VolkStudio Blog

The point of 25ACP is to allow really tiny defensive guns. Plus side, they can be hidden anywhere. Minus side, not much stopping power — the wound track is similar to a pencil being pushed through, and that if it doesn’t ricochet off skull bones — and not a great aimed range when using pistols small enough to justify the caliber.

While I can reliably hit a torso target at 25 yards with Baby Brownings, it’s not a weapon for distance. Typical use happens up close, and all considerations are secondary before reliability.

Enter monolithic, lathe turned copper bullets loaded into turned (rather than drawn) cases. These are extremely uniform in dimensions, smooth and should feed and extract better than jacketed lead with drawn cases. Machined cases stand up to repeated reloading a lot better, too. Being less dense than jacketed lead, copper gives slightly higher velocity at the cost of lower performance at longer distances. For 25ACP, looks like a viable trade-off.

The Taurus pistol shown above is really too large for 25ACP. In that size, 32ACP is viable. Further, while the discontinued metal-framed version has a decent trigger, the polymer-framed variant has one the worst triggers I’ve encountered. It is too heavy and too sharp to fire without pain, and I couldn’t finish the magazine. So don’t use that model for self-defense. If you use 25ACP, Baby Browning variants, Beretta Jetfire and other models, or maybe a Seecamp would make more sense.

I have no idea where OATH got the 800fps listed on the box. In my tests, it reached 960fps from a 2″ Baby Browning barrel. It’s possible that the production load is slower, but it’s unlikely to be below 900fps minimum. The reason for this load is not any great ballistic feats but maximized reliability in tiny guns. At $29 for 50 rounds from OATH store, they cost the same as Winchester or Remington loads, more than PPU, Fiocchi or Federal. Given the reliability advantage, they might be worth the slight premium.