I'm so glad I found this board!  Thanks in advance for your comments.

My Dad gave me a Winder Musket about a year ago.  He bought the gun shortly after he was discharged from the Army, probably about 1950 or 1951.  He had it converted to .22 K Hornet shortly after he bought it.  I shot the rifle some when I was in high school, about 35 years ago, and from memory it shot very well.  We felt it had developed excessive head space, however.

Sometime ago he had a local gunsmith weld up and refit the breech block in order to correct the headspace.  It feels hard like it was case hardened with Kasenit, but I don't know that for sure.  It does lock up tight.   

Now it won't group under six inches at 25 yards.  I'm convinced this is due to sloppy stocks and I think I've figured it out.  More on that later.

My concern is if this action is strong enough to handle the .22 K Hornet.  My research indicates a thick side Low Wall should handle it, but a flared side Winder low wall concerns me.  These rifles were originally chambered in .22 Short.  I'm not sure what pressure spec's are for that, but I'm sure the 40,000 psi or so of a K hornet is a whole lot more.  It occurs to me they may not have been heat treated the same as a thick side Low Wall and the K Hornet is exceeding the strength of the action and that is what caused the headspace problem originally.

I've examined the barrel as well as strong Arizona sunlight and my 5 power magnifier will allow and it is clean with no pits, but what looks like boring reamer marks on the lands.  I am shooting Lyman 225438 cast bullets sized .224 over 8 gr. of 4759.  I think this load is more compatible with the action.  I've shot a few 45 gr. Sierra jacketed bullets over the Lil Gun starting load and one out of three keyholes.  I don't think better bedded stocks is going to cure that.  When I measured the cases they were expanded at the web, but were right on the case diameter spec in my Lyman cast bullet book, so I think the chamber is to spec.

I'm going to restock the rifle with mesquite in the Winder style.  I'm going to use a Neidner buttplate, but the fore end will be as close to the original as I can make it.  Based on the threads I've read here it seems the prevailing wisdom is to either bed the fore end tight to the receiver and float the barrel or tight to the barrel and float the receiverl.  The way I've figured this is to borrow a trick from Paco Kelly over at Leverguns and file a groove in the bottom of the barrel under the band, bed the fore end tight to the barrel and float the receiver two thicknesses of electricians tape, then make a pressure point at the forend cap by taping the barrel two thicknesses of tape and glass the forend tip.  I'll pillar bed the buttstock.  I've had excellent results with this on other two piece stocks.

I'm thinking about reconverting this rifle to .22 long rifle.  Again I appreciate any information or advice.   

Darne;
You say that your WM was converted to a K-Hornet. If it was merely rechambered, then the barrel twist is not adequate for the heavier bullets than the original .22 short (twist would not be fast enough to stabilize the longer bullets).

If the rifle was re-barreled to a faster twist compatible with the K-Hornet than my comment does not apply.

Dale53

Darne,

  As long as you're using cast bullets I wouldn't worry about shooting your Low Wall in the K-Hornet. True, pressures for the standard Hornet are in the 50,000 PSI working range (jacketed), so I would assume the K version is to. But don't forget.... that's Pounds Per Square Inch and the surface area of the Hornets case head is under 1/2" square inch, so actual breech thrust pressures are a lot less.

  Altho I don't have a K-Hornet in that model of Win. I do have one in .22 Hornet, and have shot several thousand rounds of cast bullets thru it and it locks up as tight as the day it was set up.

  As to your not being able to shoot inside 6" at 25 yds....... I found that getting the Hornet to shoot with cast bullets is about the hardest thing I've ever done in shooting. Getting down to a consistent 1 1/8" to 1 1/4" at 100 yds. took three guns with different bore diam.'s & twist rates, half a doz. moulds, I don't know how many different powders, and three Summers to accomplish. I've never shot jacketed bullet in mine but a friend, on here, gets sub MOA at 100 yds. with jacketed bullets, but is in the same boat you are shooting Lead bullets at 50 yds.

  Another part of your accuracy problem has already been mentioned. Twist rate. The twist for the .22 Short is 1-20" whereas that for the L.R. is 1-16". So if your Winder has it's original barrel on it then you will be restricted to sub 40 gr. bullets. The cast bullet you mention is listed at 41 grs. so would be very marginal. I'd think the if you could find a 225107 it might work better.

  On restocking...... I'd get rid of the barrel band altogether. As for all the fancy stuff you want to do with the forend? Don't waste your time. Paco Kelly is talking about lever guns when he talks about all those things you can do.... and they are effective for lever guns..... but as far as SS's are concerned the forearm is just hung onto the barrel and doesn't affect accuracy unless it's butted to solidly against the frame. When re-doing my Winder I just had the new forearm attached to the barrel with one screw like all standard Low & High Walls are. For the new butt stock the best thing you could do would be to have a thru bolt put in. You can also do this with the original stock if it's in good shape. The way most SS's are set up the two wood screws that attach the butt to the receiver is the worst possible way of attaching a stock if you're going for max. accuracy.

PETE