3 inch barrel homebuild 22lr or .25acp

[Hobbja]

So I am going to be building a small 3" barrel simple blowback pocket pistol. I know .22lr is cheap, but upon research, I find the .25acp has better ballistics out of the shorter barrels and is the reason for its past popularity with pocket pistols. Anyone have any thoughts on this? I know that neither of these are optimal for defense, and that's not really the reason for the build, it's about the journey not the destination kind of thing. Cost of ammo isn't really an issue. This is in the design phase. I am planning to base the pistol on an existing magazine and will be using a factory barrel. So short barrels .22lr or .25acp

 

[LoneGoose]

If you don't mind the cost of ammunition, go with .25 ACP. It's more reliable and will increase the cool factor of your gun.

 

[4v50 Gary]

25 ACP because it's rimless and you'll have fewer feeding issues.

 

[Mauser lover]

I've actually wanted to do something like this for a while... Probably will never get around to it, but I would still like to do so.

Have you considered .32?
Okay, I'm done suggesting things that you didn't give as options!

.25 ACP is rimless, so it will probably feed better, BUT!!!

.22 is rimmed, so it will be easier to headspace. Also, feeding can be done to make the .22 reliable. If you already have a .25 barrel picked out, that is fine, but there are probably hundreds of times more .22 barrels (with bolts and extractors if you want to adapt an existing design) out there and available.

But... I'd probably go with .25 of those options, if I already had a barrel.