ASSRA Forum - First project for the New Year

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First project for the New Year - 22 K-Hornet (Read 3981 times)

oneatatime Frequent Elocutionist Offline Posts: 4494 Location: Rocky Mountains Joined: Oct 30^th, 2011	First project for the New Year - 22 K-Hornet Dec 30^th, 2016 at 6:32pm	Print Post
	When I dug my Martini Schuetzen out of the safe to disassemble and picture for the thread in Gunsmithing - "Help needed ? Martini action", I decided it might be time again to try some more cast bullet loads in it. It had been relined to 22 and chambered for a K-Hornet. I have 2 moulds, a 225438 and a 225415 and had cast bullets in some scrap Lino. The front sight is a large bead that hadn't helped fine target sighting much but I thought if I could get a decent load worked up it might make a good offhand practice rifle. The barrel has a 6 inch long base for a sight built in (you can just see the end of it in one of the pics) that happens to be 16mm wide. I was roaming around on Brownells site and found some scope rings for a 16mm base for a CZ rifle. Hoping I had gotten lucky I ordered a set thinking that if I could get a scope on it I could more easily work up a good load. They had a discount/free shipping deal going on so I padded the order up to what was necessary with a few small items I needed. Interestingly, but somewhat sadly, the scope rings and a box of 45 gas checks were the same price. After having loaded up on gas checks at a gun show a few years back for $3 a box it was something of a shock. Anyway the last time I played with the rifle I used the standard powders like 2400, 4227, and even some 1680 but in surfing for info I found that several guys were sold on Lil Gun for the Hornet so thought I would give that a try. I loaded some up and am waiting on Brownells. I do think that before I cast some more bullets I will add a bit of tin to the Lino to try to get bullets more to my liking. Waiting on the new year and the postman...


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SBoomer Frequent Elocutionist Offline Posts: 1021 Location: Michigan's Frozen North (U.P.) Joined: Jan 28^th, 2010	Re: First project for the New Year - 22 K-Hornet Reply #1 - Jan 1^st, 2017 at 9:41am	Print Post
	Oneatatime, I will be eagerly watching this thread to monitor your progress. I have two K-Hornets that I ran a cast thru a couple years back. Results were disappointing. Your timing was perfect as I intend on shooting this week, my focus being cast in the Hornets. One has a 14" twist and .224" groove, the other 16" with .223" groove. Unfortunately, neither is a single shot. Experimentation with subsonic cast loads was dismal. I shot some noncast high veleocity loads with Lil'Gun with excellent results. Most load manuals have Lil'Gun data for the Hornet and K-Hornet.


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SBoomer Frequent Elocutionist Offline Posts: 1021 Location: Michigan's Frozen North (U.P.) Joined: Jan 28^th, 2010	Re: First project for the New Year - 22 K-Hornet Reply #2 - Jan 2^nd, 2017 at 5:39pm	Print Post
	Not from a single shot but it certainly says something for Lil'Gun and a K-Hornet! It sure feels good to be shooting again.


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oneatatime Frequent Elocutionist Offline Posts: 4494 Location: Rocky Mountains Joined: Oct 30^th, 2011	Re: First project for the New Year - 22 K-Hornet Reply #3 - Jan 5^th, 2017 at 7:16pm	Print Post
	The package from Brownells came today. It was time to see if a 100 year old plus 16mm ramp would take modern 16mm rings. The Warne rings are in 2 halves so I had to get the scope out first. Rummaging around I came up with two scopes that weren't on a rifle; a Leupold 2x LER (long eye relief) and a 1 3/4 to 5 Redfield. The action is pretty long so I figured I would have to use the very back of the ramp for 1 ring. The best placement of the LER would have put the eyepiece bell right over the loading ramp so not a good choice. The Redfield had some Weaver rings on it which were set for a Marlin lever action but I figured that if I could get the new rear ring to sit between the adjustment housing and the Weaver ring I wouldn't have to take the Weaver rings off also assuming that the new front ring would sit between the front Weaver ring and the front bell on the scope and the scope would end up in a usable location. I guess I have been living right because it all worked out. The new rings worked on the old base like a charm and the rings ended up on the right places on the scope. Ugly as sin but I will now know for sure where I am aiming when I touch the trigger and serious load workup can begin - as soon as the snow stops and the range opens;-)


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SBoomer Frequent Elocutionist Offline Posts: 1021 Location: Michigan's Frozen North (U.P.) Joined: Jan 28^th, 2010	Re: First project for the New Year - 22 K-Hornet Reply #4 - Jan 6^th, 2017 at 8:45pm	Print Post
	You never should have called her ugly.... Take her out for a dance in her new dress and maybe she will forgive you. I think she's beautiful.


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oneatatime Frequent Elocutionist Offline Posts: 4494 Location: Rocky Mountains Joined: Oct 30^th, 2011	Re: First project for the New Year - 22 K-Hornet Reply #5 - Mar 14^th, 2017 at 1:02pm	Print Post
	Nature's cooperation and my schedule finally merged and I got out to the range. Loading and removing the brass only took a few gos to develop an easy method. I had initially adjusted the scope with an old Bushnell bore sighter when I mounted it. Turned out to be pretty close and I just had to come down and left a few inches at 100. I did 10 shot groups with Lyman 225438 (like a 22 RF bullet) and Lyman 225415 (a little heavier with a more conical nose shape) using 7.4 and 7.6 grains of Lil' Gun. The crosshairs of the scope at 5x covered about 1/2 inch and I was shooting on the 100 yard ASSRA offhand target. I was shooting from the bench but wasn't quite as steady as I would have liked but it all worked and I think I was in the ballpark on the loads. The 438 bullet shot better at the 7.6 level at about 1.7 inches and I will bracket that next time. The 415 bullet shot better at the 7.4 level at about 1.9 inches and I'm going to load down from that next time. Both groups were stretched horizontally with about 1.4 inches vertically. My initial 5 sighters for the 415/7.4 load went into 1.25 inches on the double bull pistol target which may be easier to get a good sight picture on. I also want to cast some better bullets, especially for the 438. I'm going to add some tin to the typemetal and expect it will cast better. Once I get good groups I'll play with seating depth. So much to do!


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oneatatime Frequent Elocutionist Offline Posts: 4494 Location: Rocky Mountains Joined: Oct 30^th, 2011	Re: First project for the New Year - 22 K-Hornet Reply #6 - Apr 13^th, 2017 at 8:09pm	Print Post
	Weather finally cooperated for casting today so I added a half pound of tin to 10 pounds of the lino and cast for 1 hour alternating a dual cavity 415 and a single cavity 438. I ended up with 223 bullets that look much better than the old ones cast from the straight lino. The level in the pot sure goes down slow with these little bullets. Anyway, I hope they shoot as good as they look.


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