Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats 22 K Hornet

Has anyone had a Hornet made into a K-Hornet? I had a K-Hornet, but got it that way. I sold it...don't ask why. Now I have a Ruger All-Weather 77/22 Hornet which I would like to have improved to K-Hornet. The reason? Headspace. If I use a neck size die the groups are great. If I full size, they look like shotgun patterns. I figure having a shoulder will help with headspace and accuracy. My question: Do you have to set the barrel back, or not?

Can't help with the barrel-set-back question, but the best group I've ever experienced was using a K-Hornet in a 15" Contender.

I just sent mine off to have it converted. Main reason is that the brass will last longer and improved accuracy.
Here's the link to send your rifle to....
CPC

I have a local gunsmith who may have a reamer on hand. He does competent work and I can drive there. I am just curious as to whether or not the chamber will clean up without a barrel setback.

Marty,

The chamber should clean up without a barrel set-back.

The biggie in the K-Hornet is creating a shoulder the fire-formed brass can headspace on, instead of the rim. Many .22 Hornet chambers have pretty sloppy headspace, apparently because many companies think rimmed cases are foolproof, plus some variation in rim thickness of brass.

I've owned two K-Hornets but still haven't decided know if the K-Hornet actually shoots better than the standard round in a good rifle. If I use semi-benchrest handloading techniques my Ruger 1B .22 Hornet will put five well under 1/2" at 100.

According to my calculations the K-Hornet is capable of around 3% more velocity than the standard round, since the actually gain in case capacity isn't all that large. But that's still about 100 fps--or about what the 26" barrel of my 1B produces over a typical 22" barreled bolt-action.

I had one and LOVED it. Hated to had to sell during tough times.

Hope to have another for the better case life, slightly higher velocity and very high cool and fun factors.

I had a K-Hornet, a sporter weight Ruger 77/22. It didn't shoot worth beans, so I added a Que Systems brake and tuner. It shot great with the tuner. I sold it, don't ask why... The reason I want to make this Ruger a K-Hornet is headspace. Neck sized brass shoots well, but full-length sized brass doesn't. So, I'm hoping that a sharper shoulder will help with consistent headspace and accuracy. My gunsmith is on vacation until 5/27, so I won't know if he has the reamer until then. Thanks to all for advice and comments.

I bought a 77/22 Hornet back when they first came out. I had several other Hornets and K-Hornets at the time so the first thing I did was recut the chamber to a K-Hornet. Crap, the K-Hornets would not go in the rotary magazine, just the slanted shoulder of the regular hornet. Should have checked this before I re-cut the chamber. Now I had a single shot and I had to buy a standard Hornet reamer and set the barrel back about 2" to get back to a standard Hornet.
Anybody else find this problem?

No experience with the Ruger's magazine, but my present K-Hornet is a Brno ZKW 465. It's pretty easy to get two rounds into the single-stack magazine, but three is tough. It doesn't bother me because I'm either single-loading, or two down and one in the chamber will work fine. But the magazine was designed to hold five standard Hornets.

I shoot my CZ K-hornet as a single shot because it likes the 40 gr V-max loaded way to long for the mag.

Dick....you can take your magazine apart and dremel out the inside of the steel lip to make it work. I had a 19 Calhoun and this is what James did/still does to use the rotary magazine.