Today I have a short video about a short topic, I want to talk about the 25 ACP. 
This diminutive cartridge has been long derided as being next to useless, and those people that are aware of it are left with the question; why does it even exist? 
So today, we're going to explore the market demands that made this cartridge feasible, however, due to its commercial nature, we really don't have any records to explain its origins or the prototype development of the pistol it was designed for. We”ll have to make some assumptions, but we're going to do our best with the information that is available. And remember, if you think I'm wrong, fight me in the comments; if you can prove I'm wrong, shoot me and email, I'd love to hear from you.

For those of you who have seen our previous videos, you'll know we like to begin stories at the dawn of the cartridge era. While there are some correlations to the .28 caliber cap and ball pistols of Colt and Ethan Allen, they never completely made the leap from paper to metallic cartridges the way other calibers did. This was due to Smith & Wesson, who controlled patent rights to the use of breach-loading cartridges in revolvers. By the time their patent expired, the S&W .22 rimfire dominated the market, along with their small and affordable pistols, forcing other manufacturers to chamber their guns in the Smith & Wesson cartridge or be pushed out of the market entirely. Likewise, in Europe, 6mm pistol cartridges were exceedingly rare, preference being on either 5mm or 7mm. Rifles, however, did see their way through this transition period. The closest relatable cartridge to our topic being the .25 Stevens Rim Fire, which, among others, was produced by the Union Metallic Cartridge Company. All that to say, that while the caliber was not plucked from thin air, the cartridge case appears to be the unique invention of John Browning.

And thus, the story of the 25 ACP begins at the turn of the 20th Century with the absolute explosion of the bicycle as a means of transportation, brought on by advancements in manufacturing and developments with a type called the “safety bicycle”. One of the safety features of these new machines was their low profile, raising a rider no higher off the ground than when walking. This however, brought the tourists and rural worker alike within reach of the country dog, no longer afforded the safety of a high mount or a horse's temperament. 

While relatively small, concealable pistols had been popular for nearly two centuries, the physical activity and seated posture of the new bicycles created demand for a lightweight pistol that could be carried on the torso and drawn rapidly from a small pocket. Lethality was low on the list of concerns, and, in fact, non-lethal cartridges were often preferred. A family of gunsmiths in France, though exactly who is a matter of debate, capitalized on this new market and created a line of very small revolvers. The Galand revolvers, eventually marketed under the brand name Velo-Dog, are the originators of the market niche known as “revolver de poche”, the vest pocket pistol. To address the unreliable nature of rimfire cartridges, a .22 caliber centerfire cartridge was created by Galand and sold under the same Velo-Dog name. Though unusually long, it typically used a powder charge equivalent to or slightly less than the rimfire .22 short, and was available loaded with popular non-lethal options like cayenne pepper and cork or wax bullets. 

It wasn't long before these undersized and under-powered pistols began encroaching on the pocket pistol market. Just as it is today, there doesn't seem to be a firearm too small that someone won't carry it for self-defense against their fellow man. It was at that moment that in stepped John Moses Browning.

As well as being a mechanical genius, Browning was an adept businessman who was very good at identifying market demand and meeting it with designs robust enough to dominate that market. In 1901 he had created a pistol design which would be developed in the US as a .32 caliber, and in Belgium as a 9mm. Between 1901 and 1904 Browning spent a considerable amount of time in Belgium, setting up production as well as developing improvements to his automatic shotgun, automatic rifle, automatic pistols, and beginning designs on a new machine gun. In all this Browning was not unaware of the success of the bicycle. In fact, back in 1895 the Browning Brothers store in Utah had made the single largest wholesale order of bicycles at that time, purchasing 525 bicycles for $25,500. While in Belgium, he saw an engineering challenge that he couldn't resist, that the vest pocket pistol market lacked an automatic. 

To fill this gap he redesigned the 1901 action to be striker fired, allowing the new seven-shot automatic to be the same size as a two-shot derringer. The pistol began production at FN in Belgium during 1905 and would be released in 1906. Colt had seen the design sometime in 1904 but had no interest until seeing it's European success. Colt would, however, produce the same design, which by that time had gained a thumb safety, known today as the Model 1908.

While developing the pistol Browning also designed cartridges for it. UMC records show that experimental cartridges were sent out in March 1904 using 60gr .288” bullets and in April using 50gr .251” bullets. The .25 caliber cartridge, using a case of the same length as the 32 ACP, would win out and be produced in Europe as the 6.35mm Browning, and in the US as 25 ACP. The standard cartridge firing a 50gr bullet at a velocity of 820fps out of the Browning pistol's 2” barrel.

Compared to it's main rival, the 22 long rifle, the center fire 25 ACP offers similar or slightly improved ballistics out of the diminutive pistols it was designed for, with much greater reliability. In fact, it offered comparable ballistics to the small 32 calibers of the time, such as the 32 Colt and 320 Webley,.

Vest Pocket Pistols have been extremely popular since their introduction and were typically made very high quality until the late 1940s and 50s, when small, low quality pistols became a staple of exports from European manufacturers. After the 1968 Gun Control Act severely restricted firearm imports to the US, manufacturers in California began making equally poor designs. In response to the flood of questionable pistols, ammunition manufacturers under-loaded cartridges, with the standard 50gr bullet rarely exceeding 750fps. The gentleman's pistol and cartridge descended into a reputation of unreliability and complete inadequacy.

However, the millions of pistols made have ensured the cartridge's continuing, albeit it intermittent, production, with bullets ranging from 35-60gr. An increase of interest in the old pistols during the late 2000s, as affordable collectibles, has led to a small number of manufacturers who produce the cartridge to equivalent or higher standards than the original, breathing a little new life into the old classics. If you have one of these, show it some love. It probably hasn't seen gun oil or new springs in at last 50 years.