I saw a Winchester 43 22 Hornet at a local shop yesterday. I am thinking about purchasing it. Does anyone shoot one of these in the 22 Hornet? How accurate is it and what's your favorite load? The rifle is in great shape but the stock has some type of weird cut/carved "checkering" around the pistol grip and up both sides of the forend. The metal is in excellent shape.

I've had a few of them and they were made for the 0.223" Bullets not the 0.224" Bullets. But you can use 0.224" Bullets in them as long as you watch closely for Pressure Indicators.

Accuracy was inconsistent in all of them, but this was long before 35gr and 40gr Bullets, plus well before Lil'Gun Powder came along. With those Bullets and Powder, you "might" get a good consistent Load.

You ABSOLUTELY must feed the rifle from the magazine because it is a real Controlled Round Feed and will not slip over the Rim. That can be very aggravating at times.

Redfield used to make a Scope Base for them, but the rifle had to be drilled and tapped. I had an extra one or two of them and got a bunch of cash for each of the Bases.

Nice light easy to carry rifle. But the accuracy just wasn't as good as I wanted. But like I said above, with todays components it might be different.

Best of luck to you.

Not in 22H, but I have owned/used a 43 Deluxe in 218 Bee for 36 years now. It was D&T and I used weaver bases on it to fit a K4. I use it for a walking varmiter/coyote caller on occasions I want to feel nostalgic. Don't have the load handy, but it will put 3 into a 1/2" day in day out. I use .224 diameter. I also disagree with the statement that the 43 bbl. was made for .223 diameter bullets. The .223 swere for use in the many fine 22s that were converted to 22H guns like the M2 Springfields and the numerous singleshots. I have yet to find any documentation that supports otherwise. The action design is tough on case life, but otherwise it is a delightful little gun.

I've owned & used every calliber listed for the Winchester Model 43 bolt action. All EXCEPT a .22 Hornet! I was able to find and purchase the .25-20, .32-20, and the .218 Bee. Todate I only own the .25-20 a deluxe version with checkered stock. IF I ever run across a M-43 in .22 Hornet, and it is excellent shape, I will buy it!!!

I bought my Win 43 in 22H over half a century ago and still shoot it. It has been a K-Hornet since the late 60's. My favorite powder is 4227 with a 40gr bullet. The barrel was slugged by two differnt folks and measured about .2215" which puts it into the 22RF catagory (along with the Sav 23D and the old Win 70!). It's finicky but can be made to be accrately. According to Parker Ackly, the Win 43 is prone to developing headspace with max loads, so I load for 1st round, cold barrel accuracy and now have a gun that will kill a chuck at 100 yds and hardly anyone can hear it.
Bud W

It would be nice to fine an old Sako L46 rifle in either .22 Hornet or .218 Bee.

Hi 22Win... I forgot to give you a complete load; I used 11gr IMR4227 behind a 40gr PSP .224" bullet which put 5 shots into 1" @ 100yds. The same charge behind a 45gr .223" Sierra PSP with Win 116 primer put 4 shots into 7/8" The minute I tried using .222" Jet bullets, the groups opened up to near 2". Haven't tried Lil'Gun & SP primers yet. I'm curious as to how much your local shop was asking for the Win 43.

Bud W

My favorite load for my Hornet is: for accuracy, 11.7grs Lilgun under a 52gr Sierra HPBTM and for coyotes its 13.0gr Lilgun under a 45gr Barnes XLC. The Sierra load goes around 2650fps and the Barnes goes around 2925fps. Both use a small pistol primer.

quote:

Originally posted by 22win:
I saw a Winchester 43 22 Hornet at a local shop yesterday. I am thinking about purchasing it. Does anyone shoot one of these in the 22 Hornet? How accurate is it and what's your favorite load? The rifle is in great shape but the stock has some type of weird cut/carved "checkering" around the pistol grip and up both sides of the forend. The metal is in excellent shape.

As mentioned before .224 bullets are fine for these old .22 Hornets. I also suggest for best accuracy that you neck sixe the cases for this fine little bolt gun. I like the Redding Bushing die and only NS to the length of the bullet seating depth. This leaves the rest of the fire formed neck and body to remain fitted to the chamber. The very thin necks of Hornet brass can get bent being pullet over an expander ball. Concentricity goes out the window along with accuracy. I've also found the classic load of a Sierra 40 gr Hornet bullet (.224) over 11.5 gr of H4227 with a WSP (yes small pistol) primer in Winchester or Remington case will give excellent accuracy in almost any Hornet. Pressures are fine for these older rifles and velocity will be 2650-2700 fps. Pure death and destruction on small varmints out to 200 yards or a tudge farther.

Larry Gibson