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25 WSSM
hbk
Member Posts: 119 ✭✭
Is a 25 WSSM a good round? How longe range is it? Is it accurate? What is a good gun for it?
Comments
The WSSMs are pretty controversial. They shoot flat and at very high velocity (and pressure), so, according to what I've read, they may have a short barrel life. I've read that barrel life may be as little as 800 - 1000 rounds. Alternately, if you download- build a slower round for them- barrel life may not be affected, but then why have a WSSM? (This assuming you load your own.)
I have a Winchester M70 in .243 WSSM; I built a load for it, and it shoots very well - but I'm a little reluctant to shoot it due to the barrel life issue (so why have it?).
My general sense is they are not widely accepted or used, although several manufacturers are producing them, so I may be wrong -- someone must be buying them.
I have two 25WSSM's and like them both a lot. One is a lightweight hunter and is very effective on deer. It's very easy to pack around the woods due to it's light weight and still doesn't have massive amounts of recoil. The other is in a Win Stealth II and it is extrememly accurate. The first 300 yd. group I shot with it was a 1.768"
So, to answer your questions. Yes it is a good round. It can be competitive at 1000 yds. It is good for up to deer size game. I know you can kill an elk with it but I do feel it is a bit light for that. Factory ammunition comes in pretty much two forms and that is a heavy game bullet and a light varmint bullet. Nothing in between. You have to reload to get the most out of this caliber.
With what little I have worked with the .243 WSSM and what I've seen of the .223 WSSM I think the 25 WSSM is the best of the crop of super short magnums. The case diameter IMO is too short and too fat for the smaller diameter bullets. The case begins to shine with the 25 cal and up. One of the things I find unique with the 25WSSM is it's efficiency. I get 25-06 velocities on .257 Roberts loads. Once I hit that I can't hardly go any further as the pressure curve rises sharply near the top end of these cases. But still, getting 200 more fps out of the little 25 over a .257 Roberts with the same amount of powder is impressive.
Something of note here, the 6.5 Heaton is starting to make a good showing. This is the 25 WSSM case necked up one caliber to 6.5mm/.264. In competition this is using a much higher BC 6.5mm bullet, 20 gr. heavier, launched at nearly the same speed as the upper end 25's. It may not be tearing up the track yet but it is showing good results.
Ipaalp,
Welcome to the forum! I hope you take your .243 WSSM and shoot it some more. One of the things that causes increased barrel wear is shooting high pressure rounds when the barrel is hot. Meaning you can extend the life of your barrel if you let it cool between shots or even strings. Unless you shoot competition you're not likely to shoot that barrel out in 800-1000 rds. Also, remember that that is competition accuracy, Sub .5MOA. You may be satisfied just shooting it with accuracy for as many as 3000 rounds before you lose MOA accuracy. It will be a lot of rounds through it before you feel it should be used on game.
From my reading, I think you are correct in that the 25 WSSM is the best of what's currently available.
Other than the efficiency you mention, however, what other advantages do you see over more conventional rounds, or even WSMs?
(Why aren't WSMs manufactured in smaller calibers - 223, 243, etc??)
When I first heard about the WSSMs, I thought they would be just what I wanted - higher velocity, flat trajectory, good 300 - 700 yard range shooters... kind of a modern version of the 220 Swift but in larger calibers. Then came some negative reviews, plus they are not widely accepted in my area.
The 800 - 1000 round barrel comment was attributed to a Winchester rep in an article about 3 years ago... I can't verify the accuracy of the report - really doesn't seem Winchester would manufacture such a rifle anyway.
The WSSM concept is still attractive to me for velocity/trajectory reasons stated above; guess I've been kind of waiting for the boom or bust - whichever comes. I still don't see much info on them on the forums, though. Why do you think they are not gaining wider acceptance??
Welcome Lpaalp!
Thanks, Cubslover. Not to worry - I have a lot more questions than answers!
Not worried, glad that someone else is here to answer my questions.
Other than efficiency, the big draw to the WSSM's is the short action. Although it is somewhat lost on the .22 cal crowd with .223's, PPC's and 22-250's in their midst. It's just the more efficient movement of the shorter bolt. You don't have to move your face from the stock to cycle the action. Which in reality only works in a bench position or target style stance with a regular length action. How many guys do you know who stay totally locked up with the rifle while cycling it?
The WSM's never made it to smaller calibers as they felt, correctly I might add, that it would be a tremendous waste of powder. One thing was never taken into account and that would be slightly increasing the size of the WSSM case for the 6.5's. That is one round the major manufacturers seem to bypass like the common rifle buyer of today won't even look at. If they really polled shooters I think the time is right to see a boom in 6.5 sales. The .270WSM is lacking in that no one seems to feel it has ballistic potential enough to make super high BC bullets for it. There is one guy I bought bullets from up in Canada that nononsense gave me his website and that is :
http://www.wildcatbullets.homestead.com/.
In a nutshell we are still stacked against the marketers of firearms companies past, that rattle their chains in the halls of Wall street and tell everyone how good they've been and deserve a break. Yet people like nn and others who've realy gotten into the cutting edge of ballistics and what will sell...because they are selling it.... seem to get pushed aside. As of the last 5-6 years there has been some real progress in what the major companies do. But old answers to the same problem have existed for a while and no action seems forthcoming at times.
I don't know anyone who stays locked up with the rifle while cycling it, which is certainly an issue when shooting at a small object at medium/long range.
Also agree with your 6.5 comments; forums in particular seem to demonstrate an interest in this caliber.
I usually give competition credit for advances in any industry - electronics being a classic example - and know that smart companies
constantly poll their users and retailers, analyze sales trends, etc, in the interests of improving their products and sales. Doesn't sound like the firearms guys are doing well in this area.
Thanks for the insights--