Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Canada The 22 K-Hornet & 22 Mag - good target clusters and a fun day!

Today was one of those smooth, relaxed range days with no equipment worries. I had to accomplish two things. The first was to sight in my 22 WMR with that Hawke 4 power scope I just bought. The second was to form 22 K-Hornet cases.

The weather was perfect. The club was busy, but there were only a few guys at the 100 yard range. I was actually using the 50 yard, but that is part of the 100 yd range. I chatted with a guy who works part-time at Epps. He was there to sight in his BP rifle. Another guy was a brand new member, checking things out.

I don't think I have ever been at the range with a Hornet or a K-Hornet and a 22 WMR at the same time. Some folks say, "Well, pick one or the other. There's no need to have both." I say, why not have both?

My 22 K-Hornet says to the 22 WMR, 'Anything you can do, I can do better!' Okay, so let them fight! Betty Hutton is my 22 K-Hornet. Howard Keel is my 22 WMR. Watching them them argue is fun! You can watch this song clip or just jump over it. It's from, Annie Get Your Gun.



Marlin 983T - 22WMR

The Marlin shown at the top of the page is a North Haven made rifle. It has a plastic stock, a 22" Micro-Groove rifled, 1 in 16 twist, 20 groove barrel. I replaced the trigger with a Rifle Basix. The scope is an inexpensive 4x32 Hawke Vantage AO scope with a mildot reticle. For this scope, I think the mildots are a gimmick. The adjustable objective is okay. I dialed between 50 and 100 yards with no sight issues.





I've only had the scope for a short time, but since it's being used with a 22 WMR, recoil isn't an issue. Here's the original sighting in target. The first shot was low. The second was centre high. The rest were about 1/2 inch high which means they work at 100 yd. The 8 shots measured 0.43.



Handi Rifle 22 K-Hornet



Part two was sighting in this older Leupold scope and finishing up forming cases into K-Hornet. This Leupold is almost 40 years old. It went back for a service once. One of the adjustments didn't work. The repair was free (naturally) and will outlast me. It has the old style friction fit adjustments, not the modern click type. No matter. It looks good, is crystal clear and has a low profile. I have owned eight Handi Rifles, but only this one and H&R's Survival model in 308 Winchester were good to me. I got it reamed to 22 K-Hornet and never looked back.



The surprise was 2400 powder and the little 35 gr Hornady bullets. Granted, it was only 50 yards, but there are 24 bullet holes in the picture. Seven are sighters. I emptied the rest into the middle. The math tells me it's a 0.803 inch cluster. I wasn't shooting for groups or checking velocity. Just making cases. I hope the K-Hornet loads are as good as this...or better. The first shot was high right. The second shot was centre right. The other five sighters are below the cluster. I was futzing with the friction adjustment.

Of the 50 cases fired over two days, I lost 4. If you are into math and geeky, that's an 8% failure rate.

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