Many, many years ago, my father and I visited his uncle. This would have probably been in the mid-1950’s. The uncle was a bachelor who had been in WWI. It was there he was on the receiving end of a gas attack. My father later said that he everyone agreed that he was never the same afterward.

I wasn’t interested in that. I saw the very first lever action I had ever seen close up. It was hanging on his wall. I stared at it the entire time we were there. It was beautiful. I thought he said that it was a Marlin and was in .25 rimfire. He also said that he could not get ammunition for it anymore so I couldn’t fire it. When he died, the gun disappeared before the family got there.

I mentioned it once or twice on Internet. I was told in no uncertain terms that no such gun existed. I looked in my reference books and could not find any proof that it existed. I have looked for most of my life on gunshow tables, but never found one. I did run across several in .32 rimfire. Maybe the Internet warriors were right. It did not exist. Or, it might have been in .32 rimfire, but I did not really believe that.

Today, I bought some old books on guns. One was “Practical Dope on the Big Bores” by F.C. Ness. It is very well written. The early chapters were written in the 1930’s, but the last ones were post-WWII. More than big bores, it started with .22 rimfires and worked up to the .600 Nitro Express. The third chapter was on .25 and .32 rimfires. In it, it shows a photograph of a Marlin 1892 in .25 Stevens rimfire. The book said that it was also available in .32 rimfire. It also lists a number of other guns that were available in .25 Stevens rimfire and they tested several of them. The authors opinion was that the .25 rimfire was pretty useless. It was too close to the .22 rimfire. The .32 rimfire was better at everything asked of it.

It may not been one of the best, but I now know that one of my very early memories was not wrong.

You are probably not any crazier than most of the rest of us on this forum. There was an old, rusty Band-Aid box in my grandfather's stuff full of assorted cartridges. A couple of them were copper-cased rounds that looked like overgrown .22 longs. Dad told me he thought they were .25 Stevens rimfire, but he couldn't recall there ever being a rifle that fired them around.

Confirmation of some really old memories...that's great!

I have the Marlin in 32 rimfire and I just bought the centerfire firing pin to make it work again with Colt brass. I never saw a 25 rimfire but I am glad you confirmed it was real. J.Michel

I have just started shooting the .32 Long Colt from a 1908 Colt Police Positive (not Colt PP Special). The cases are way out of sight and the cartridges are even more expensive, so I have been making substitutes from .32 S&W Long cases. They work, but there have been several failures of different kinds while making or fire forming the cases.

I have two moulds for it. The first one I bought is a Lyman/Ideal 299155 hollow-base. VERY slow to cast with that one, but it is accurate. I just got a mould that is a copy of the 299153 heel-base. Have not shot enough with that one yet to see what it can actually do. Someday, I may get a Marlin 1892 to go with them.

He surmised it was a much better cartridge than the .22LR

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Of the Troops & For the Troops