.25-35 Winchester

The .25-35 Winchester was introduced in 1895 in the Model 1894 Winchester rifle. Developed with and from the .30-30 Winchester (itself a development from the .38-55 Winchester/Ballard case), the .25-35 helped to bring on modern high velocity, small bore, rifle cartridges.

Ballistics of the .25-35 Winchester are normally a 117 grain flat point bullet at a muzzle velocity of about 2300 fps with a muzzle energy of about 1375 fpe. At 100 yards the numbers were about 1900 fps and 940 fpe. One can duplicate the original 2300 fps load with Hornady's 117 grain Round Nose bullet over 25.7 grains of IMR 3031 powder or 28.1 grains of IMR 4320 powder. Hornady's figures show that at 100 yards this bullet is doing 1965 fps/1003 fpe with 1668 fps/723 fpe at 200 yards. The mid-range trajectory over 200 yards is a reasonable 4.5 inches. This isn't impressive today but in the day it was great for deer and pronghorn antelope and it will still work.

The load has the added advantage of light recoil and the barrels of Winchester 94s, being the same OD as a .30 barrel, are stiffer and the guns often more accurate. My gun is a Thompson-Center custom shop barrel. I've scoped it with a ____ . That's a story in and of itself.

Loads used...

Bullet	Weight	Powder	Charge	Velocity	Energy
Factory	117 gr.	Unknown	Unknown	Velocity	Energy
Hornady RN	117 gr.	BLC(2)	27.0 gr.	2282	1353
Hornady VMAX	75 gr.	BLC(2)	27.0 gr.	2282	1353
Remington JHP	86 gr.	IMR SR4759	8.0 gr.	1191	261