Its the general consensus that the 25acp round is under powered and a poor choice as a self defense weapon. but did you know that when John Moses Browning invented the 25 acp it was designed to run at a velocity of around 900 feet per second, for a 50 grain bullet. thats not to shabby when you think about it and do the math. For almost 60 years, that was good enough to lay low the biggest of bad guys.
 So what happened to it?... why has it become so under powered?....

Well in my opinion, coming from all the research, a few  big things contributed to it being as bad as it is today.

1. Saturday night specials.
yep, we have all heard the term, its used to describe any scary gun that the gun-grabbers don't like.
But we will be referring to the ring of fire guns like Bryco, Jennings, Lorcin and many others. All these so called Saturday night specials started appearing on the market in the early 70s and through the 80s. These guns were made out of inferior metals that were soft and could not take the pressure of the standard 900 fps velocity 25 acp. so what happened, well what do you think happened, some guns got destroyed, people got hurt, and it became apparent to the ammo manufactures that if these guns where going to be out there, that they needed to make the ammo to run in them. The manufactures started loading the 25 acp down to acceptable pressures to operate the pot metal hot wheels guns.

2. Popular opinion
after all the market was flooded with cheap pot metal guns, importers were circumventing the GCA of 68 buy importing parts of guns and making the frames in the USA out of the cheap hot wheels metal, there were still a few solid 25acps but the damage had been done, the public opinion was that these inferior guns and the inferior ammo was a cheap target for the poor and the gangs.

3. Research
well where to begin there?
With all the cheap pot metal guns and loaded down ammo, manufactures consentrated on making the 9mm, 45, and 40 sw better man stoppers, then came research and new and improved 380 acp and 32 acp ammo, better expanding hollow point rounds, more powerful self defense ammo, more powerful duty ammo for LEOs, and the military, but the little 25 got left behind. then in the 90s, the polymer guns hit the market, with guns chambered in 380 acp, and lighter and around the same size(but not quiet, my baby browning is small) as most 25 acp chambered hand guns, the round got left behind again, and is still being left behind today.

first i want to set some ground rules, this is a discussion on the potency of the 25 acp round, and with hand loading, what it can be. Its not a caliber war and we are not discussing the 45s one stop shot ability or any other caliber for that matter, so please refrain form mentioning it.

Second, lets all be adults, and act accordingly

Third, lets all refrain from cursing, this includes me.

Thats it, lets talk about the 25 acp, I just love this round, and the guns that shoot it.