.25acp -.32acp on their way out?

The .32acp is still very popular. Several gun makers make their living off the caliber such as Keltec, Seecamp, NAA, etc. The .25acp not so, probably because so few gun makers make guns in that caliber anymore; Beretta, PSA, a few others.

The .32acp will be around for a long time to come because it is effective enough and comes in very tiny packages, easy to conceal.
 
I don't think either is going anywhere any time soon. As long as there are a few guns out there somewhere chambered for the cartridge, someone will continue to make the ammunition.

Heck, I had to track down .38 rimfire for someone recently.
 
Attractive (IMO)
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Concealable
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Accurate
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What's not to love? :)
 
mix

and 100 years ago, the average european was under 5'6" and 120 lbs..... and compared to the munchkins of the middle ages...... 20th century Americans were relative giants .....
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The quote doesn't refer only to a single time 100 years ago but to a period of time beginning 100 years ago - which was in the 20th Century, not anywhere near the Middle ages which were about a thousand years ago.
Another .25 ACP - a baby Browning clone - my Bernardelli Pocket pistol (unloaded prior to photo): It has never jammed.
Bernardelli.jpg
 
One 25acp pistol which is still made is the Beretta 21a...one of the best.
With the MecGar mag, it has 9 plus 1 capacity...more rounds than the 22lr version. All ten can be fired rapidly and accurately into a tiny area. Completely reliable.
A Brassfetcher test I read found the 25acp 50gn FMJ round to perform slightly better than 22lr.
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Man, I do like that Beretta. Pretty grips! I sure wouldn't want 10 rounds of 25 to the chest, either. I wonder if my wife would shoot that ... or the 22 lr version...
 
and 100 years ago, the average european was under 5'6" and 120 lbs.....
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Thes cartidges were designed over 100 years ago (1905 for the .25 and 1899 for the .32) ..... and I realize when the Middle ages were.... I referenced that to make the point that lack of good food has had an effect on average physique ..... the folks in Europe in the Middle Ages (which spanned 1, 000 years, from AD 500 to about AD 1500...) wer tiny compared to those at the dawn of the 200th century, who in turn are dwarfed by the average human today...... George Washington was considered a giant of a man at 6' 1 1/2 " and 200 lbs- hell I watched a girls Class C high schoo basketball game this evening and there were 3 girls on the court bigger than that!

The point is that while nobody wants to be shot with anything, people are bigger and stronger in general than they were in 1899 and 1905.... the .25 does not cut it.
 
Size has very little to do with anything. A CNS shot with a .25 on a 125 # man, or a CNS shot on a 200 # man would have the same effect. A bad shot would still be a bad shot.
 
Horsefeathers.

Size has very little to do with anything. A CNS shot with a .25 on a 125 # man, or a CNS shot on a 200 # man would have the same effect. A bad shot would still be a bad shot.
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On a 250 lb man, a .25 auto has a pretty slim chance of affecting the CNS, unless the gun was placed against the target at a 90 degree angle .... and then only if the bullet was not deflected in any way......

Assuming a round that has less than 6" of penetration into bare ballistic gelatin (lotsa naked muggers out there, especially this time of year.....) is going to get a CNS hit is silly unless you are Vasili Blohkin (and your victim is handcuffed to a wall facing away from you)......that is just silly.

If your target is, on the other hand, a large muscular man running at you with with a bat with the intent of stoving your head in..... then if you feel you are going to be lucky enough to stop him with the one two shots of .25 auto you'll have before he covers that 21 feet (Tueller drill), then you sir, have a corner on the market to all the 4 leaf clovers and rabbits feet in the 'verse.... buy some lottery tickets and set up shop in Vegas, because you are set, baby...... me, I ain't so lucky ...... I want 12+ inches of penetration and 400 ft.lbs of energy and expansion of my hollow point to at least .5" ..... some people will settle for less...... but if they can get more, in a similar sized package, they will go with that ...... doubly so if it costs less money..... thus the .380 is killing the .32 and .25 autos ..........
 
http://www.brassfetcher.com/index_files/Page1734.htm

Interesting data. While I'm never going to claim that the 25acp is a great manstopper, this FMJ load penetrates to 14" - better than some 9mm and 45acp loads.

If the 12" FBI penetrations standards are sacred, this indicates that we need to be careful in our selection of ammunition regardless of caliber, since it's possible the 25acp FMJ loading might actually be more effective than the two service calibers in HP for some situations. Of course, the dispersed energy for the other two rounds is higher, but without significant hydrostatic shock that is less meaningful than in a rifle cartridge.

What's the moral of the story? Shoot what you shoot best and practice your shot placement!
 
this FMJ load penetrates to 14"
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and has a less an .25 wound channel ...... does not expand at all, and will not bleed anyone out.......

Anything a .25 can do, a .380 can do better (and cheaper!)..... and with a small increase in the size of the pistol, a 9mm can do much better....
 
I think it would be wrong to say that it would not bleed anyone out. That's just not realistic.

You're absolutely right about the second bit though - there's a reason I carry a 380 rather than a 25. :D I just thought it was interesting that there are well-thought of loads that don't meet the minimum penetration spec, and the little wimpy 25 did. Makes you wonder how many times a service-cartridge HP didn't penetrate enough where a 25acp FMJ would have done the job, though. I knew there was a reason I favored heavy-for-caliber SD loads! My 147gr. Ranger HPs won't have any trouble with penetration at all. ;)
 
.25 is obsolete because people would rather shoot the much cheaper .22. I like .32 and it is my always (almost everywhere) carry gun. I have a keltec p32 and taurus tcp 732. sometimes I also carry a G19 in addition to them :D
 
However, I think that there are enough users of each to guarantee that the chambering for either the .25ACP or the .32ACP won't be disappearing any time soon.
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+1. While there may be better options for SD, I don't see either cartridge going away. There are still plenty of guns floating around chambered for each.
 
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