reloading 25 acp

peddler · October 2011

Can 25acp be reloaded? I just have never seen any dies for it. Thanks

Rocky Raab · October 2011

Of course they can. It's just that most people don't shoot the little things very much, the brass is easily lost, and they are very tedious to handle in the press. (Once in the shellholder, there is precious little case sticking out to grasp.) Finally, not a lot of stores carry the right bullets for it.

peddler · October 2011

Thanks for the info

dcs shooters · October 2011

Lee had a carbide set for 25ACP.
You just need to use needle nose pliers or long nose tweezers so you don't pinch fingers [B)]

v35 · October 2011

I loaded some up with fmj and XTP bullets and quit after about a dozen.
Because cases and bullets are so tiny, you pinch fingers in the press.
If you are determined, a pair of forceps with short pieces of medical rubber tubing at the grabber ends may make the job more doable.

yonson · October 2011

Have loaded some .25 acp & the special problems with such small cartridges seem to be more than most folks want to cope with - much patience is required. Use the standard 50 gr. FMJ bullet for maximum penetration, anything else is a wasted effort IMHO. I have Lee carbide dies, work well. Most powder scales claim accuracy of plus or minus 1/10th grain but if your load is 1 grain of powder, that is a variation of 20%! (The bright side is many loads per pound of powder.) The Lee Safety scale CAN be read to 1/20th of a grain with care, cutting margin for error in half. I suggest frequent scale checks with test weights as you load powder. (Have never used auto powder measure & do not know how accurate it would be on such a small load.) Go slow when starting bullet or pinched fingers may well result - haven't done that myself. Sounds like too much trouble? I refuse to be daunted & did say that patience was required.

rhope · October 2011

I agree that loading these tiny cases can be a pain but there are ways of making it somewhat less painful.

I use a Lee Turret Press with Auto-Index, Lee carbide dies and Lee Auto-Disk Powder Measure with the Lee Micro Disk. I use the .15 cavity of the Micro Disk which throws 1.0 gr. of Red Dot. This results in a minimum of case handling.

For those not familiar with this Lee equipment this means I put the case in the shell holder, the first pull of the handle resizes and de-primes the case, the case is reprimed on the return stroke and the turret is rotated to bring the mouth expanding die in line with the ram.

The second pull of the handle expands the case mouth and drops the powder charge. The return stroke rotates the turret to bring the seating die in line with the ram. Place the bullet (I use the 50 gr. Speer TMJ) on the case mouth and pull the handle to seat the bullet. The return stroke rotates the turret to the size/de-prime position. Remove the loaded round, insert another case, repeat.

As others on this forum have noted, Lee equipment is great as far as price is concerned but often does not quite come up to the standards of other brands when it comes to functionality. I find that I have to use just the right amount of force when operating the Turret press to get it to index properly. Once you use it a bit it becomes almost second nature to check with your free hand to make sure it has engaged the detent at each position (this will save you some brass and aggravation in the long run).

Hope this is of some help or interest.

peddler · October 2011

Thanks for all the info. Have a nice day.

reloading 25 acp

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