25-45 Sharps

[TROOPER]

A 223 necked-up to accept a 25 caliber (.257) projectile. The 'standard' weight is 87 grains, and the velocity is 3,000 out of a 20-inch barrel. Supposedly a 77-grain 223 will only get about 2,750 fps.... so that's 10 more grains of weight, an extra ~250 fps, and a greater frontal area.

I think this cartridge is ideal for the AR-15 platform if one isn't interested in subsonic, because those 87-grain pills also have a fair-to-good ballistic coefficient versus their standard-weight 223 kin.

Downsides -- the 223 necked-up-or-down market is as saturated as any market. A big-box store that doesn't specialize in shooting paraphernalia probably won't carry this round on-the-shelf. A big-box store that does specialize in shooting paraphernalia probably won't carry this round on-the-shelf. Limited availability means unfavorable price-per-shot. Right now, this is basically a standardized wildcat -- 'wildcat' in its availability, 'standardized' in actuality.

Still, for a handloader trying to do better with standard components, this isn't a terrible thing, and frankly, I believe it embodies the best shooting characteristics of the 223 -- flat, fast, low-recoil. While at the same time, hitting harder at all distances, and wounding better at all ranges.

The originators are selling this as a viable hunting alternative, and while I won't necessarily agree with them in theory, there is no doubt that it does notably improve on the performance of 223.

I like this cartridge for a different role: the "one-gun". A 20-inch AR would still be relatively nimble, fast on rapid shots, not a significant decrease in capacity carry, and still viable for 300-yard shots.

I'd also like to point out that if this particular cartridge was the original, native chambering of the M16 family of military and civilian patterned rifles, that we might never have seen a 223 since it might be considered a step backward, and there might also be a lot less calls for a different caliber for the military. Mind you, this isn't a death-ray, but it is notably not a 223.


Mostly I'm just interested in this cartridge because it moves the 223 parent case to what I consider the ideal balance of bullet-to-case capacity. I've always thought the 300 BLK was going too big, and if it hadn't been for its subsonic performance, I'd consider it too expensive and too far from the original strengths of the 223 to be viable. I feel like the 6.8 required too many changes to existing inventories of firearms to be a viable replacement. In my pipe dreams, the military adopts this as the "barrel-swap" alternative, then it becomes incredibly inexpensive to market, then we all have parties in the cheap 223 that floods the market, while still waiting with outstretched arms for the manufacturers to take up the 25-45 flag and churn out inexpensive, hard-hitting, flat-shooting, low-recoiling rounds.

Then I wake up and go to work.

[doubloon]

Interesting read. I wish I had time to play with this kind of stuff myself.