As I recall, A.C. Gould chronicled the development of what was called "the .25 Caliber Cartridge" from its inception by F. J. "J. Francis" Rabbeth to its launch as a factory cartridge, in his Modern American Rifles.

It was the "small game express rifle" of its time, like the .22 Hornet was 40 years later.  The goal was a cartridge of smaller bore, flatter trajectory and more accuracy than the .32-20 with the relatively easy fouling management of that cartridge.  It was originally developed with a 77-gr bullet, and Stevens and Maynard set their rifling twists in accordance with this length. However, when the ammunition companies started loading it, they went with an 85-gr bullet as a standard.

"Thus," Mr. Gould sighed, "A superior hunting cartridge was transformed into a mediocre target cartridge."

I find in my own .25-20s that the bullet holes sometimes get slightly oval once past 100 yards if the weights are close to 90 gr.  The 77-gr bullets exhibit no evidence of this.  I mostly shoot mine at the usual plinking/hunting distances, so I mostly use the weights of 77 gr and under. The 257420 is pretty good also.

The mutant .25-20 target cartridges hand loaded for target shooting today use bullets of 120 gr, but the rifling twists are in the 10" area.  Back then, a fast twist was thought to be incompatible with black powder, retaining more fouling and perhaps stripping the bullet as it went down the barrel.  Of course, modern BPCR shooters have thoroughly discredited this notion.

Here is a link to our 25 caliber list    (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)

I had completely forgotten about the 75 grain Rapine. I dont recall ever having used it. It came from an estate sale with about seven or eight other Rapine molds. Lord willing it will be front and center very soon.

I went and dug out the Rapine mold for the 75 grain bullet and it is much the same as the one pictured accept the meplate might be a wee bit larger.   I dont know how to add pictures .

wildthing wrote on Jan 11^th, 2026 at 12:27pm:


Mine has an original Stevens barrel marked "25-20", but it has a 1 in 17" twist and a .251" barrel.  And it is a Model 47 with a 44 action.  Does OK with .25 air rifle bullets.

I have a Ballard with a 18 twist 25/20ss barrel. It will stabilize a custom .537 lg, 57 gr bullet and a 257420 with the GC cut off (.500 lg). I think it will stabilize the same bullet with the GC reamed off but, I haven't tried it.

That is the Arsenal Mold we have.
I am wondering if anyone with the slow twist .251" groove barrels has tried the Lyman # 252435.  It is listed as a 51 grain and is round nose plain base.  I dont have one handy to measure for length but we do have the mold. The design is intended for the 25 acp.
Another option we have available is a Ranch Dog mold also intended for the 25 acp.  We have it listed on our site as being 57 grain.  It is a flat nose plain base but I think they drop from the mold at about .257" but can be sized down for the smaller bore/groove barrels.

I have 6 or 7 Stevens rifles in 25 rimfire, they all have .257 bores.