G'day All

[StevenJ]

Gday all,

Thanks to Garnett for assisting me to get onto this forum. I recently picked up a Savage 219 chambered for 25-20. In trying to find out about my new purchase, I landed here and started reading. It seems at this is the calibre that people would like to complete their collection but this gun is no collectors piece. Ill open another topic to discuss it and to ask my questions and keep this as an intro.

My interests are making black powder and learning how to do as much as I possibly can myself to get my rifle shooting. I can't see that I would ever make my own brass or primers, but just about everything else is fair game.

My purchase precipitated because I was looking for a single shot that is easy to clean from any black powder fouling. I already use my black powder to load my shotgun but I wanted a cartridge gun to test my powder more quantitatively. I was also after a caliber that was suited to my small 18 acre parcel of land.

For me, I think I enjoy tinkering with the guns more than I like shooting them. I do like to shoot, but for me shooting is the moment of truth that the variables I have been chasing have had an effect.

Below is the photo that I think seems to interest people the most. Plenty more photos to follow.

[Garnett]

Steven, Welcome to the forum!  You have a very hard to find caliber in the .25-20.  Also, I can see from the steel trigger guard, that your rifle is what I call a  "First Model Utica".  It could have been made before WWII.  Few of these rifles had serial numbers, and even if it did, the records have been lost.  We look forward to more pictures. 

[StevenJ]

Thanks Garnett,

I look forward to tinkering with it and shooting it.

I managed to pick up 150 cases for it. 50 Winchester and 100 Bertram. Although I am still waiting on dies to load, I think the Bertram brass (Aussie made) looks better than the Winchester. It may be that the Winchester was in the shop for a while as the necks are a bit banged around. Visually, the Bertram looks better. To pick up this brass was just over $270. To me that is SUPER expensive, but all I read is that brass is hard to get, so I bought it while I saw it. There is more available, but I just can't justify the cost until I know it shoots.

I'd love to cast my own bullets too, but for the moment, there is another Aussie buisiness that makes them. It costs me $87 to my door for 500 bullets.

Steve

[Garnett]

Steve, I reloaded years ago and taught my son and daughter how to load.  The nice thing about reloading, to me, is that years ago, the .25-20, .32-20, and .30-30 were almost all loaded with round or flat nose bullets because they were in magazine tubes of lever action rifles.  I firmly believe that the modern pointed nose bullet types should be more accurate in these Savage single shots.  Please let us know if you try any in your rifle.

[MikeLeong]

I reloaded my Savage 219 30-30 with Hornady FTX 165 grain bullets, and Leverevolution powder and got great results, one inch groups all day long. I do not think there is any load data from Hornady for 25-20 or 32-20 as those calibers are not popular anymore and the powder/bullet companies do not test them with their products.

The older reloading books will have suggestions for loads that work though using powders that were around back then and still available now. It is always a lot of fun to try out loads that were developed by the experts using their proper monitoring for pressures etc., and see which ones work for you!

[Garnett]

Thanks for the update.  If you have time, please post a picture of some of your targets with modern bullet styles.