Just was given a winchester low wall in 25-20 S.S. with a couple of boxes of new ammo. The rifle appears to be in excellent condition and was wondering if I should shoot it or not. Is it safe to shoot or will that hurt its value by firing,(don't really know its worth).. Any suggestions??

If it was mine I would shoot it and have fun with it. It is a neat caliber and fun to shoot. With reasonable care you will not hurt the gun.

Rifles are tools and tools are ment to be used. The 25-20 SS is a safe cartridge for the low wall and as long as it is sound you should have no trouble. You will have a lot more fun with it shooting than just looking at it.

40 Rod

duzrock, shooting that Rifle should be a lot of fun. It has been mentioned in your responses that new ammo in factory boxes may have some value to collectors. This is most likely true. The other issue is how new??? If it is old original loads it could well be Black Powder loads. That in itself is not necessarily bad. BUT! if it is old enough it could be loaded with Mercuric Primers. That is bad. Shooting Mercuric primed shells can be overcome by serious cleaning. But once a Shell has been fired with a mercuric Primer the shell is forever damaged as the Mercury fouling becomes part of the shell brass and will eventually fail if reloaded and shot enough. I would suggest that you examine the Shell boxes very closely and see if you can find any kind of Date of manufacure or an indication of such. If it goes too far back into the very early 1900s I would consider it suspect. You would be far better to sell this brass to a cartridge collector  for a princley sum and buy some modern manufactured brass. It will most likely be stronger and not loaded with some corrosive materials such as "primers, Mercuric or corrosive" or Black powder or some of the early smokeless powders that also were nasty.  Consider this seriously as a Rifle in very good condition that is shot with nasty primers or Powder and then not really cleaned thoughroly that ends up with a damaged bore will lose value at a rate you just cannot believe. The rule of thumb with serious collectors
is "CONDITION" CONDITION" CONDITION" And bright shiny bore condition is one of the top issues even though the collectors have no intention of ever shooting the Rifle. I hope this helps, Regards, FITZ
P.S. I also would like to mention that Factory Ammo in SEALED boxes is especially prized. If you decide not to use this Ammo for any of the reasons I have mentioned do not break open the boxes. FITZ.

Thanks for the replies. The ammo I have is from Quality Cartridge and is 86 GR. SP.  Modern ammo.(and I found out rather expenseive).
Now I need to find a source for dies and brass..Any suggestions??

Thanks 
Happy Shooting