Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Savage 219 questions

One is available locally, trying now to set up a time to look at it.

Seems to be fairly well worn from what I can tell by description. Stock would need refinishing. It also has a scope mount of some kind on it, so it has been drilled. Caliber is .22 Hornet, so a little more unusual than most.

What are common problems to look for? I've been looking for something very economical to load and cast for since .22 LR ammo is not to be had anymore for the foreseeable future. I always like the slim handling of the 219, so this one would be good for that purpose.

Make sure the firing pin isn't broke. The 219 is one gun that should NEVER be dry fired.


Mike

How can I tell short of firing it? Is there a way to look at the firing pin and see?

you can hold something of medium residence against the face of the action and pull the trigger.

OK. Gonna go look at it this afternoon. If I buy it, I guess a set of snap caps is a must have.

Decap a case and fill the primer pocket with resistant nylon plastic (you can cut a round off of one of your wife's plastic comb handles, I won't tell!).

I got it. I have dies and a bullet mold, now gotta get some brass. It does fire, the guy brought out some ammo. I have a scope that will work real nice, so except for brass, this is pretty much a turnkey project.

My intent is for this to take the place of a .22 LR since I can still get primers, powder and lead and not .22 LR ammo. Squirrel season ends this week here, hopefully I can have it good to go before it opens again.

Now your cooking with gas, Rich. Since I started compensating for the .22LR drought by downloading the Hornet with cast bullets, I've been having more fun than enough. I really don't care now how long it takes for rimfires to show up on the shelves again. I expect my stash of rimfires to feed my Colt Woodsman for a couple of years at least.

The only reason I have a .22 mold is because of the .22 Highpower. It casts at about .2265 with linotype and I just lubed with LLA, stuck a gas check on and let neck tension crimp it on. Worked fine in front of 6 grains of Unique for a nice plinker.

I'll most likely have to get a sizer die for he one. I've never loaded for the Hornet, but I have an old Lyman manual and that mold which it shows good data for. I'd appreciate any words of wisdom on either the Hornet or the 219. Neat little rifle, another I wash was still made.

Many of us wish that! With an investment cast frame and some other major parts, how hard could it be?

(QUITE hard, apparently.....nearest we ever got was the T-C 83/87, and that was, well, odd.).

I love mine . I have a 22Hornet and 2 30-30s. They just come up and point real nice for me.

Speaking of replacing the 22LR. I have shot my 22 Hornet Savage 219 with 1.5 -2.5 grains of blue dot topped with a 22 cal. Pellet . 1.5 grains is silent-----just hear the firing pin hit, but the 22 cal pellets blast right through a 1/2" pine board.Have not tested for long range accuracy with a scope, but shot cans at 15 yards with open sights.

That's something I need to try. Sounds like fun- and yet another way to beat the .22RF 'shortage'. IMO the Hornet is one of the most versatile cartridges to have ever come down the pike, if one is a handloader.

Agreed about how nicely this one points. I have some brass coming now, I'll need to cast some bullets, my mold is the 225415, so may be a bit heavy for the Hornet.

I have some Beeman air rifle pellets around that I may try. I wonder if just a primer would launch one well enough for indoor target practice.

Should work at very close range. I know that primers launch wax pistol bullets with some degree of accuracy out to about 20 feet.

I get good results with the 225415, 3.8gr. Unique, small pistol primer, MOA accuracy at 50yds. But, I shoot them in a 1-9" twist barrel. You might have to launch them faster in a slower twist rifle to get decent stabilization/accuracy. That was my primary squirrel load last fall. I'm working with a Lee .22 Bator mold now- a short blunt 55 grain round nose of a length that would probably work in a 'standard' Hornet, too.

Small pistol primers are the way to go in the Hornet with low vel cast loads. I would guess that a small rifle primer would be better for launching air rifle pellets.

I'm keeping my eyes peeled for a 219 Hornet. I had one (that also had a .30-30 barrel and a 20 gauge barrel fitted too) and p*ssed it away 20 years ago. Time to make amends!

That's about where I'll start then. I have a few cast up, I should weigh one and see what I'm really working with. I can't remember what they weighed. I hope I don't have to push them very fast, I don't want this to be a light varmint rifle, just a .22.

Update a bit on this. I've been working with light loads and have acquired a few molds since. First one I worked with was the Lyman 225438, sana gas check and 1.5-20 grains of Bullseye, shot pretty well at 25 yards, certainly good enough for most small game hunting.

I ordered a Lee Bator mold and wondered if the 55 grain weight would work well in the slow twist, but because of the flat nose, the Bator is actually a bit shorter than the 225438 and shot better with the light loads and no check. I cast that batch of Bators of very, very soft alloy which resulted in a lot of rejects, so I plan to cast some more of a more normal alloy and try them again. I'm also going to try some of these with checks and some mild loads of Unique and 2400.

Lastly I got in on a group buy for a NOE 45 grain WFN bullet I ordered with all plain bases and for the low velocity loadings, this one seems the best. I've shot it with 1.8 grains of Bullseye and it is as accurate as I can shoot at 25 yards, most go pretty much on top of each other. Now that deer season is just about over, I hope to get this rifle out for some squirrel hunting over the holidays.

I really like this 219, so much so that I may ditch most of my rimfires (probably won't really happen). I do have a Stevens 322 on the way now because I wanted to give a bolt action Hornet a try, anyone have thoughts or experience with the 322?

I've got to try this. Sounds like a great way to practice in the basement. I need a lot more trigger time with this rifle.

With a .22 pellet, you may get satisfactory basement results with a primer w/o any powder.