Ruger 77/22-Hornet..

[Jeff.L]

Have a friend that wants to sell me a Ruger 77/22 Hornet that has been rechambered to 22K-Hornet, Barrel free floated, Barrel re crowned.
Rifle looks good. Any oppinons good or bad. Thanks Jeff

[DGV]

Get the money for that Rifle now! As long as it was a good gunsmith who did the K-Hornet conversion it will shoot. I have used only 1 cast boolit in mine. A Lyman #225438. With my alloy, about 43 grains. 4 grains of unique give around 1650 fps with 1.5 inch at 100yds. This is a regular 22 Hornet, no K-Hornet. I have thought about the conversion to K-Hornet but it is not a priority right now.

[docone31]

Kinda tells it all,
http://www.reloadbench.com/cartridges/w22khorn.html
If it looks good, might be a good rifle.

[Johnch]

I have a 77/22 hornet
It has been back to Ruger due to realy poor accuracy

They rebeded it and it is better ......not great
But usable to 200 yds

IMO a big part of the accuracy probelms is the way the barrel ataches to the recever
I never got around to fixing that problem



If you buy it
And want to make the trigger much much better
The 77/22 Volquartsen Target Sear and Sear Spring will drop the trigger pull to about 1 1/2 lb

Pretty simple to install

Never tryed it with cast


John

[pietro]

The beauty of the K-Hornet, like all improved cartridges, is that factory Hornet cartridges can still be used.

That make the rifle usable until you get up to speed on dies, etc, and lets you build up a supply of K-Hornet cases, fire-formed to your chamber.

.

[Jeff.L]

He is throwing in a regular set of hornet dies a set of K-hornet dies .
150 fire formed rounds two bags of new hornet brass shell holder
and 100 loaded K-hornet rounds...He is asking $500.00 too Much??
Jeff

[6.5 mike]

NO, that's a good deal when you figure a the extras. I'd take it in a heartbeat.

[Jeff.L]

The rifle had the work done by Connecticut Precision Chambering.
Jeff

[Reaper]

CPC chambered my heavy barrel 77/22 to a K-Hornet. Also shimmed the bolt and tuned the trigger. You'll love that rifle. Thirteen grains of lil'Gun and a 45 to 50 grain bullet should get you started.

[Jeff.L]

Would it be an issue if I used Cast Boolits to fire form the K-Hornet Brass?
I have a 55gr lyman gc mould and load 6 gr of 2400 for my Savage model 40
in 22 hornet.. Or should I only use J-word bullets?? Jeff


and should I order a neck sizing die???

[DLCTEX]

Cast will work fine to fire form.

[softpoint]

Will the friend let you shoot that rifle before you buy? I've had 2 of those, a sporter and a varmint weight and a friend had a sporter, all 3 had accuracy problems that were never cured. I'm sure there are probably good ones around, it just wasn't our experience. We both have CZ 527's now, and both of us are happy campers. I don't particularly like the magazine sticking out so far, and the scope mounts are pretty high, but these little cz's SHOOT![smilie=2:

[Jeff.L]

No scope on the rifle at this time.. He said 1" to 1 1/2 " groups at 100 yards
but he only had a 3x9 scope on it. Got a 6x18 would put on it.
Jeff

[JeffinNZ]

Shoot it first. I once tried a Ruger Hornet and it shot terribly. My old Cz was not fussy at all.

[HamGunner]

I will second the suggestion of using Lil'Gun at around 13-14 gr. with your 40-45 gr. bullets. Much less pressure than 296 or 2400 and I get 3,050 fps with 14.0 gr. behind a 45 gr. HPBee Hornady bullet. My Ruger 77/22 drives tacks with that load. I did lighten and polish up the trigger as well as glass bed the action and float the barrel. I also found that the Ruger bore was a bit ruff so I polished it out just a bit. Like many rifles out of the box. Rugers can sometimes use a bit of a personal touch to make them shoot their best.

If they have not already been modified, the magazines will need to be relieved just a bit to allow the extra width of the K-hornet brass to cycle. I done mine with a small file.

