.25-35 WCF

A while back I inherited a well used 1894 rifle in .25-35 Winchester. It has the full length 26” octagonal barrel. The magazine holds nine cartridges in the tube underneath and is an absolute pussycat to shoot.

After perusing the Internet I bought some Hornady 117 grain Roundnose bullets and some W-W brass. I had a lot of Varget around at the time so loaded a mild charge of 23 grains with a standard large rifle primer. I’ve been unable to chronograph the load but assume it’s going somewhere between 2150 and 2250 fps from that longer tube. Frankly, I don’t really care. This rifle is so much fun to shoot that I can’t stop grinning.

After entering the serial number on Winchester’s website I found out it was made in 1902. The same year my great grandmother was born. To put it another way Teddy Roosevelt was in the Oval Office.


I finally got to take it hunting last weekend. I took this pup coyote at 40 yards with a headshot. At 118 years old, this great old rifle and cartridge are still getting it done!

Any .25-35 fans out there?


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I have one that my father passed down to me also. I'll see if I can get a picture of it to post. I also have a Winchester 38-40 WCF. It's fun to shoot. I have not shot the 25-35 yet.

My dad has one. It’s a sweet shooter. Not an old one, I wanna say early 50’s. It has a serial number that would indicate that it doesn’t exist, however we’ve heard from more than one Winchester expert that the factory continued to produce the .25-35 out of old stock barrels past the time production of the caliber officially halted. At any rate, it’s considered a parts gun and not super valuable. But it will never be parted from our family.

6mm Remington":1z9noamq said:

I have one that my father passed down to me also. I'll see if I can get a picture of it to post. I also have a Winchester 38-40 WCF. It's fun to shoot. I have not shot the 25-35 yet.

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Mine belonged to my Uncle. I wish I would’ve gotten the story on it from him before he passed. I also inherited an old Remington model 33 single shot .22 that belonged to my great grandfather.

I’m thinking if I draw an antlerless deer tag this year that the .25-35 will come along.


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Very Cool!! Beautiful old rifle and good on you for making fine use of it yet. That's a treasure. Never fired one but I can imagine they are really light on the recoil. Especially since that rifle surely has a fair amount of heft to it in the weight department.

That's a really neat rifle.

That is a skookum picture you posted. Great old cartridge in a genuine treasure of a rifle.

Nice treasure you have in a classic caliber. Hope you get that tag used with the 25-35. Dan.

I have on that had a 26" barrel. Some idiot whacked it down to 20". :x What hurts most is it was a special order gun with half magazine. The bore is like a shiny new dime, rare for a rifle from 1911. The guy I got it from thought it was a short
Paul B. rifle but I showed him where the forearm was too long and whoever did it did a lousy job hiding the hacksaw marks. I probably paid too much for the gun but since them I've been looking for a 26" octagonal barrel to replace the one that got chopped.