A quick look at .25 Remington, a cartridge that's been barely hanging on since the 1950s.
The .25 Remington is one of a series of rimless cartridges developed for the Remington Model 8 Autoloading rifle, and then later used in other Remington rifles. It was introduced in 1906. The Remington Model 14 pump action, Model 30 bolt action and Stevens Model 425 lever action also used the .25 Remington.
No rifles have chambered this cartridge since 1942, and the ammunition companies stopped loading it about 1950. Buffalo Arms offers loaded ammunition for this round (AMO25REM).
General Comments
The .25 Remington is nothing more than a rimless version of the .25-35, but it differs slightly in shape. The two are not interchangeable. Since the Remington line of rifles, particularly the Model 30 bolt action, would stand higher pressures than the lever action, it is possible to get slightly better performance out of the .25 Remington. However, the difference is not sufficient to make the rimless version anything but a barely adequate deer cartridge.
It will, however, do for varmints and small to medium game, and deer in a pinch, provided the hunter is a good shot. The .25 Remington is not in the same class as the .250 Savage or the .257 Roberts.
In 2022, Buffalo Arms listed a .25 Remington load in a 117-grain jacketed soft point.
.25 Remington Loading Data and Factory Ballistics
| Bullet (grains/type) | Powder | Grains | Velocity | Energy | Source |
| 60 SP | H4895 | 31.0 | 2,900 | 1,121 | Hornady |
| 60 SP | IMR4320 | 32.0 | 2,900 | 1,121 | Hornady |
| 117 SP | H4895 | 26.5 | 2,200 | 1,258 | Hornady |
| 117 SP | IMR3031 | 25.5 | 2,300 | 1,375 | Hornady |
| 100 SP | FL | – | 2,330 | 1,216 | Factory load |
| 117 SP | FL | – | 2,125 | 1,175 | Buffalo Arms AMO25REM |
Editor's Note: This article is an excerpt of Gun Digest's Cartridge's Of The World.
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To claim the 25 Remington as ” nothing more than a rimless version of the .25-35″ is a severe injustice. In a modern bolt action(push feed model 70) I safely get 2650fps with a 117grain boat tail spitzer, using IMR4320. This is extremely efficient by using a powder of the era that this round would have been designed to use, albeit at an elevated pressure. This rifle with redfield peep and sourdough front sight has repeatedly shot sub MOA three shot groups at 100 and 200 yards from the bench. I have only harvested three deer with this combination, but would not describe it as “a barely adequate deer cartridge”. This round is nipping at the heals of HANDLOADED 250 Savage cartridges, an honest 200 yard whitetail cartridge. Being of the longer parent case, it matches performance of the 6.8 SPC, but at a lower pressure. The old designers understood what they were working with, and did very well with the powder profiles of their era. To relegate these cartridges as sub par to our modern “upgraded” copycats is laughable. Certain modern powders designed to burn at higher pressures do not perform as consistently in the lower shoulder angle cartridges of yesteryear. Using the powders of the era in said cartridges, but in actions of modern metallurgy will result in very similar performance at comparable pressure levels as the modern cartridge options.
AI got you! The picture is of .25 ACP ammunition not .25 Remington.
Oops! Not AI though, human error, we don’t use AI. We had that image mislabeled in our library and unfortunately it went unnoticed until you pointed it out. Thank you Tim! The photo has been replaced with one showing .25 Remington now.