Gentlemen:

I have a line on a nice Kimber 82, .22 Hornet. Did Kimber ever make a model 84 in .22 Hornet? Is there any argument against the 82 as opposed to the 84? I do prefer the mauser extraction if I could find an 84 in .22 Hornet. I like the fact that the 82 is a repeater, whereas a Cooper would be a single shot. Any advise is appreciated.

Regards,

Jordan

Jordan---

As far as I know there have only been two Kimber 84s in Hornet. I did both of them. One for a gun writer and one was sold to a guy in Nachadoches, Tx. (I pray misspelling isn't a capital offense down there.)

Both were 22 K Hornets with Douglas premium barrels. The rear bridges were milled like a square bridge and rear tangs cut into a fat 93 Mauser style....I still have the template....the magazine has silver soldered slanted ends for the rimmed cases and the followers are changed extensively. The bottom metal was changed somewhat and the mag box height altered to give a slim fore-end. (I don't like the thick one they came with.)

Both guns held seven rounds of ammo in the staggerd stack magazine and would feed Hornets and K-Hornets mix or match slick as a bowl of eels.

The last I heard neither was for sale, trade or barter.

I'd do another for the same price I did those.....send two actions and one barrel and get one barreled action back. I take one for labor. It was a fair trade 17 years ago and still is.

Jack:

That sounds like a neat little rifle you built. I have not seen a single 84 action [in .22 Hornet] on the market of late. Don't hold your breath, but I may get back to you on this.

Regards,

Jordan

Jordan--

As far as I know there were no Model 84 Hornet actions. The ones I mentioned were 223s. I had to change the bolt face and extractor along with the mag. box alterations.

The one I sold is one of the many guns I wish I still had.

Well, Jack, most crimes in Texas are capital offenses, but lucky for you, misspelling Nacogdoches isn't one of them.

Although I really never understood why Kimber used the rear-lock design instead of a front-locking mini-mini Mauser design for their M82, the Model 82 is fully adequate for the Hornet and similar rounds. If you can get an attractive price on one, buy it with confidence, then promptly send it to Jack to ream it into a K-Hornet. My model 82 is a .22 WMR and is an excellent gun in every way.

As an aside- not all Kimber 84s were repeaters. My 84 in 223 is a single shot-bottom of the action is solid-no provisions for a magazine.

CAL