[Charlie Sometimes]

I really like mine (22 Hornet)- paid $400 for it over a year ago.
I saw a few at a gun show last month- pricing well over $750 now w/o scopes!
$500 would be a real good deal with all the extras.
I put a 2.5-10x42mm scope on mine- plenty of power for the limited range of the cartridge (+/-300 yd PBR), and a bipod.
Mine shoots J-bullets very well- at least everything I have put through it so far.
I am still working on cast boolits loads in mine- trying the 225415, 225438, 225450, 225462, 22-55-SP, 22-55-RF (Bator).
Don't use alloys below 12 BHN- I got leading with softer alloys at high velocities (2000 fps plus range).
I am testing with 12.0 gr. of Lil' Gun- it seems to shoot well with that load with the heavier boolits, so far.
I am considering the 22 K-Hornet conversion, too- extends case life besides giving additonal volume for more powder (15% more vol?) ergo more velocity.

Not a priority now for me, either.

One draw back- the clip limits the type and weight of bullets you can feed through it, and therefore effects the accuracy through greater seating depth.

JMHO on this rifle/caliber- take it or leave it.

[Jeff.L]

He going to let me use the rifle this week end mount my scope on it and give it a go.. Jeff

[Four Fingers of Death]

The fact that it has been re-chambered makes it not original, hence cheaper. Take $400 or 450 in one pocket and pull that out, tell him its all you can spare or are prepared to pay, have the rest in the other pocket in case he won't budge. :)

[Jeff.L]

I'm loading some ammo for the K-hornet and you really have to seat the bullet deep to make it fit in the mag.. Loading 50 gr bullet. trying the suggested load of little gun . Going to load some seating the bullet out further shooting the gun as a single shot see if it will shoot better that way... Jeff

[Charlie Sometimes]

Yes, single shot was better in mine right off, but not fully utilizing the capacity of the rifle just ain't right to me. I'm not through with all of my shooting and testing. I'm just trying to isolate what shoots better for starters, then I will shoot for BEST once I have cut down the field of potential candidates. Not being able to utilize the magazine defeats the purpose of a repeater- there is bound to be a boolit/load combo that works throught the clip with the best accurac possible. The biggest problem is all of this is very time consuming to do it right, and I am trying to cut some corners to speed up the process.

13 gr. of Lil Gun is MAX in the Hornet & 13.5 gr. in the K-Hornet according to Hodgdon data- depending on the bullet. I'm testing with 12.0 gr. because using the Beagle test data listed on a sticky somewhere on this site (around 8, IIRC), I got shotgun pattern groups- too slow for the twist rate even though he used the same rifle. Must be the alloy hardness making the difference, all things being the same.

55 gr. spitzer bullets were seated much too deep for my taste to be used in the clip, but gave great accuracy when seated out to within 0.010" of the lands/grooves and loaded one at a time into the chamber. Cast 225415 and 22-55-SP work OK though- the latter being slightly more pointed. 225450 did not (very ptd), and the Bator profile caused it to be seated deeply, too.
I'm going to try making some SGB's with some 55 gr. FMJ-BT later to see if they load into the clip later on. Hope so, I like the 55 gr. bullets/boolits and an SGB would be good in the Hornet for varmints and such, I think.

Just what I have had time to work out so far.......

[Jeff.L]

Or should I say shot it and bought it. This rifle will shoot.. Bad weather this am but shot about 50 rounds through it but really liked the way it shot. and he took $450.00 for it... Jeff

[Charlie Sometimes]

Good deal- glad you got it, and are enjoying life! I really like mine, and they are nice looking rifles, too.
My next test is with the 225438 (44 gr.)- same RN profile as the 225462 (57 gr.). The 462 worked okay in the magazine and could be seated out some. I like the 225415 (55 gr.) profile best so far- more meplat.

Enjoy tha rifle!

[Jeff.L]

Shot this group at 50 yards.. but still working on it... Jeff

[Marine Sgt 2111]

I have a 77/22 hornet that I bought some 8 years ago. After 8 hours of re-working the bolt via making shims to take up the slop, stoning the trigger sear, lightening springs, glass bedding the action and first inch of the barrel channel, stone the cocking ramp and firing pin cocking piece.....then she shot into an inch with handloads of 14grs of Lil'gun and a Hornady 40gr V-max and 3200 fps.

I put a Pac-Nor barrel on her in .17 Ackley Hornet and on the average she shoots under 1/2 inch with the best 5 shot group at .180" at 100 yds.:drinks:

[DLCTEX]

I have had good results with the 225438 in mine . The Bator is showing promise when loaded single to a longer length, but haven't had time for load development in months. I hope to remedy that next weekend, well maybe the next one, just noticed the 4th is coming up. The young Pdogs are growing large enough for me to hit one.

[NHlever]

225438 shoots well in my Ruger Hornet too.

