tell me about the 25 auto cartridge?

[srtolly]

Funny, I know someone that carries one regularly. I have heard all the same arguments made for any caliber. If I'm just running to the store I have a Davis .32 that I drop in a pocket. If I'm going to the big city or out for a while I take my Glock 27 (only because its lighter than a 1911).

I used to say all that stuff about the smaller calibers too. I'm older and wiser now.

 

[Lucky Derby]

My step dad has a Baby Browning. Neat little pistol. I doubt I would ever carry it.

My dad's partner used to carry a Beretta Jetfire in a handcuff case on his duty belt, as a back up to his 6" Colt Trooper MKIII .357 Magnum.
Personally I probably try to bludgeon someone with that huge Colt rather than shoot them with the .25.

 

[TestPilot]

It had its moments. But,I can't think of anything that cannot be better achieved with a 380ACP LCP or Bodyguard.

 

[doubleh]

I used to stop in the LGS coming home from work in the afternoon because they had a coke machine with the cheapest cokes in town.. There was a state cop that did the same and we would sit around and chew the fat once in a while. He told us a .25 auto story one afternoon when the subject came up about the effectiveness of the caliber..

Seems there was a guy in the little town where he was stationed that was prone to get into altercations regularly. He told us he had hauled the same individual to the hospital three different times to get patched up from a gunshot wound. All were from a .25 auto to the chest. No serious damage at all.

 

[wally]

Get a .22LR pistol as 22LR is almost as powerful and a LOT cheaper.

And a lot less reliable in pistols this small. But now that you can buy pistols as small and usually lighter in .32ACP or .380ACP its hard to make a case for the .25ACP other than the neat factor. I've three of the little buggers that have only been shot to see that they still worked.

He told us he had hauled the same individual to the hospital three different times to get patched up from a gunshot wound. All were from a .25 auto to the chest. No serious damage at all.

Back when these guns were designed, a quick, free trip to the hospital wasn't a reward for the crime, and thus these little guns were a lot more effective for defense as getting shot in the torso with anything often meant a painful, lingering death from sepsis unless you could afford the best doctors.

 

[Kleanbore]

Decades ago I had a cousin, now deceased, who lived in the Rocky Mountains. He kept a .25 Browning in his car.

He told me that they sometimes saw mountain lions. I laughed--but it turned out that he was serious.

I have known two others who have carried them. I would not.

 

[Stevie-Ray]

"Did Jeff Cooper really say, 'If you shoot someone with a .25 and he finds out about it he is really going to be mad at you.' "

If he did, he was an even bigger blowhard fool that I thought he was.

Blasphemy! You'll smoke a turd in hell for that!.......Robin Williams, The Survivors

 

[Potatohead]

I have Baby Browning, just because!

I never carry it, because even though it is slightly smaller, it is heavier then my Kel-Tec .380.

But it really IS way better then a Sharp Sick!

And surprisingly accurate for having almost no sights.

View attachment 202640

rc

RC,
how's the trigger on that little guy?

 

[MICHAEL T]

Get a Beretta 950 or Model 20-

The best little Berettas ever made . Small lite and accurate . leave the 21 for others .Find a good used 950 or model 20 (that's a 950 in DA/SA) Way better than the 21.

I have several Beretta's in 25 and a Bauer also. The poor 25 acp. Well in early 1980's my 950 Beretta was good enough to send a want to be robber running out of a parking garage at 2AM . Just the site of it worked no need to fire. I carry one of my Berettas now and then . I think 3 or 4 in the body might make my point .

 

[skoro]

so is it good, bad, and will it work when needed?

I have a tiny little Beretta Jetfire in 25acp that I like a lot. It's a real hoot at the range. I don't carry anything smaller than my P3AT, though.

I've read all the internet stories about 25acp rounds bouncing off eggshells and failing to penetrate a t-shirt. How much internet bs you're willing to listen to is up to you, of course. But I won't kid you - the 25acp is lethal if that projectile hits the vitals. It's no toy.

 

[astra600]

Trying to get the thumb on the grip safety just right, the second finger around the grip just right and the trigger finger just so on the Colt baby Browning is time consuming and iffy. Neat historical guns, but you need Pee Wee Hermans Pee Wee hands to shoot more than a shot every few seconds. Weighs twice what the Keltec P32 does. KT is much easier to shoot.

 

[MedWheeler]

All you .25 detractors are making me want to go out and get one..!

(Besides, .25 ammo is way more readily-available around here than is .22LR!)

 

[Zeeemu]

James Bond carried a .25 Beretta.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_James_Bond_firearms

 

[rcmodel]

Trying to get the thumb on the grip safety just right, the second finger around the grip just right and the trigger finger just so on the Colt baby Browning is time consuming and iffy.

Just a minor point.

But the Colt Model 1908 Vest Pocket is not a FN Baby Browning.
Or visa versa.

The Baby Browning does not have a grip safety.
And it is a smaller and lighter gun, with room for a little more finger on the grip.

Colt 1908
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colt_Model_1908_Vest_Pocket

Baby Browning
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/FN_Baby_Browning

rc

 

[cfullgraf]

James Bond carried a .25 Beretta.

Beat me to it.

If Bond carried a 25 ACP, that is good enough for me.

But Bond was forced to upgrade to a 32 ACP which was reported by Q to hit like a ton of bricks--or something to that effect.

 

[JohnBT]

You do know that James Bond was a fictional character, right?

 

[cfullgraf]

Fictional?

James Bond has to be real. He even has a wikipedia page on the internet.

 

[Sav .250]

Nice little weapon when used up, close and personal.

 

[pockets]

Actually, the non-fictional Ian Fleming carried a Browning Baby during WWII. But then again, he also wrote 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'.

