the reference sources i have support my post. i am not familiar with mr landis work. harvey donaldson was a giant in this area, and his best effort, the 219 wasp didn't come out until the late 30s. if efforts to develop the 22 250 started in 1909, why did the hornet attract attention when it came out in 1930?
The trouble with what a lot of us now consider "reference sources" were erroneous from the get-go, based on hearsay/old wive's tales/intuitiveness, and as such is highly suspect. So much dreck has been written generations ago that became quoted and re-quoted over the years and finally settled into our collective consciousness as fact.
As for the Hornet, it became an overnight success because it filled an important niche in the world of .22 CF's, exactly why it remains extremely popular today. You gotta remember there were no factory .22 CF's as we know them today on the market in 1930. None. (And don't say there was the Savage .22 High Power. It used a 70 grain .228" bullet and was really intended/viewed as a deer cartridge.) It opened the eyes of a public that had no concept of light frangible bullets at high velocity and showed the way into a sport that took off like wildfire - varmint hunting - and the race for better/faster cartridges was on.
And speaking of the Savage .22 High Power, neck it down to use .224" bullets and voila, you have the .219 Zipper. Again, nothing much new under the sun even in the mid-30's.
