Being a bit of a fanatic about .25-caliber cartridges, I was more than slightly interested in Winchester Ammunition’s announcement in 2004 of its .25 Winchester Super Short Magnum (WSSM). Winchester stated the stubby cartridge delivered the performance of the .25-06 in an action two sizes smaller, and factory loads certainly lived up to that claim. U.S. Repeating Arms chambered several of its Model 70 rifles in .25 WSSM, and Browning did the same with five models of its A-Bolt rifles that had receivers an inch shorter than standard actions.

I thought the little cartridge was great for hunting coyotes, deer and pronghorn and that it would become fairly popular, but a perfect storm of events killed the cartridge. Internet bloggers shrieked through their keyboards about what terrible cartridges the .223, .243 and .25 super shorts were before these rifles were even stocked on sporting goods store shelves. The cartridges supposedly rapidly burned out barrels and jammed when they made the jump from a rifle’s magazine to the chamber. Production of Model 70 rifles in WSSM calibers abruptly ended when Winchester closed its plant in New Haven, Connecticut, in 2006. When Winchester started making Model 70s again in South Carolina in 2008, the Super Short action was noticeably absent. The loss of a patent infringement lawsuit on the design of the short magnum case also resulted in companies having to pay a royalty on any Winchester Short Magnum and Super Short Magnum ammunition and rifles they sold. The Super Short cartridges were so new they had not become all that popular, so Browning soon dropped its rifles chambered in .223, .243 and .25 WSSM. A very few AR-type rifles are the only ones currently chambered in .25 WSSM.

This is unfortunate, because the .25 WSSM is an excellent cartridge. Its case has about the same propellant capacity as the .257 Roberts, but it is loaded to a much higher maximum pressure of 65,000 psi. The .25 Winchester’s maximum pressure is also higher than the .250 Savage, .257 Improved Ackley and the .25-06 Remington. Thumbing through my handloading records, I came up with the top velocities for a variety of bullet weights for the five .25-caliber cartridges listed in Table I.

The .25 WSSM’s velocities are from my early handloads for the cartridge. Velocities are right in there with the .257 Improved Ackley. However, in the last

few years, new loading data and new propellants and bullets have been introduced that have boosted the .25 WSSM’s velocities and made it an even better hunting cartridge.

The Barnes 100-grain Triple-Shock has worked very well the last few years from an A-Bolt Hunter for hunting pronghorn at long range and whitetails close up in the timber. The Barnes leaves the A-Bolt’s 22-inch barrel at 3,286 fps pushed with 48.5 grains of H-4350. According to the Sierra Infinity ballistics program, the Barnes bullet should drop 1.69 inches at 300 yards if it is sighted 2.50 inches above aim at 100 yards, but the bullet actually hits 2 inches high at 300 yards with that sight setting. I used that flat trajectory to kill a pronghorn at 390 yards on a day of howling wind in Wyoming. The bullet was recovered under the skin on the off-side of the buck, and it had expanded perfectly and still weighed 100 grains.

That bullet has also held together at short range. My niece Mikayla has shot two whitetails with the .25 and the Triple-Shock. The buck she shot last season stood up from its bed at 35 yards, and Mikayla sent a single bullet through its lungs. Internal damage to the buck was impressive, but there was next to no bloodshot meat. A couple of days later, I shot another whitetail buck standing at about 175 yards. The bullet sailed through both its shoulder blades, and the buck fell in its tracks.

Although Hodgdon’s new Superformance propellant is not available as this is written, .25 WSSM loads for it are listed on the Hodgdon website. The site lists 52.0 grains of Superformance pushing Speer 100-grain bullets at 3,381 fps. That velocity beats anything listed for the .25-06 by about 100 fps.

I’ve carried the .25 loaded with Swift 120-grain A-Frames when deer and elk seasons were open at the same time, but so far I haven’t had a chance at an elk with the rifle. With 45.5 grains of H-4350 the bullet clocks 3,003 fps and 2,987 fps with 46.5 grains of Hunter. Hodgdon’s Superformance boosts the 120-grain A-Frame even a bit faster at 3,062 fps with 48.7 grains. Those are about the same velocities I get from that bullet from my .25- 06, and I know that combination will kill an elk.

For smaller game good old IMR-4064 with Hornady 75-grain V-MAX or Sierra 75-grain hollowpoint bullets are difficult to beat in the .25 WSSM. With 46.0 grains of IMR-4064 the Hornady 75-grain V-MAX reaches 3,566 fps from the .25 WSSM, and three-shot groups average right at one inch at 100 yards.

The new Barnes 80-grain Tipped Triple-Shock achieves 3,727 fps from the .25 with 52.0 grains of Alliant’s Reloder 17 from the 22-inch barrel of my A-Bolt. That bullet is not going to fly any faster fired from a .25-06 either. The only problem is I can’t decide if it is a varmint or a big game bullet. I’ll make a decision this winter hunting coyotes.

These new bullets and powders truly make the little .25 the equal of the larger .25-06, but that performance in a light, handy rifle, like a Browning A-Bolt or Winchester Model 70, may be academic as the cartridge will most likely never be resurrected. A few used rifles do show up for sale from time to time, but folks who shoot them know what a great cartridge the .25 WSSM is and are holding onto their guns.