.25-45 Sharps
The .25-45 Sharps (6.35×45mm) is a firearms cartridge designed by Michael H Blank, then CEO of the Sharps Rifle Company, LLC, as a general hunting cartridge for most North American game, in particular Deer, Antelope, Hogs, and Coyotes. Unlike .300 AAC Blackout which was targeted specifically at the suppressed rifle market, and is merely adapted to hunting, the .25-45 Sharps was designed primarily with hunting in mind.
Although the round wasn't directly intended for tactical purposes, it is certainly capable of those applications. Performance well exceed that of the 5.56x45mm NATO cartridge. The cartridge name comes from its caliber (.25 inch or 6.35 mm bore, and .257 inch or 6.5 mm bullet) and case length of 45 millimeters (necked-up 5.56×45 mm), as opposed to older hyphenated cartridges that were named for caliber and powder charge. Factory ballistics with the 87 gr (5.6 g) bullet equal those of the original .250-3000 Savage with the same bullet weight. However, it appears they sacrifice its absolute maximum potential due to requiring shorter bullets for diameter, meaning a lower ballistic coefficient.
It should also be noted that another major advantage of the cartridge is that it's compatible with any typical STANAG magazine in platforms like the AR-15, meaning no additional investment in non-standard magazines. Likewise, the only modification that really needs to be made to an AR-style rifle to convert to .25-45, is simply to change barrels.
Ballistic Performance
| Bullet Weight / Type | Velocity | Muzzle Energy |
|---|---|---|
| 87 Gr. Speer Hot-Cor SP | 3,000 ft/s (910 m/s) | 1,739 ft lbs (2,358 Joules) |
