I used an old pistol. A early 60's model Bauer .25 ACP. At about 15 feet with some full metal jacket rounds it penetrated through 103 pages of a phone book, but had little expansion. I have heard Speer makes a pretty nasty .25 auto round and I am going to test it soon....but you can't say that 103 phonebook pages penetrated at 15 feet is not to shabby considering it has little to no recoil, or weight.
Last edited by was_peacemaker; 09-01-2012 at 08:03 AM.
Was your test ammuntion factory (which manufacturer) or reloads (what recipe)?
Steve
After today, it's all historical.
All I can tell is that it is Winchester ammo. Its old ammo out of a family truck glove box. No idea what the weight is.Originally Posted by Gunreference1
I'm betting this is what you were shooting.
http://www.winchester.com/Products/h...c=25+Automatic
Steve
After today, it's all historical.
The hot Speer load would be their Gold Cot ammo.
http://www.speer-ammo.com/ballistics...x?loadNo=23602
Steve
After today, it's all historical.
I used to carry a Beretta 950 back in the day. Still have it, it's a rather rare Inox version. Didn't know it at the time when I bought it but they were only made the last year of production for the 950.
Personally I would never carry anything but FMJ in a .25.
I can't imagine the "energy dump" from an HP is gonna outweigh the loss of penetration with a .25acp.
If you wanna use HPs get at least a 9mm.
Last edited by weevil; 09-01-2012 at 12:00 PM.
I like the .25 ACP, but don't think I would use it for defense unless it were the only thing I had. I always looked at it as more of an attention-getter. If you shot someone with it, you'd get their attention. They'd, probably, be a little pissed off, too.
Do a similar test with .22 LR HV solids. You should get more penetration with the .22LR. .24 auto is about the single worst round on the planet for any kind of self defense.
Yeah you've got a lot of variety to pick from with .22s, but by and large if you're shooting it out of a 2" bbl it's not gonna be much better than your average .25acp.
A lot of people think the .22 is head and shoulders over the .25 but this comes from data from shooting them out of longer barreled .22s like the Ruger MKs or Browning Buckmark or even rifles. Like any caliber, longer barrels will give better performance. If you fired a .25 out of a rifle it would look better on the chrono and get better penetration too.
But when you get to mouseguns with short 2" barrels .22 and .25 are basically the same thing ballistically.
I will have to do that next time I am at the farm. I agree with you that the .25 ACP is not the best round in the world, but for some reason it seems like a neat little phonebook/milk jug plinker. And it is better than a pointed stick. To be honest I had almost forgotten I had this little .25 sitting up in my closet. Needless to say, the Ka-bar that it was sitting beside is probably a more formidable self-defense weapon.
Also it would seem like the .25 would be more reliable as it is centerfire as opposed to rimfire.
You know what...realistically at the distances one would use a .25 ACP for self defense...a 1/4 of lead flying at 900 FPS is still going to leave a hurtin.
That appears to be it. FMJ no thrills little bullet. Still 103 pages of phonebook at 15 feet with a 2 inch barrel Bauer pistol ain't to shabby.
This ain't to shabby. A .25 Glaser test.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6gQH2erxK4
Did anyone ever make a .25 ACP carbine?
If not, that sounds like a pretty interesting "project" for someone to undertake. Maybe something along the lines using the pistol frame and attaching a "drop-in" type upper to it. Of course, the pistol would have to be one in which the barrel isn't permanently attached to the frame...not even sure if they ever made one that the barrel could be removed.
Just wondering...
Yes that's very true.
Rimfires were never known for having perfect ignition, hence the near extinction of the system in most calibers other than the .22 which is sort of a living fossil in the evolution of the gun and it's ammo. I will say though that the makers of premium rimfire ammo nowadays like CCI do seem to have solved that problem for the most part.
.22 is also a fully rimmed cartridge originally designed for revolvers.
Like all fully rimmed cartridges it doesn't offer the best profile for feeding reliably in a pistol. Sure it can be done they make .44 mag and .38/357 pistols too but a center-fire with a reduced rim like .25acp is a much better design for a pistol, especially small ones with a high slide velocity.
That's basically why the .25acp was invented.
It offers a more reliable feeding round with a better ignition system than .22s in a small vest-pocket auto-loader.
Last edited by weevil; 09-02-2012 at 01:27 PM.
Not that I know of.
.25acp was designed as a small pocket pistol round and it's never really left that niche as far as I know.
.25 is a relatively expensive round, so it's never caught on as a "plinker" like the dirt cheap .22 has.
Other than mouseguns I've never seen a .25 anything.
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