Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Hiking/Survival Hornet

Remember the M4 survival rifle a 5 shot repeater?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M4_Survival_Rifle

They occasionally come up for sale here in Canada but at a very high price. I have an M6 and really like it but it isn't a repeater and has the 410 nbarrel to clutter things up http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/images/icons/default/smirk.gif

Anyway I'd love to have an ultralight 3.5 pound 22 Hornet repeater with an 18.5" barrel, and folding stock. I'd put a 1-10" twist ulralight barrel on it and fire 60 grain Partitions at 2200 for a great small game/ survival hiker.

Questions...what small action choices would be usable for this project that could be obtained at a good price and is very light. I'd prefer something scaled for the Hornet and not scaled for the .223.

Why not something in 221 fireball?

Off the top of my head, I can't think of a semi-auto with a scaled down Hornet sized action...Plenty of .22WMR and of course .223Rem, but can't think of any semi-autos in between..

don't think he wants and semi just something that has a mag?

Could be...it would certainly be easier to find...The only other thing I could think of was a longish barrelled revolver with a detachable "stock" along the lines of a Broom handle mauser or AR7...

i think the best would be a 77/22 with a ultra light barrel and some sort of tacticool stock hogged out.

[bleep], you can't find a 22LR that goes 3.5 pounds much less a Hornet.

I'd go with an Encore and a basket of barrels.

The smallest 22 Hornet actions that I can think of are the old Winchester 43, which really wasn't a strong enough action, and the Mini Mauser or Remington 799 or whatever it is called these days. For a light walkabout survival gun, a Savage 24 in 22 MRF over 410 would be light, but a 223 over 20 would be about right.

Jeff

What about basing one on a Hornet revolver? IIRC Canada has a bit different laws regarding barrel length than the US.

The M4 was a bolt action 22 Hornet repeater. It weighed 4 pounds and had a 4 round magazine. I have a 3 pound Chipmunk 22LR that got me thinking about something in the same style but a repeater in 22 Hornet. I have an M6 and have learned to love the hornet round.

A handgun wouldn't help me much here in Canada and besides a rifle is a far easier beast to hit with.

I'll research mini actions and think on it a bit.

There is no such action with front locking lugs. Rear locking lug actions are no lighter and those that are, are not worth owning.

All the "mini" actions around are scaled to .223 length which is no big deal.

I can tell you right now, your 3.5 lb .22 Hornet is doable but the components and 'smithing will run about $1k USD.

Start with a Rem 799 in hornet.

Sell the stock.

Take the barreled action and have the barrel turned down severely to about a Winchester m70 featherweight contour. Skeltonize the bottom metal.

Buy a super light carbon fiber stock blank for a mini-Mauser from Banser's,MPI etc .

The whole flyweight Hornet goal is pretty impractical as the 22 hornet really will not do anything in a survival situation that a 22 magnum cannot much quieter or a .223 cannot do with more power.

Actually, any real lightweight "survival" rifle other than a really good .22LR loaded with some form of subsonic ammo is more fluff than substance anyway.

A good clip fed light barreled Marlin or Savage bolt gun cut down to your weight limits and fed good "Stealth " ammo like RWS 40g Sub HPs is the way to go.

From:
http://www.mpistocks.com/newproducts.htm

North- I was thinking something like this, but based on a Hornet revolver.



I don't know how much it'd cost to do or if it could be done, but it'd be kinda cool.

That revolver is what I had in mind, or perhaps a more modern rendition of it so the butt stock acted as a carrying case as per the AR7

Personally, unless the guy wants to shell out some serious $$$ on a custom build, I think I'd shop around for an AR-20 in .22WMR or go for a single shot as Scott mentioned...

Now that is a temptation!!!!

The reason I am enamored of the 22 Hornet is a result of a lot of testing with my M6 Hornet with a 13" twist. With 55 Sierra Semi-pointed bullets it is an extremely effective small game gun.
At 2200 fps muzzle velocity hitting power is good and meat destruction not ridiculous. No 22 Mag loading can duplicate the qualities of this loading. I would happily take a caribou with this load in a starvation situation.
13 rounds of Hornet ammo stores easily and weighs little.

An action made for the 22 Hornet would be potentially very trim and neat.

If I need to scale the action up to one of the 223 based mini-mausers I'd likely scale the cartridge up too. 6x45 or 47 maybe.

The trimmest action that I can think of is the Brno Hornet Sporter made in the early seventies but they are normally expensive. They were scaled properly for the 22 hornet.

I had an old BRNO Hornet but it was 223 capable. I'll look for the earlier action...was it called the fox?

Saw this on the Oklahoma Shooters Forum.

[b][color:#3333FF]M4 Survival Rifle[/color][/b]

Last look he was down to $950 bucks. Would probably be tough to beat that on a custom build.

I would like something like the old Stevens Favourite, take down single shot in .22 Hornet. That would make a terrific pack rifle.

A Sako 72or 75 and some Anchutz guns have Hornet sized actions...