A little Hornet followed me home...

[RJW NZ]

Does anyone know what the authentic finish on a Hornet is called?

I'm not up to anything drastic, just want to know what to do for maintenance, plus I have a T cheek piece I'd like to finish the same.

Hi Branx, message 4 u in the system

[Bindi2]

Mine is BLO wood and the usual Lithgow metal finish

[Son]

Mine is BLO wood and the usual Lithgow metal finish

Yep, mine too... as is the other wood set I have...

[Branxhunter]

I have been busy out in the shed and modified an alloy weaver-type rail mount for my Lithgow 22 hornet. It is a Nikko Stirling model to suit a Rem 700/Howa 1500 action. I ground and shortened it to fit on the rear of the barrel shank and front reciever ring. A mate of mine drilled and tapped the barrel shank (2 holes) and the reciever ring (1 hole).

I mounted an old K8 weaver scope in low 1" weaver rings and zeroed at 50m. I ran out of vertical adjustment so had to take it all back off and cut some aluminium can as a shim under the rear mount screw.

With the scope mounted up again I zeroed at 50m then 100m. Remington factory 45gn HPs shot a 5/8" 3 shot group. My handloads with 40gn WMR HPs haven't matched this, with the best group around 1 1/4". I have some 45gn Hornady SPs and 35gn V-maxes on order so will see what they can do.

Branx

[sojerguy]

Sell me this obvious pierc of bubba-ized metal, and use the oney for a no8 (please, please, please let him bite on the bait).

NO? Oh well I tried.

I also have a K-hornet or two. Fine rifles/rounds. Shoot a few 22 hornets in it, the shpulders expand out, neck size only, and you'll be surrpised how cheaply you can load for this.

I ground off/ground down an abused .222 Rem die to get it short enough to use as a 'neck sizer' only for my K-hornets. Never touch the shoulder or bodies once they're fire-formed.

[BushyFromOz]

just scored one of these for 50 bucks, but its in a terrible states of repair. the woodwork is complete and in good nick but some tool has stripped most of the blueing off with what i rpresume was rust and blue remover. Theres also a patch of pitting about 3 inches from the muzzle in the barrel, makes it look like it was stood up in a bucket of water.

Frankly, im not sure what to do with it, if it shoots allright just get it hot blued or hav ?? MAB/TSE knock me up a smle profile barrel in 22 hornet?

Ideas?

[muffett.2008]

Well this one was dragged out of the archives, interesting thread.
I used to do a few conversions on these, still have a K hornet reamer, as to 22rf adapters, I did a couple of chamber castes to get the actual chamber profile, machined them up out of barrel offcuts, reverse profiled an extractor to fit over the 22 but under the centerfire extractor, freebored and away they went.
It must be over thirty years since I did those. Ahh memories ......

[muffett.2008]

Just a quick edit, had a look at my old notes, two points, last mod was a simple spring plunger that pushed the rimfire case back far enough to pick it out with fingers (problems with extractor override), could only use bolts with offcentre strike. (to lazy to sort this one out....I think I tried, just don't see any drawings.)
Lots of other fancy things , 22 full auto pistol, 12 ga. propelled spud gun, boy I had fun back then.(Early 60's B.W.)

[xa-coupe]

I have seen a few 22 hornets come out of the wood work of late. Given my current financial situation I have been holding out for something cheap but $50 .. is cheap !
If it is in original configuration I would try to restore it after giving it a shot to see if it has any accuracy in it at all. If the barrel is completely shagged then maybe a replacement is in order but I like the idea of something a little rough and restored which shows some history.
Can you throw us a picture ?? I like these off beat sort of things.

[Bruce_in_Oz]

Had one of these beasties once.

Only came with a few rounds but I found a tiny hardware shop that had a swag of "Riverbrand" ammo assembled on Sako brass.

Feed from the mag was "variable". Mag seemed to float about a fair bit and the soft-points would hang up either in the mag or on the ramp. Despite this, it was very accurate.

It was fitted with a "Field" side mount that was pretty solid; can't remember what glass it wore.

In a similar vein, does anyone have one of the single-shot or repeater SMLE sporters in .310 Cadet? I have seen drawings of some of the mods required but never spotted a complete rifle.

And then there are the .410 bore shotguns on the same platform. They seem to have been a popular farm gun on the Darling Downs at one time and turn up in gunshops occasionally.