Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats .19 Calhoon

Does anyone have any experience with the 19 Calhoon? I know the .17 Hornet would be a lot more practical but I would hate to let common sense interfere with my gun buying habits.

I have a 19 and a 19-223, both are great little guns.
The 19 is built by James on The Ruger 77 Hornet. I think he's doing them on CZ now. The 19-223 I bought his barrel and put it on a 700V in 223 that I was bored with
I've used both on prairie dogs hunts several times, 19 worked well out to 400+ in mild winds, also minimal pelt damage on coyotes.
The 19-223 is a screamer lots of fun 500+ yards no problem.
I was concerned about bullet availability so I bought several thousand, James uses bonanza dies or did when I got started.
James was always available on the phone great guy to deal with.
If you like oddball stuff you'll be happy with the 19.

I have a Ruger 77/22 hornet converted to the 19 Calhoon.....great gun for high volume shooting,doesn't heat up fast and very efficient, mine likes 11.2 grs of LilGun and a 32 gr HP for 3400 fps ...accuracy is .5" MOA or better.
Only fault is the hornet brass is thin and weak and almost unavailable. Bullets are only available from James,but guys are swaging .204 down to the .192...if you ever had to
Here's mine in a "Rare" Mcmillan

mist,

What trigger shoe do you have on there? Do you like it?

I shot a .19 Calhoon with James during a couple of days of gopher extermination maybe three years ago. It works great! Very accurate and easy to shoot well. Have been thinking about getting one ever since, just have been too busy to do it....

Calhoon also makes excellent bullets in other calibers.

Ace trigger shoe.... Always have liked them

I've been thinking of doing a 19-223 just haven't dropped the coin on his rebarrel kit. I would just buy enough bullets to last life of barrel just in case

I couldn't resist a CZ originally done by James. It was an impulse buy but since I have my feet wet I might just as well jump in and try the water.

toby,
Had in 19 Calhoon in a Cooper 38. Probably the most accurate centerfire hunting rifle I ever owned (a 7x57 was a close runner!). Even fire forming cases didn't go over 3/4". It typically shot the load it liked in the twos.

Max load of 1680 under Jim's 32 grain BT (which I heard was drawn out of a Nosler 20 cal bullet. Chrono'd @ 3406fps. Shot a 28 grain @ 3600 fps, but they didn't produce one hole groups like the 32. All with only 13.5 grains of powder.

I did do a barrel break in that I'll never know whether it helped accuracy, but it certainly made cleaning short and sweet.

I would post some of the targets, but the person that bought it from me wanted those as well. Yeah, sold it to finance another rifle. This was definitely one of those "What were you thinking?" moments!

Some shy away from the 19 because, unless you set up to draw your own, Jim is the only source, at present, for 19 caliber bullets.

It certainly is something different, and in my case a great shooter. I say go for it! T.

I have a cooper 38 and a Calhoon built ruger in 19 Calhoon. I really enjoy them. I also have the 19badger on a CZ built by Calhoon. Very accurate guns and very accurate bullets James produces. My Cooper can literally put all the bullets through the same hole if I do my part. I find the badger to be my favorite of all the 19's. Reminds me of the vartarg. So much performance out of such a small package. I have a 19-223 on a rem 700 action pac-nor built. I love the gun but can't see any advantage of it over the 204 or 20tac. Will always own a badger and most likely a 19 hornet but could live without the 19-223.