I think you would need to turn the 44 barrel down and re thread it  to have enough material for a sleeve. Never thought about it much. Probably be more like a helicoil than a sleeve if you didn’t.

Sure shot wrote on Jul 9^th, 2024 at 1:15pm:


Agree.   Looks like the Hornet barrel was sleeved. (maybe just soldered in) into the butt of the original barrel.

CHRIS

Sure shot wrote on Jul 9^th, 2024 at 10:41am:


Maybe I meant upside down, the way the barrel is threaded on - the lettering is upside down from the right side.

Just google this "sierra 223 hornet bullets". They are the best source of the 223 Hornet bullets. Most of the older Hornet and other 22 wildcat rifles had .223 barrels. I have used these bullets in my Hornets and in my 219 Donaldson Wasp. They are excellent bullets. They come in 40 and 45 grain weights which are ideal for the Hornet and they really come zipping out of my Wasp with excellent accuracy.

Well, I had a little time tonight so I cleaned the rifle, slugged the chamber and bore, borescoped, took some more data and then mounted a scope.

The bore was surprisingly clean with no pitting, it was continuous which leads me to believe that it's not a liner. The barrel is 24.5" long, tapered from .982" at the action to .830" at the muzzle and has a 1:16 twist. Both slugs with cerrosafe measured as .222 after an hour and the chamber slug confirmed that this is a hornet case.

I'm not certain what the .222 correlates to for the appropriate bullet diameter. 

I appreciate the input so far, I wouldn't have thought that the lettering was intended to be at that orientation and I've priced the sierra .223 bullets - just wondering if the PRVI's would be better suited at .222. I suppose if there's no harm done in trying both diameters, I could just load some up and see what shoots better in this rifle.

1.  You don't really know what the diameter is with a vernier caliper.  When you get farther than 2 digits past the decimal, your in ouija board country.  A 1" micrometer will serve you MUCH better.

2.  I would like to see the breach block face and know what size the firing pin hole is and then the size of the firing pin tip.
When I see the fires cases, I'm not seeing pressure signs( sharp corners on the primer and leaking around the cup).  What I suspect is a oversized hole and the primer is expanding into it,  it also looks like it's capturing the firing pin and ripping it open when the block is lowered.  A couple looks like they ruptured on firing into this oversize hole.  That part scares the heck out of me.  Escaping gas could potentially hit your eye and even blow out the firing pin.
IMHO, I don't think it's safe to shoot until these issues are answered and addressed.

I would tend to agree with 830singleshot.  Not that primer can’t be part of the problem.   

I see several issues.

1. The primer flowing around the pin and what appears to be a “to large” breech block hole for the pin.

2. Blown primers.

3. The firing pin hanging up in the primer.  Looking at the shell bases #4-5 and 6 in the lower row.  They all appear to have marks in the primer and continued drag marks on the brass from the pin.  Of course with the primer flow the pin will drag trying to get free of the primer but I would think it should still be fully retracted by the time it gets to the brass.

I would definitely be looking at the pin and breech block hole and get it fixed if it is as suspected.  Also check to be sure the pin can or does fully retract.  The pin nose shape needs to be properly shaped on a 44 1/2 because of the angle it sets at, if not, it can have trouble releasing from the primer.  Is the pin protruding to far when fully extended from the hammer hitting it?  Lastly, make sure the action is timing the lift of the hammer properly.  The hammer should be lifting before or no later than when the breech block starts lowering so that the firing pin can release from the primer. A work around for this issue would to simply put the hammer to half cock before lowering the bb.
Bob