Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 22 Hornet Barrel Life

How many rounds would it take to wear out a Hornet? Anyone ever done it?

I doubt you could in a normal lifetime.

That is my thinking. I spotted a Ruger 1B in .22 Hornet for sale that would be a nice match to the 1B .270 Winchester that I already have. Seems like it would be great for practice without wearing out the barrel which will surely happen with the .270 at the rate I'm going. It doesn't hurt that this particular Hornet has really nice walnut.

I figure of all the 22 CFs the Hornet would last the longest.

The fact that everything wears out has never kept me from a purchase. The reason that few shooters have shot out barrels is simply because they do not shoot enough. Having burnt a few quality barrels I recognize they are consumable items. Worrying over barrel life is akin to keeping a car in the garage because you don't want to wear out the tires...

Shoot it, and then shoot it some more. When the barrel is toast, replace it. It's a simple process.

My own 1B Hornet has been shot several thousand times at paper, ground squirrels, prairie dogs and occasional other live targets. The barrel has often become too hot to touch during the small-rodent shooting. I ran the bore-scope down in a couple-three months ago and couldn't see ANY sign of throat erosion.

If you somehow manage to shoot out a .22 Hornet then you're a very lucky shooter.

John, I was hoping you would chime in. Your feedback was exactly what I was hoping for. I also have a 1V in .22-250 but I've already worn that one out once. It seems to me that buying a Hornet will be fun and cheaper in the long run.

I just reread the chapter on the Modern Hornet in Obsessions of a Rifle Looney and a 1B Hornet with V-Maxs and Lil-Gun sounds like a lot fun.

Fraser: I only have about 700 rounds or so down the tube of my beautifully stocked Ruger #1-B in 22 Hornet and I can perceive no wear as yet.
Indeed the Ruger #1-B in 22 Hornet is a ton of fun to clip Varmints with.
My #1-B in 22 Hornet has an exact twin - a #1-B in 218 Bee!
They both sport ABOVE average wood and both have Leupold 6x18 variable scopes on them.
I call them the "twins".
The 218 Bee shot well, right away, but the 22 Hornet took a lot of "fiddlin around" to get it to shoot fair!
Best of luck with the Hornet if you decide to go with it.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I was gone deer hunting, or would have posted earlier.

Just introduced my good friend John Stuver to the Hornet on some prairie dogs 10 days ago. He likes it! Unfortunately, they were fall dogs, which only have dry grass inside, instead of the water-laden green grass of spring, so they just fell over instead of levitating as much as they do during spring shooting with a 40-grain Ballistic Tip. But none of them we hit went anywhere!

How was your luck with the deer hunting? I was out shooting with my 1B .270 yesterday in anticipation of hunting deer on my father-in-law's farm when whitetail season opens here on November 7.

It was excellent. We were on a mostly doe hunt with several friends, and Eileen and I took three whitetail does weighing in the 150-pound range. They were butter-fat after the great feed of this year's spring and summer rains, and will be great eating! We also basically stalked them all.