The .25 Stevens Short was an American rimfire

rifle A rifle is a long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting, with a barrel that has a helical pattern of grooves (rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus on accuracy, rifles are typically designed to be held with b ...

cartridge, introduced in 1902.Barnes, p.276, ".25 Stevens Short". Developed by J. Stevens Arms & Tool Company,Barnes, p.276, ".25 Stevens". it was intended to be a lower cost, less potent variant of the .25 Stevens, on which it was based. It initially 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, carbon (in the form of charcoal) and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). T ...

charge; this was later replaced by smokeless. It was offered in Stevens, Remington, and

Winchester Winchester is a cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government district, at the western end of the South Downs National Park, on the River Itchen. It is south-west of Lond ...

rifles, and could be used in any .25 Stevens rifle, also (in the way the

.38 Special The .38 Special, also commonly known as .38 S&W Special (not to be confused with .38 S&W), .38 Smith & Wesson Special, .38 Spl, .38 Spc, (pronounced "thirty-eight special"), or 9x29mmR is a rimmed, centerfire cartridge designed by Smith & ...

can be fired in weapons chambered for

.357 Magnum The .357 Smith & Wesson Magnum, .357 S&W Magnum, .357 Magnum, or 9×33mmR as it is known in unofficial metric designation, is a smokeless powder cartridge with a bullet diameter. It was created by Elmer Keith, Phillip B. Sharpe, and Douglas B. ...

). It was more powerful than the

.22 Short .22 Short is a variety of .22 caliber (5.6 mm) rimfire ammunition. Developed in 1857 for the first Smith & Wesson revolver, the .22 rimfire was the first American metallic cartridge. The original loading was a bullet and of black powd ...

, as well as less expensive, but more costly than the

.22 Long Rifle The .22 Long Rifle or simply .22 LR or 22 (metric designation: 5.6×15mmR) is a long-established variety of .22 caliber rimfire ammunition originating from the United States. It is used in a wide range of rifles, pistols, revolvers, smo ...

and offering no edge in performance. It was also inferior to its parent cartridge. As a result, it was not a popular hunting round. The cartridge continued to be commercially available until 1942.

Notes

Sources

*Barnes, Frank C., ed. by John T. Amber. ".25 Stevens Short", in ''Cartridges of the World'', pp. 276 & 282–3. Northfield, IL: DBI Books, 1972. . *______ and _____. ".25 Stevens", in ''Cartridges of the World'', p. 276. Northfield, IL: DBI Books, 1972. . Pistol and rifle cartridges Rimfire cartridges Stevens Arms {{ammo-stub