Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters another 22 Hornet or K-Hornet question

i have some Hornet rifles i rechambered with my reamer to K-Hornet none of these 4 rifles have barrels over 18 inches and all shoot decent . i just purchased a older used Ruger 77 laminated s.s. Hornet rifle and had it rechamber to another K-Hornet the barrel is 24 inches long and this rifle does not shoot well . is it possible that the barrel is too long for that little amount of powder used in a Hornet or a K-Hornet. i plan on having it cut off to 18 inches and recrowned to see if that will help it shoot better , i already had the trigger redone to 3 lbs. thanks,Pete53

Did you shoot .22 Hornet ammo through it before reaming to the K Hornet chamber? If so, how accurate. I have a K Hornet in a Contender carbine barrel and in a 10 inch pistol barrel. Both are very accurate.

I doubt it’s barrel length. Could be other issues though with the barrel. Didn’t Ruger have issues with needing the bolt shimmed to improve 22 Hornet accuracy?

How old 77? Before 1990?
I’m not a Ruger expert, but I understand the barrels before 1990 were hit and miss.
The only thing that could help on accuracy by cutting the barrel shorter, IMO, is if the end of the barrel is not right.

I have a k-hornet martini action remington target barrel , at least 24" shoots great, even when fire forming brass.

I seriously doubt the length of the barrel is the problem in and of itself.

They did. I had an early 77 in Hornet, accuracy was piss poor . Sold it before the "bolt shim fix" was discovered.

https://triggershims.com/ruger_m77.php

Why on earth would barrel length have an influence in this instance?? Where did you get the idea about needing to cut 6" off of it? Curious minds want to know!

Those ruger hornets sometimes need a little help to shoot well.

Pressure points on the barrel and bedding would be the first place I looked

Barrel length won’t affect the accuracy for all practical purposes.

What have you done to improve accuracy? Have you tried different bullets or powders?

While the barrel itself can affect accuracy in any rifle, the "worst" .22 Hornet barrel I've owned would still group 5 shots in an inch at 100 yards.

The primary influence in .22 Hornet accuracy I've found, whether the standard or K-Hornet, is runout of the seated bullets. Short bullets in those little cases seem to be more susceptible to this. Have you measured the concentricity of the bullets in the loaded rounds?

That's been one on my observations also, John. I dropped back to square one and started using an old Vickerman seating die, with a self-made shell holder extension to get the small case up into the die. I also made a custom sliding piston to snugly guide .223" bullets (and with a countersink, for lack of a better term, more attuned to the Hornet shoulder), but it doesn't seem to improve over the standard .224" piston. The die does improve precision/straightness, as measured with a Sinclair tool, and resulting groups are better on average.

Been contemplating having LE Wilson make me a traditional straightline seater for the Hornet for use in the arbor press. That, or just be done with it and shoot more!

Yes, how did it shoot as a plain 22 Hornet????

Might check the crown?

I've got the same rifle with the 24" barrel, and mine shoots great!

Virgil B.

I have owned two of those Ruger 77/22 Hornets. The action Ruger used is a repurposed 22 rimfire action with a two piece bolt. This does nothing for accuracy. I had a gunsmith work mine over and add the shim between the bolt halves. That helped matters.

My brother had a Ruger 77/22 Hornet that shot ~ 6 MOA - no matter what was done to accurize it. A friend/gunsmith had a 77/22 Hornet that was very accurate. That gunsmith was going to re-barrel I think to 17 Hornet, and blue print that rifle, The gunsmith and my brother traded and my brother ended up with a very accurate 22 Hornet. I never heard what happened to the gunsmith's Hornet.

This may have been when Ruger was out sourcing the barrels? It was quite while ago.

I'm not sure when the OP's rifle was built.

Probably a combination of errors. Considering the design of the Hornet, it's never going to be Benchrest cart. But, lordy,lordy, did I have fun years ago riding the dirt backroads in rural Virginia shooting Groundhogs with a break action Hornet, H & R best I remember. "crack..smack", piled up. My T/C Contender 21 " factory barrel shoots lights out with correct handloads !!

Same with the one I had. Bought mine in the mid 90s, I believe Ruger started making their own barrels in '91.

Which is why my Hornet is actually a Fireball.

i did shoot this 22-K-Hornet before i cut this barrel off it did not group well 2 inch at 100 yards maybe more ,the crown was poor too. the ammo i used works well in my other Ruger 77 22 K-Hornet but it is the newer version that came with a 18 inch barrel. i just picked the action/barrel up today it is now 18 inches with a real nice sharp cut crown , the reason 18 inch is better than 24 inch is because i have a bird feeder 40 yards from the garage window where this rifle hangs in a gun rack and its easier to sneak the rifle out the window when barrel is shorter if i gotta shoot a critter. yes i tried a 22 LR its worthless on critters unless you get a prefect shot , 22 mag works ok but a 22 K-Hornet kills critters much better out to 150 yards. living in the country its the perfect yard gun to get rid of these dang yard critters ,my garden is 110 yards from house and so on. where i live woodchucks,crows ,raccoons ,possum ,fox ,wild cats and some other critters seem to think they can move right in , my bird feeder has fencer wire all over it with the fencer on all year long bears ,raccoons and wild cats have wrecked many of my feeders till i put wire and turned the fencer on , even my garden has white horse tape electric wire 4 strands up to 6 feet to keep deer and hopefully turkeys out too.