THE QUARTER-BORE QUARTET

Bigger isn’t always better. From classics to modern, these four .25-caliber cartridges get the job done on big game

In this day and age of the “new cartridge of the month” mentality we live in, it can be a good mental exercise to inject a little sanity into the “bigger is better” madness. It does seem that unless you have one of the latest and greatest designer cartridges and shoot game from several hundred yards, you must be living in the Stone Age.

Rifles

However, long before these slick, new, wonder calibers came out and hunters felt the need to take game at really long range, there were calibers that worked extremely well. These calibers have been performing the task of knocking down big game with authority for longer than the portable wind-meter/computer generation of hunters has been alive.

One group of cartridges that really fits the bill is the .25-caliber. From the classic .250 Savage and .257 Roberts to the more-modern .25-06 Remington and .257 Weatherby, the quarter-bore quartet of cartridges has enjoyed a long and healthy track record of field success among journeymen hunters.

While there is a big ballistic disparity between the .250 Savage and the .257 Weatherby, the little .250 still has a place at the table. Regarding the .257 Roberts and .25-06: Their credibility has been well established.

In my opinion, the best way to assess the merits of each of the four .25-caliber cartridges is to discuss them individually, from oldest to newest.

THE NEAR-CENTURY-OLD .250 SAVAGE

The .250 Savage is coming up on the century mark in 2015. Although this cartridge is almost 100 years old and has lost ground to newer and more powerful cartridges, it is not finished yet. Loaded ammunition may be hard to find at the local CO-OP, and brass is on a “seasonal-run” basis, but the .250 Savage is still hanging around.

The original .250 Savage load, which fired an 87-grain bullet at a velocity of 3,000 fps, was pretty darned impressive in 1915—and it’s not that bad, even today. A 100-grain load was added later to satisfy deer hunters who felt the 87-grain load was just for varmints. Depending on the rifling twist rate, some of the oldest Model 99s were only accurate with the 87-grain load. Newer-built rifles had the faster twist and shot the heavier bullet well.

Even though most of the major rifle manufacturers chambered the .250 Savage, it was discontinued from production some time ago. Today, the main firearm seen in .250 Savage is the Savage Model 99 lever-action, which is highly sought after. Cooper Rifles, in Montana, and the Savage Custom Shop still produce the .250 Savage.

I shared my own experience with the .250 Savage recently in the May issue of /Gun World/. The particular rifle in that article was a Savage Model 16, which was assembled in the Savage Custom Shop. It had a Minox Z5 2.5-10x scope mounted on it. That rifle shot and handled quite well.

Mossberg’s 590A1 Special Purpose Is Street-Certified, Trail-Approved and Home Defense-Ready

Mossberg’s 590A1

Anytime I see the word, “special,” in a product description nowadays, I pretty much ignore it instantly. That word has been so overworked by advertising types that it’s about as overdone today as “colossal extravaganza” was by P. T. Barnum more than 100 years ago.

Yet, “special” still does mean something, on occasion. You just have to weed out those occasions from all the rest of the clutter. For the subject at hand, it is an apt descriptor, however, and it’s entirely understandable why Mossberg includes it in its Model 590A1 Special Purpose line.

The Mossberg website shows no fewer than 17 different variations of the 590A1 Special Purpose, covering 18.5- to 20-inch barrels, various sight options that include brass bead, three-dot and fully adjustable ghost-ring sights, standard black synthetics stocks, black wood stocks, Speedfeed stocks, adjustable sliders with Pistol grips, Parkerized and Marinecoat finishes, accessory rails, bayonet lugs, and ventilated and solid rubber recoil pads.

Based on the long-running Mossberg 500 pump action and first cousins to the shotguns fielded by the U.S. Marine Corps for several years, the A1 version treads well beyond the standard “civilian” Model 500 “riotgun” used by police for many years. Those were essentially just Hunting Guns with shorter barrels and different stock finishes, while the A1s are designed for hard use by some seriously hard users. If you’re a Mossberg fan and need a heavy-duty working pumpgun for social applications, you should be able to find a model to fit somewhere in that Special Purpose lineup. If you can’t, you’re just not trying.

Having partnered with a pump in a cop car, and after buckling one into an ATV scabbard more than a few times, I have my own preferences and ideas of what I want in a defensive shotgun. Others may vary (the reason behind so many options), but a quick scan turned up a model on Mossberg’s site that fit my shopping list of features, and then it was just a matter of waiting for it to arrive.

I’ll admit up front that while I’ve known others who have had good results with Mossbergs, I’m heavily invested in the “other” brand, and I’d never personally tried one myself. The test sample was an Item # 51663, Special Purpose 9 Shot 590A1. When it arrived, I was quite impressed. Take a look.

Guns - The Good, the Accurate And the Elegant

Two CO2 Revolvers from Umarex that Do Their S&W Namesakes Justice

By James E. House

A lot of products are ordinary. They perform as planned and are reliable, but they do not warrant a description that incorporates superlatives.

Occasionally, however, a product comes along that truly represents the epitome of the species. When it comes to revolvers that launch pellets by CO2 power, that distinction belongs to the guns that carry the name Smith & Wesson. Let’s take a look.

SHOW US WHAT YOU’RE MADE OF

Produced in Germany by Umarex, these revolvers replicate the dimensions and weight of the L-frame S&W 586 and 686 models.

The .177-caliber versions of the S&W revolvers are unquestionably elegant. Moreover, they function exactly like the firearms they mimic, except for using a CO2 cylinder that is held inside the grip. To hold pellets, they utilize a swing-out cylinder that is unlatched by a lever on the left-hand side of the frame. Because pellets are quite short, there is no need for a cylinder that measures about 1½ inches in length. Rather, the “active” part of the cylinder that holds 10 pellets is only 0.370 inch thick. The stationary rear section is part of the frame.

The cylinder is not attached to the spindle on which it rotates, so cylinders can be interchanged. This allows a cylinder that is loaded with pellets to be installed quickly. Unlike some CO2 pistols with short cylinders that will accommodate only flat, pointed pellets, the S&W cylinders are sufficiently thick so that pellets of virtually any type can be used.

An elegant CO2 handgun should have sights to match, and this is certainly the case with the S&W models. The front sight is a square-topped post on a ramp. The rear sight has a crisp, square notch that mates correctly with the front sight to provide a good sight picture. The rear sight is fully adjustable in the traditional way: it features a screw to adjust windage and another to adjust elevation. However, removing the rear sight allows a scope rail to be attached by means of two screws, should you choose to mount a scope.