Rifle Bullets at Pistol Velocity

[Bobby Tomek]

JA-

I'm sitting here wondering if I should be thanking you or mumbling your name under my breath and cussing LOL. You put "6.8" on my brain, and now I can't stop thinking about a 22-24" carbine barrel. I even looked online last night and found a good deal on brass along with dies that were in stock. Plenty of bullets for the 6.8 are in stock as well. Fortunately I did not see a barrel so I haven't put the hurt on my poor debit card...yet...ha ha.

[J A XSP]

JA-

I'm sitting here wondering if I should be thanking you or mumbling your name under my breath and cussing LOL. You put "6.8" on my brain, and now I can't stop thinking about a 22-24" carbine barrel. I even looked online last night and found a good deal on brass along with dies that were in stock. Plenty of bullets for the 6.8 are in stock as well. Fortunately I did not see a barrel so I haven't put the hurt on my poor debit card...yet...ha ha.

I've been mumbled and cussed many times for far more grievous transgressions!
I got mine from FyrepowrX and I've had reason to blame him a time or two over the years for helping deplete my meager holdings. :)

Initially, I was a little skeptical about how interesting and useful it might be but it hooked me in a hurry. The barrel is an MGM 21" stainless and I found a stainless "madcat" frame to hang it on and even found silver rings and adequate 3-9X silver scope for it. It looks pretty slick with my walnut Pegasus stock set. And it's been very accurate with a number of hand-loaded bullets and factory ammo. I didn't like the factory Hyperformance CX bullets at all, though they would probably have been accurate enough for a vitals shot on a whitetail at 100 yards. Factory 110 VMax ammo is sub MOA and I think the 120 SST factory ammo is right there as well.

If it was in a lefty stock, I'd bring it down and leave it with you to fool around with for a while to get the urge out of your system. :D :D

[61Knuckle]

CH still lists 257TCU die sets for$116. I bought mine several years ago and had to wait about a year for a production run. They may still have some available. The 25-45 Sharps dies were cheap [$25 or so at Midway] and I used a set to resize brass for fire forming, used Wilson neck size dies after fire forming until my CH dies arrived. I like the 257 TCU [aka 25 Ugalde] and have never picked up a 25-45 Sharps barrel.

[J A XSP]

CH still lists 257TCU die sets for$116. I bought mine several years ago and had to wait about a year for a production run. They may still have some available. The 25-45 Sharps dies were cheap [$25 or so at Midway] and I used a set to resize brass for fire forming, used Wilson neck size dies after fire forming until my CH dies arrived. I like the 257 TCU [aka 25 Ugalde] and have never picked up a 25-45 Sharps barrel.

I think the Ugalde/TCU version is better but the 25-45 doesn't leave much on the table. :) For what it is, it's a cheap, easy to get around the wildcat aspect of a 25 caliber 223-based cartridge. :)

[Slowpoke Slim]

I can't help but agree with you JA.

From a guy on the 6mm side of it, I have a 6 TCU and a 6x47 (222 Rem mag), and dies and brass for both, there really isn't much between them or the 6x45.

Having the readily available dies AND brass for 25-45 Sharps would be a clincher if I were after a 25 cal 223 case. Sure the TCU case looks "sexier", but I doubt any varmint would be able to tell the difference if shot with either one. I think the slight taper of the case on the Sharps version would be a better feeder in an AR platform. Where as the "sexy" TCU case would give a slight advantage in a bolt gun or a single shot. But we are splitting tiny hairs here.

I'd still like to build a 6mm x "something" on a bolt gun one day (both my examples are Contender carbines). I'd probably go with the TCU case since I already have the dies. I do like the bullet selection in 6mm vs. 25 cal, especially since Berger dropped almost their whole line of 25 cal varmint bullets. I bought a Stevens 200 in 223 many years ago to do such a build on, but made the mistake of shooting it first, and found a handload for that 223 barrel that is just unbelievable, so I never took off the barrel.

But as far as small case 25's go, I am really enjoying playing with my 256 Win mag (Contender pistol), and I've found a load that I really like with it. Only problem now is I'm up against the wall of "unpopular" 25 cal bullet opportunities and the 257 cal Hornady 75 gr Vmax that the barrel loves have been out of production for quite some time now. Not sure when (if) bullets will ever hit the shelves again.

Not sure where I was going with all of my rambling here (sorry) but I think if I were building a 223 cased "something", I would still build it in 6mm just because of the age old issue of better bullet choices and availability.

[J A XSP]

Not sure where I was going with all of my rambling here (sorry) but I think if I were building a 223 cased "something", I would still build it in 6mm just because of the age old issue of better bullet choices and availability.

Good rambling and good point. :)
There's no doubt that 6mm is probably the best bullet selection of any caliber other than .224 or .308. For any other platform, going right to the 243 Winchester is an obvious choice. For Contender, though, we're stuck with wildcats.
For some reason I've never been drawn to the 6mm as a caliber. I like 7mm and 6.5 has always been attractive, maybe because of shooting loading for old Mauser military rifles over the years.
I've been pleased so far with the 25-45. Having headstamped brass is great but the ability to form 223 brass in one step is pretty great.