.25 New to Me

[Old Ford2]

I am looking to buy a .25 longrifle...maybe??
With a 23 grain round ball, what is the maximum reasonable range that I can get from a rifle like this.
The barrel is 40"
This is new to me, my other small pea guns are .40, .36, and .45, which all seem to do well out to 50 yards.
I don't expect to hunt deer or moose with this, maybe mouse?
I would imagine, with 20-25 grains of 3f it would give 2000+ fps., but will the ball carry to 50 yds. without too much wind drift?
Most of my guns are .50 cal. plus, this would be a whole new game to me.
Thank you.
Fred

[smylee grouch]

Two of my shooting partners have 25s and they both say around 30 or so yards is all you can get good groups at when its breezy.

[SCLoyalist]

There's a roundball ballistics calculator at:
http://www.ctmuzzleloaders.com/ctml_experiments/rbballistics/rbballistics.html 
 that you can download. 

You can enter whatever caliber, crosswind and muzzle velocity you like, but for example:

  It says a .25 round ball leaving muzzle at 2000 fps will, with a 5 mph crosswind,  drift 3 inches at 50 yards,    and 11 inches at 100.     

[billd]

I shot my 25 thru a chrono.  With 20 grains of powder I averaged 1780 over three shoots.  Only about a 30 fps spread over the 3 shots.

Mine groups great at 25 yards.  I never tried it on paper any farther.

Bill

[Old Ford2]

TWENTY FIVE YARDS I can throw a rock farther than that!
With a good group....as well!
And you say, with a little wind, I will be looking at 11" drift at a 100 yds.
I'm thinking, I'll stick with my .62 cal. squirrel gun.
Fred

[Kermit]

18 grains of 3f Swiss give me the best accuracy, easiest cleaning and loading, and at that small charge, a pound lasts years. The cost of Swiss is irrelevant.

Think of a .25 as a sort of .22 short magnum. Light ball, high velocity. Never chronographed mine. I find accuracy trumps velocity. And yes, it's a fun short range gun. Most fun I've had with mine is shooting grouse out of the pines in E. Washington, where I used to shoot them with a .22 revolver.

By the bye, it's a 44" Rayl bbl.

[blunderbuss]

 
  My .25 flintlock is the best little old squirrel gun I ever had . I took it to a match when I first got it and took some ribbing when it went off ,the fellas were asking if that was my rifle firing or did it flash the pan. If it were a still day it did good at 50 yards . It's difficult to load without a loading block but if you counter sink the block to fit around the muzzle it does better A wooden rod in .25 is mighty thin so I reduced a 1/4 in brass rod and just cut a jag on the end .The loading blocks are so small that a 20 round block will fit in your hip pocket kind of a high capacity loading block

[Kermit]

First make very sure a high capacity loading block is legal in your state or city.