG score!!! I have a 6" just like it. They sure are pretty.

Measure the cylinder throats, lots of these guns came with oversized throats that nearly mandate jacketed bullets only as lead bullets will severely lead the barrel.

 

[Majic]

Measure the cylinder throats, lots of these guns came with oversized throats that nearly mandate jacketed bullets only as lead bullets will severely lead the barrel.

A correctly sized bullet made of sufficient hardness will not lead the bore. A .454" bullet may shoot more accurately if the throats are oversized. Measure the throats and use appropiate sized bullets.

 

[HSMITH]

Majic, with all due respect, the throats on a big portion of these guns run .457-.459". They won't shoot standard pistol diameter bullets of any hardness or with any lube without serious leading. Rifle bullets work well but try finding something you can load at levels suitable for a 25-5 that is sized .457" or bigger.

My notebook shows 65 different loads with TWENTY different bullets tried, all lead cast bullets, in my big throated 25-5. Only the rifle bullets have shown promise. At 350 grains for the light ones they are somewhat tricky to load at a level that will not hurt the gun, so I am honing out a mold........

These guns are not something the average guy is going to get shooting with lead bullets.

 

[Majic]

By adjusting your mold, or anealing the bullet and bumping it up you have created the appropiate sized bullet for the revovler as you know. Not one time was common commercial bullets mentioned. One size of bullet was mentioned by me and there are custom bullets to be bought, but you are the one who said lead bullets would sevely lead the bore. I was offering that there are indeed things to be done to make a oversized throat revolver to shoot lead bullets accurately without leading the bore be the shooter average or not.

 

[JoeHatley]

oldolds442,

Nice gun at a great price!! I've have one just like it for a few years. Tons of fun, and quite accurate too.

Joe

 

[oldolds442]

i have been hearing a lot about chamber size and leading, and for the life of me cant see the correlation....if the chamber is a little oversize, how does that cause leading?

 

[HSMITH]

oldolds, the base of the bullet cannot seal against the chamber walls if the chamber is oversized, so the hot gas goes rushing past, the bigger the gap the more gas can go by. The hot gas erodes the base of the bullet and blows molten lead forward with it, that lead hits the cold chamber walls and the cold forcing cone and the cold bore and when it does it sticks. In the bore the bullet comes bopping along eventually and irons the lead deposits into the bore. So now you have lead depositing at a pretty good clip, and the base of the bullet looks like a mud pie some kid hit with a garden hose. Accuracy at distance with the base of the bullet deformed is not going to happen. Even to the point that bullets will keyhole at 30 yards into an 18" pattern. The harder the bullet the less deformation will harm the base, but you won't stop it with the hardest bullets on the market. I heat treated some magnum shot I cast, brinnell 30 or so, and not enough better to bother with.

IF yours has the big throats custom cast bullets are the only way to shoot lead, whether you cast them or someone else does.

I have never fired a jacketed bullet through mine, but I have it on good authority that the model is typically very accurate with jacketed bullets even though the throats are larger than they should be.