I'm thinking of building a 22 hornet on a Lee Enfield action that fired more than it's fair share of 303 Brit milsup. The locking lug recesses are loosing their hardened face! So, rather than chop it up I'm thinking of fitting a 22lr barrel to it with a modified hornet chamber. The idea is to retain the long neck and sharpen the shoulder and possible reduce the body taper to gain a little capacity but the idea is to form a head'spacing shoulder. Lil'Gun is the preferred powder so too much case capacity gain is detrimental. (Curious stuff that Lil'Gun. The standard hornet will out perform the k-hornet with it - at least that's the indication from the loading charts).

The modified case will also keep those cases separate from my standard hornet.



So, several questions arise - do I use my long barrel which may or may not be ordinance steel or my 1-in-14 twist Toz barrel which is 4140 as I'm given to believe or a short stainless off-cut barrel? I also have a Gecardo barrel that 'rings' like 4140.

Oh, if there is any doubt as the steel then it will be a cast bullet gun but I would still be aiming at full velocity with it, that being 3000fps plus with 40gr bullets. Is that possible with a short barrel?

Another interesting little Hornet variation:

http://stevespages.com/jpg/cd22longsnapper.jpg

Bruce

Get some one to hardness test your unknown barrel. If the hardness is in the range of Rockwell B80 which is near C zero (and the C scale is not accurate this low) you have a piece of ordinary low carbon steel.
If the steel is in the range of Rockwell C20 up to C32 you have something similar to 4140.
If you are proficient with a file you can tell the difference easily if you have known materials to "calibrate" your file with.

quote:

Originally posted by 303Guy:

Oh, if there is any doubt as the steel then it will be a cast bullet gun but I would still be aiming at full velocity with it, that being 3000fps plus with 40gr bullets.

I could be wrong but 4000fps with a cast bullet ain't gonna happen and hit what you am at much.
Defeating the set back problem and going to a much smaller dia. case is a step in the right direction and an interesting project to boot. I hope you go through with it.roger

Yeah,3000fps with casts are a bit much. I would go any higher than 2000fps, especially with the .220 22Lr bore. Adam

I do believe it has been done - 3000fps with cast, that is. The 22lr bore might be a problem due to the shallow rifling. On the other hand, the slow twist might compensate some. But what I want is a jacketed bullet - casting those small bullets isn't easy!

I'm not proficient in identifying steels. I didn't think of the hardness testing. I think I can find someone to do it for me. Thanks.

Hi, 303 Guy- I don't know about 3,000 fps with L'il Gun frrom a Hornet, as I don't use that powder.

But it is easily available when using AA 1680 powder with the cheaper of the two 40 gr. Sierra .224 bullets. 14.0 grains will fill winchester cases right to the top edge. Put the bullet on top of that, seat the bullet to the depth you need for your rifle magazine and you're good to go.

That amount of powder compression will harm nothing, and the load has the bonus of being the most accurate load in all of my standard Hornets. It is also low enough peak pressure that the brass seems to last forever in my guns.

The K-Hornet Winchester cases will hold one more grain of 1680 (15.0 grs.), will produce right at 3,300 fps over my Oehler chrono with the same 40 grain bullet, and will shoot consistent 1/2 MOA groups at 100 yards from my short barreled Martini....