The .25 Stevens / 6.4x28mmRF was an American rimfire

rifle A rifle is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting and higher stopping power, with a gun barrel, barrel that has a helical or spiralling pattern of grooves (rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus o ...

cartridge. To differentiate from the related .25 Stevens Short it is sometimes also referred to as .25 Stevens Long. Developed by J. Stevens Arms & Tool Company and

Peters Cartridge Company The Peters Cartridge Company was a company located along the Little Miami River in Kings Mills, Ohio, which specialized in gunpowder and ammunition production. Founded in 1887 by Gershom Moore Peters, the company supplied military ammunition to v ...

, it was developed between 1898 and 1900; catalogs suggest it was introduced in 1898, but most sources agree on 1900. It was offered in the Crack Shot No. 15 rifle, which debuted in 1900. It was also available in the Stevens Favorite rifle, which was first released in 1894 and discontinued in 1935. It originally used a

black powder Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, charcoal (which is mostly carbon), and potassium nitrate, potassium ni ...

charge under a slug; this was later replaced by

Smokeless powder Finnish smokeless powder Smokeless powder is a type of propellant used in firearms and artillery that produces less smoke and less fouling when fired compared to black powder. Because of their similar use, both the original black powder formula ...

. Some handguns were also chambered for .25 Stevens, most notably the Stevens-Lord single-shot pistols. The round was available with either solid lead or

hollow point A hollow-point bullet is a type of expanding bullet which expands on impact with a soft target, transferring more or all of the projectile's energy into the target over a shorter distance. Hollow-point bullets are used for controlled pene ...

bullets and developed a good reputation for small

game A game is a structured type of play usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports or video games) or art ...

(such as rabbit) and

varmint Vermin (colloquially varmint(s) or varmit(s)) are pests or nuisance animals that spread diseases and destroy crops, livestock, and property. Since the term is defined in relation to human activities, which species are included vary by regio ...

s. In comparison to the .22 Long Rifle some sources note that its ballistics suffered from an excessively high

trajectory A trajectory or flight path is the path that an object with mass in motion follows through space as a function of time. In classical mechanics, a trajectory is defined by Hamiltonian mechanics via canonical coordinates; hence, a complete tra ...

for a rifle cartridge (a drop of at ), while others praise its inherent accuracy, and larger versatility due to being much more powerful, especially when used in

revolver A revolver is a repeating handgun with at least one barrel and a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers (each holding a single cartridge) for firing. Because most revolver models hold six cartridges before needing to be reloaded, ...

s. Serving as the parent for the less-successful .25 Stevens Short and experimental Remington .267 Rimfire, it was dropped in 1942. Notable handgun authority

Elmer Keith Elmer Merrifield Keith (March 8, 1899 – February 14, 1984) was an American rancher, firearms enthusiast, and author. Keith was instrumental in the development of the first magnum revolver cartridge, the .357 Magnum (1935), as well as the la ...

lamented its demise and advocated its revival for use in revolvers.

References

Pistol and rifle cartridges Rimfire cartridges Stevens Arms {{ammo-stub