22 K-hornet

26 October 2001, 06:58

Paul H

22 K-hornet

Earlier this year I played with a 10" 218 mashburn in my contender. I never got the accuracy I thought it should be capable of, so traded it off. I'm not sure if it was the short neck, or me not trying small pistol primers, but alas, its gone.

I did enjoy the utter lack of recoil, and am thinking perhaps a 10" 22 k-hornet will be the answer. My goal with the mashburn was 45 gr @ 2700, best I ever got was 2500, and accuracy was at 2400. I did push 40 gr balistic tips 2700 though.

Anyhow, just curious what to expect from the K-hornet, might it be a better choice? I think 35 grs @ 2700 would suffice, or 40's at 2500.

26 October 2001, 07:13

Stonecreek

Paul, I can't tell you much about the K-Hornet in a handgun, but I recently purchased a thoroughly reworked and and rebarreled K-Hornet in a Ruger 77-22. It's just about the finest shooting little gun I've ever gotten my hands on. Velocities run about 150 fps over the standard in my 22" barrel.

28 October 2001, 06:03

MADDOG

Stonecreek- What do you mean by reworked?? And who does this work?? MD

30 October 2001, 03:37

MADDOG

CAN ANYBODY ELSE ANSWER THIS QUESTION?? MD

[This message has been edited by MADDOG (edited 10-29-2001).]

30 October 2001, 11:05

Stonecreek

Maddog: There are a lot of smiths doing kind of work on the 77-22. I don't know who did this work because I purchased the gun from the owner in another state by mail.

Mine has a Krieger barrel and a Jewel (?) or Timney (?) trigger. I haven't had it apart to see whether the barrel mounting system was modified, but it shoots like a house afire. I understand that the factory 77-22 Hornets don't have a sterling reputation for performance, so such a rework may be a very good investment.

30 October 2001, 12:07

Nobade

Try Connecticut Precison Chambering. He has a nice package for the 77/22 that really makes it work, and isn't too expensive. Sorry, don't remember the address offhand....

30 October 2001, 13:19

<gruvinbass>

Have to admit, fellas, I'm perfectly happy with my 77/22. The only thing done to it was rechambered to the K, and it'll hold 3/4 in. 10 shot groups. Had no problems with inconsistency at all. Regards, Chad

31 October 2001, 01:36

crowrifle

Can you seat the bullets just shy of the lands and still have the cartridges cycle through the rotary magazine?

31 October 2001, 08:32

<gruvinbass>

Had to file a little bit off the metal section of the magazine for it to work properly, but yeah you can seat them out far enough and still feed, at least the 40 gr v-max's do. Regards, Chad

06 November 2001, 06:45

<re5513>

quote:
Originally posted by Paul H:
I did enjoy the utter lack of recoil, and am thinking perhaps a 10" 22 k-hornet will be the answer. My goal with the mashburn was 45 gr @ 2700, best I ever got was 2500, and accuracy was at 2400. I did push 40 gr balistic tips 2700 though.
Anyhow, just curious what to expect from the K-hornet, might it be a better choice? I think 35 grs @ 2700 would suffice, or 40's at 2500.[/B]

In a 10" TC I believe your performance goal is reasonable. The K-Hornet is nice in that it allows you to properly headspace the cartridge. The biggest benefit here is case life. Hornet cases have a tradition of case head separation after a few short firings of stout loads. Still, it's still a Hornet case and the walls of this case are absurdely thin. Also, you'll have to get K-hornet dies and form your own brass, a bit of a pain but not unreasonably so.

A really fun choice for what you describe is a the .221 fireball. This cartridge was designed for exceeding your target numbers in a 10" barrel. It runs at higher pressures compared to either the Hornet or the .223, is very efficient (handgun friendly), has low recoil, excellent accuracy, a bit more case capacity compared to the hornet, reasonable brass availability. It's one downside is that it is a bit louder compared to the Hornet. You can find fireball barrels in the TC pretty easily and they are generally inexpensive.

Hope that helps.

Regards,
re5513