[DLCTEX]

I used the 225438 on pdogs today to about 150 yds. If they were farther than that I switched to 45 gr. jwords. Not a dramatic kills with the cast, but dead is dead. Hope to shoot a bigger dog town tomorrow. I wish the magazine on the 77/22 was longer, but I single load easily enough anyway.

[HamGunner]

I have worked a bit with my 77/22 K-Hornet with the 45gr. Hornady HPBee bullet. All loads used
molycoated bullets. I used the 7 1/2 BR primers for the K-Hornet load. The 2400 and 296 powders may have
shown less pressure with a milder primer. I used the WSR for the Hornet to K-Hornet case forming load.
My 2400 and 296 loads are .3gr. over the max. and they did enlarge primer pockets. Lil'Gun had no enlargement.
I had no access to Lil'Gun data at the time, but it is certainly a winner. Normal Pressure as well as very good
velocity gain. I had no IMR-4227 or 1680 to try, but I think Lil'Gun would be better anyway. Now I need to work up
a good cast load.

14716 14717 14718

[Charlie Sometimes]

Does that say 13.5 gr. to size to K, and 14.0 gr. of Lil' Gun for best J-bullet accuracy? That would be max in th K-Hornet for Lil' Gun, I think. Seems that the Hornet, of either variety, works best at the upper end of the Lil' Gun load range.

[HamGunner]

Yes, I got my best group with the case forming load when I ended up only dropping the K-Hornet load down by 1/2 gr. But I did use a WSR primer for the case forming. I really wish I had the time to have played around more with different primers when I worked up my loads back then. With a case capacity this small, I think primers can really influence things a lot. I worked up the load back when Lil'Gun first came out. Load data was almost non-existent.
Oh, and do note that all the loads are with Moly Coated bullets. Non Moly bullets should probably need a bit less powder to produce the same pressure/velocity.

[Lloyd Smale]

my ruger hornet shoots 3/4s of an inch at a 100 yards with a 35 grain vmax and 1680 and a cci small rifle match primer. What would be a max load using that bullet with lilgun. I cant find much load data for lilgun. this is a stock hornet not a k.

[BABore]

Lloyd,

Hodgdon's has the Lil Gun data on their website for that bullet. They list 12.0 as the start and 13.0 as the max for the 35 gr Hornady V-max. They basically list the 12.0 to 13.0 gr charge of Lil Gun for all bullet weights from 35 to 55 grains for the stock Hornet.

[felix]

LLoyd, for grins I would measure the volume of the 680 of your current load, and then weigh the same volume of Lil Gun. If the weight is within the range given by BAB above, I would start with that. Example: 25 RL7 equals 27 W680 in 45 Colt using 310 grainer in a Marlin at a hunnert, offhand. Both are small grained double based powders with 10 percent nitroglycerin. ... felix

[StarMetal]

No scope on the rifle at this time.. He said 1" to 1 1/2 " groups at 100 yards
but he only had a 3x9 scope on it. Got a 6x18 would put on it.
Jeff

That's really not good accuracy. By the way the chambering doesn't improve a bad barrel. I've not known anyone that got super accuracy out of a Ruger Hornet. Here's what you want. I have a CZ 527 sporter in a fiberglass stock from CZ and it shoots the Hornady A-Max over a hot load of WW 296 into a round 3/8th inch hole five shot group at 100 yards consistently. It's beating that friends of yours jacketed group with the NEI Loverin cast at 3/4 inch groups at 100 yards at high velocity. I'd pass and get a CZ or a Browning...not a Ruger.

Joe

[HamGunner]

No matter what gun is used, the Lil'Gun powder has impressed me as the best I have found to get the little Hornets velocity up and still have very good accuracy with just normal pressure. The little cases can not stand a lot of pressure. I did not really fool around a lot looking for accurate loads with the slower velocities. AA-1680 was said to be a great Hornet powder and I have seen plenty of good groups shot with it, but it can not keep up with Lil'Gun velocity wise. I suspect tha Lil'gun would make a great cast bullet powder.

As for the Ruger itself, well it does not appear to me to be a crack shot right out of the box and the magazine limits the OAL of many of the good .22 bullets. But plenty of shooters, including myself, have shot it well with just a little tender loving care. I chose the 45gr. Hornady HP/Bee for it's short seating needs that worked well in the Ruger's magazine and it has a cannelure for crimping.

I do not know what the price difference is for a CZ or a Browning, but I suspect the Ruger to beat their prices somewhat. You get what you pay for. Myself, well I don't mind spending a bit of time and effort to make a gun shoot. In fact, that is part of the fun of shooting. If a rifle just plain will not shoot, then I would not want it at any price. I do not feel that the Ruger has a bad barrel, it just needs a little bit of loving attention. I hope to soon see if it's barrel will shoot cast.

