.25-35 Winchester

[Bella]

I might have a chance to go on a cougar hunt. I have an old lever action rifle chambered for the .25-35 Winchester. This rifle is very accurate.

Do you think that this caliber would be good enough for mountin lions?

[Scorch]

Depends on how you want to mount them, I suppose.

Yes, .25-35 wil kill a Mountain Lion. They are regularly shot with pistols chambered in 38 Special and 357 Magnum.

[Doodlebugger45]

Good choice. All the cougar hunting that I've seen they use dogs to chase the cat up a tree and then shoot it out of the tree. A long shot is maybe 50' or so. Cats are thin skinned and light boned so you don't need much power, but you do need to hit the right spot. You don't want to wound a lion and knock it out of the tree.

The old Winchester will be great though because you will be covering a lot of ground chasing the dogs, either on foot or horseback, so it's nice to have something light.

[30-30remchester]

A grand old hunting round I am very found of. Should be plenty of power for a cougar. Most dont exceed 150 pounds. I have never shot a lion even though I have seen plenty and live in lion country so I cant for sure say from experence. However I have used one on antelope with excellent results.

[barnetmill]

The only question I would ask is how available is ammunition for that caliber. If you reload I recall that the cases be made from 30-30. i have never heard anyone ever complain about the 25-35 relative to killing game. I would still prefer the 30-30 due to ammo being sold by Wally World and being more powerful for shooting a large predator at close range.

[novalty]

My father has my grandfather's Winchester 25-35 and some old boxes of ammo that he left behind as well. We never shot the 25-35 while growing up as the caliber seemed to be extinct. However, as of late I believe a manufacturer has started producing new ammo in the caliber. I highly doubt that you would find it at a Wally-World, or Dick's Sporting Goods. However, you might find it from a Cabela's or an online supplier.

[DG45]

I just looked at a ballistics/trajectory table for this round. For the 117 grain bullet (which was the only cartridge shown listed for this rifle) the trajectory table inicated that this round hits 4.3 inches high at 100 yards and a fraction over 19 inches low at 300 yards. These results were probably achieved with a 24" barrel. By modern day standards, that's a pretty curved trajectory and if your barrel is shorter than 24", your actual trajectory will probably be even more curved, but maybe this will give you a general idea. Anyway, if you've zeroed this rifle in for say, 100 yards, but are shooting at a treed cougar from 50 feet away, you probably need to aim about 6 or 7 inches low with this round in order for it to hit the cat exactly where you want to hit him. But don't take my word for it, what do I know? I'm a credit manager reading a trajectory table. I've never even seen a cougar in the wild. So my advice is this: Since a 50' shot is apparently the rule, and not the exception in this type of hunting, I'd try at least one 50' shot on a paper target beforehand to see exactly where it printed in relation to my aiming point. Then once I had a treed cougar, I'd use the old "Tennesse" elevation technique (i.e., aim where-ever I had to aim to make my bullet hit exactly where I wanted it to hit) to take out take out that cat. Knowing exactly where your bullet will hit at 50" is likely very important in this type of hunting because 50' is probably no distance at all for a scared, hurt, angry cougar to travel in the blink of an eye. A wounded but basically still fully functional cat might be on you almost before you knew it.

[moosemike]

The 25-35 will do fine for your intended purpose.

[Jack O'Conner]

Little brother to 25-35 is 25-20. While most modern hunters consider 25-20 adequate for varmints very few would tackle big game with it. But in the 1960's, I knew an old timer who lived in the hills above Whitewood, South Dakota who killed dozens of mule deer with his 25-20 rolling block rifle. He passed up shots much farther than 35 yards or so for two reasons. His eyesight wasn't so good and his rifle was a single shot design. Just goes to show what a skilled and patient hunter can accomplish with a less-than-ideal rifle.

I'm certain your 25-35 will get the job done if you do your part.

Call Mike or Mark for fresh ammo: 1st Stop Gun Shop 605-341-5211

Jack

[L_Killkenny]

DG45, where do you come up with this crap? 6 or 7" low my butt. Every post you've made concerning tragectory and balistics has been bogus.

IMO, the .25-35 in a lever gun may indeed be the true, classic lion caliber. Go for it.

LK