James Bond carried a stripped-down Beretta 418 (most likely) in .25acp....but in all of the first books he used many other guns. In fact, he rarely pulls the Beretta out. In the initial 007 book Casino Royale, Bond has and uses 3 guns: Beretta .25, a .38 special, and a .45 of some sort.
CHAPTER 1
"His last action was to slip his right hand under the pillow until it rested under the butt of the .38 Colt Police Positive with the sawn barrel."
CHAPTER 8
"He then took from under his shirts in another drawer a very flat .25 Beretta automatic with a skeleton grip"
CHAPTER 15
"He felt under the dashboard and from a concealed holster took out a long barreled Colt Army Special .45, and laid it on the seat beside him."

Note that Bond made his first 2 kills with (1) a Remington 30-30 and (2) a knife.
Casino Royale - chapter 20
#1 - "Then I got a colleague from our organization in New York and a couple of Remington thirty-thirty's with telescopic sights and silencers
#2 - "For various reasons it had to be an absolutely silent job. I chose the bedroom of his flat and a knife. And, well, he just didn't die very quickly."

I enjoyed the movies, but the books are much better with no gadgets.


.

 

[golden]

Anything else but a 25acp unless it was not a gun

I would rather just about anything else than a .25ACP. On the other hand, I would rather a .25ACP pistol like the BERETTA or a COLT 1908 than to use a knife or stick. If you have not been trained to use a knife (even a large one) or a stick, like a baton, you will just get hurt.

I have an old BERETTA 950 and found it well made, reliable and a easy to shoot.
The other day at the range, I was shooting a HI STANDARD Sport King .22lr and it was great and with hollow point it would be much more effective than any .25ACP. Groups were small and clustered even at 25 yards.
On the other hand, there is not a chance that I could carry it without a holster and almost no chance that it would not print under my clothes. So I am more likely to be carrying a .25ACP (very unlikely) when in plain clothes than a HI STANDARD Sport King!
Both are very good at what they were designed to do, but are meant for completely different uses.

Jim

 

[JR47]

Like most cartridges conceived a century ago, there are different ones available today for the same purposes.

Despite the stories, it seems to have worked for that century when used in the fashion for which it was originally made. Up close and personal, in situations that didn't allow for larger guns.

As for the stories, remember the ones about the "horrible recoil of the .45 ACP"? That is about as believable as the ones about people absorbing .25 ACP rounds like a sponge, and "being fine".

There are much better calibers, and the weapons to go with them, available today. So what? The little .25 will still work if it's all you have. Very few people actually want to be shot with anything.

 

[Cee Zee]

MUCH better reliability than the same gun chambered in .22 LR.

OK I got this far in the thread and I couldn't take it any more. I bought one of those famous Saturday Night Specials back when I was young and broke and sometimes found myself heading into places I might need a gun. In fact I bought "the" gun that was responsible for the term Saturday Night Special from what I understand. It's a Raven P-25. Reliable? If mine ever went through an entire mag (6 rounds) without jamming and/or failing to feed I don't remember it. But mine, unlike most, was very accurate until I took it apart to clean it. Then it became like every Beretta .25 I shot from that time. It couldn't hit a bull elephant in a bathroom (even if you could get a bull elephant in a bathroom). Those Beretta's were just as junky as the Ravens in my experience. But again for a while mine was crazy accurate. I once nailed a leaf floating in a pond from 60 yards away after my dad made fun of my itty bitty pistol (dad carried .357's). He couldn't even open his mouth to say anything when he saw that happen. But would it do any actual damage if it hit what you shot at? Good question. What I understand is that a hot .22LR round has more energy than a .25 round. In fact they sometimes have DOUBLE the energy of a .25 round.

People think the centerfire design makes the round more reliable. Maybe it would be but every gun I ever saw that used that round was just plain junk including the Berettas. I've shot those guns. They were unreliable and innaccurate.

I bought one because it was as cheap as they come and it was highly concealable (a key point in a world where carrying a gun in your pocket could put you in prison). I only very rarely actually carried it concealed but it was a little comforting knowing it was there. I would have swallowed it if someone pulled out a real gun though.

I have a Ruger .380 now that is almost exactly the same size as my Raven. Guess which one I carry sometimes? I haven't shot that Raven for a decade or so. Ammo is way too expensive too. It's lower powered than .22 but costs 5 times as much. Go figure. Needless to say I never shot that .25 a whole lot because I didn't have money for ammo when I first bought the gun. Then I got myself a real pistol and I've never looked back. I still have my Raven. It's for sale if anyone wants it. I even have a couple of extra mags for it. It's a fine piece for the right buyer!

 

[JohnBT]

It's the big old rim on the .22 LR that makes it so unreliable in a stick-mag fed autoloader.

The .25 ACP is semi-rimmed.

I've seen numerous little .25 pistols and they all worked. Of course, nobody I knew ever owned a Raven or wanted one. They're junk.

 

[Skyshot]

I worked with a fellow back in 1973. He was cheating on his wife and she found out about it. Well she snuck over to the "love nest" and got in through an open window. She had armed herself with a .25 and emptied the magazine on her hubby and his mistress. He took 4 rounds to the face and chest and she took 2 rounds 1 in the chest and 1 in the arm. Everyone lived. A couple of months later, I ran into the guy and asked him what is was like. He said he didn't remember a thing, except seeing the pistol in her hand, never heard the first shot. He said the doc said if she would have had some better ammo, the 1st round would have done him .

 

[midland man]

I like my jimeneze arms 25 its all black and I don't like chrome pistols they will give you away when light glares off of them! but mine I've cleaned it and it shoots great!