[yondering]

If need be, the Ruger's bore can be smoothed out quite a bit with the Tubb's Final Finish kit. No, I'm not affiliated with them in any way, it's just something that worked well for my #1 in 22 Hornet. It won't fix everything, but if the problem is just a rough bore, it's basically a $30 barrel job. Also, it is NOT the same as firelapping a bore for cast boolits, this is a polishing job only.

FWIW, I get sub .350" groups at 100 yds with my Ruger #1; 40gr V-Max and 14gr A-1680 over a russian SR primer. Velocity is a little lower than Lil-Gun, but the accuracy is so good, I won't change a thing.

[StarMetal]

No matter what gun is used, the Lil'Gun powder has impressed me as the best I have found to get the little Hornets velocity up and still have very good accuracy with just normal pressure. The little cases can not stand a lot of pressure. I did not really fool around a lot looking for accurate loads with the slower velocities. AA-1680 was said to be a great Hornet powder and I have seen plenty of good groups shot with it, but it can not keep up with Lil'Gun velocity wise. I suspect tha Lil'gun would make a great cast bullet powder.

As for the Ruger itself, well it does not appear to me to be a crack shot right out of the box and the magazine limits the OAL of many of the good .22 bullets. But plenty of shooters, including myself, have shot it well with just a little tender loving care. I chose the 45gr. Hornady HP/Bee for it's short seating needs that worked well in the Ruger's magazine and it has a cannelure for crimping.

I do not know what the price difference is for a CZ or a Browning, but I suspect the Ruger to beat their prices somewhat. You get what you pay for. Myself, well I don't mind spending a bit of time and effort to make a gun shoot. In fact, that is part of the fun of shooting. If a rifle just plain will not shoot, then I would not want it at any price. I do not feel that the Ruger has a bad barrel, it just needs a little bit of loving attention. I hope to soon see if it's barrel will shoot cast.

Don't count on Ruger beating CZ's prices. I too am not sure what the cost of all three are, but CZ is a tough rifle to beat for the pricing. My rifle also came with the rings...Browning does not I believe. Far as I'm concerned Ruger had barrel problems when they first started making rifles, you still hear about barrel problems today...so far as I'm concerned you can have your Rugers. Browning is expensive.

Joe

[Cap'n Morgan]

One thing about the Hornet: Load it to max OAL your rifle (or it's magazine) will allow. I have a BSA in K-Hornet. Never tried cast, but it will shoot almost any 45 grain bullet into an inch or less at 100 meters when loaded to 1.795 OAL.

[johnly]

I have three ruger 77/22 hornets, with one of them in K format. The 35 gr. V-max with a case full of 2400 seems to work well in the standard Hornets well meaning less than a MOA. 4227 and WW296 also seem to perform well. I've tried a bunch of different loads with Lil'Gun and I just can't seem to get it to shoot as well as the other powders. Next trip to the range I'll be trying Accurate 4100 in the K-Hornet, but I have some plans to try N120 and N130, and Norma 200 when I can find some.

I also shoot cast bullets in the Hornets and I like the Lee Bator and as well as an Ohaus 22 50FN mold I have. Best I can tell, the proper bullet diameter is really critical. groups shot with bullets sized in a .224 die shot patterns, where as those sized in a .225 die shot nice groups with Trail Boss and 4227.

[Lloyd Smale]

thanks for the help babore and felix. I really have no use for further load developement for that rifle as it does drive tacks with the load i use but i have a jug of lilgun that i bought for handguns and dont use for that application anymore. I use it mostly in the 3220s now and it would be nice to find another venue to use it up.

[Cap'n Morgan]

Next trip to the range I'll be trying Accurate 4100 in the K-Hornet, but I have some plans to try N120 and N130, and Norma 200 when I can find some.

Try Norma's N123 if you can still find it. It is by far the best powder I have tried in the K-Hornet. Just a tad slower than 2400. Sadly, Norma has discontinued making this great powder. Suggested starting load 10 grains.

[twotoescharlie]

I have one of these for several years. the only problem was misfires using small rifle primers. does OK with small pistol primers. anyone else have this problem?

TTC

[DLCTEX]

No problems with any primers. The 225-438s did well to 150 yds today on prarie dogs. These were over SR 7625 powder. Holdover at that range was about 6" higher than 45 gr. jacketed and 2400.