Thread: What to do? Suppressing 22 Hornet

Know it's a old thread but am chopping and threading a BSA Hunter 22 Hornet, barrel past it's best but looking at Hodgdon's site only 80 fps loss between 15"-24" comparing their pistol loads against rifle. Too good to be true?

Mmm, is the muzzle end being chopped going to improve the bore overall? If not would it be better to put the chop 'n thread $$ towards a re-barrel ?

I have no experience or knowledge of impact on velocity of a short barrel in 22 Hornet but as I understand, the only reason 22LR rifles have long barrels is for accuracy. IIRC 22 LR achieves most of its velocity in something like the first 12in. I dont know how different 22 Hornet would be to that - be a question of how much barrel length is required to achieve optimum powder burn for a given charge. If full burn is achieved at say 16in then for a 16in chop your only issue will be effect if any on accuracy.

What do you intend to use the rifle for? If shooting bailed pigs in the ear prob no issue. If shooting hares out to 200m....different story perhaps.

22lr has a long barrel for two reasons I believe. Traditionally open sights were used,longer sight radius= arguably more accurate sighting ...eg errors are less.. and with subsonic rounds they will crack if barrel is too short eg the projectile will slow down ...there are heaps of cut off inch at time n chronograph tests online. But a cut n recrown when threading should improve things ...well higher chance to improve that make it worse.

A recrown is a must on the old bsa most of the royal series I have seen
Are all slightly out of square
Even my new in the boxes 222 and feather weight 308 Norma
Had one side clean up first using a mason crown tool

Doesn’t take much to suppress a hornet
Gun city brave hart is popular down here on few hornets I have
Threaded for guys $159 for the can is a cheap option
Have even tapped these to bigger thread when guys
Get sick of swapping

I just put a 1-8” tikka barrel on my bsa hunter hornet
It is my new favourite bunny rifle
Guncity have small pistol ginex primers a $129 for 1000 $100 off rrp
Small pistol primers are the secret sauce for accurate hornet ammo
I did try a 15” bsa barrel slow twist with lower velocity
Wasn’t a great combo 160m they were bit unstable
The 1-8” with hot load of lil gun 300m it still plays ball
22” barrel currently

Originally Posted by NCGNSMITH

A recrown is a must on the old bsa most of the royal series I have seen
Are all slightly out of square
Even my new in the boxes 222 and feather weight 308 Norma
Had one side clean up first using a mason crown tool

Doesn’t take much to suppress a hornet
Gun city brave hart is popular down here on few hornets I have
Threaded for guys $159 for the can is a cheap option
Have even tapped these to bigger thread when guys
Get sick of swapping

I just put a 1-8” tikka barrel on my bsa hunter hornet
It is my new favourite bunny rifle
Guncity have small pistol ginex primers a $129 for 1000 $100 off rrp
Small pistol primers are the secret sauce for accurate hornet ammo
I did try a 15” bsa barrel slow twist with lower velocity
Wasn’t a great combo 160m they were bit unstable
The 1-8” with hot load of lil gun 300m it still plays ball
22” barrel currently

Now thats interesting stuff. Had a gunsmith once tell me how expensive it was to re-barrel BSAs something about having to cut a key in the chamber end of the barrel in the right place to index it accurately = time = $$$.

Also good to hear primers coming back to that kind of pricing - zi bought Servicio SPP from Rusa at $120/1000 last year. And yes, Ive long loaded Hornet with SPP. As per earlier in thread, I run a DPT 6mm Can on 14.1mm thread on my old Savage so i am able to use it on 243 as well. Works fine.

The hornet barrel is quite different it has a feed ramp machined into the barrel face
And the extractor side is machined away instead of a extractor groove
Cut like the normal bsa royals the back of the chamber is also stepped out
So the rim protrudes for the extractor claw to get under it

Originally Posted by Jhon

Mmm, is the muzzle end being chopped going to improve the bore overall? If not would it be better to put the chop 'n thread $$ towards a re-barrel ?

I have no experience or knowledge of impact on velocity of a short barrel in 22 Hornet but as I understand, the only reason 22LR rifles have long barrels is for accuracy. IIRC 22 LR achieves most of its velocity in something like the first 12in. I dont know how different 22 Hornet would be to that - be a question of how much barrel length is required to achieve optimum powder burn for a given charge. If full burn is achieved at say 16in then for a 16in chop your only issue will be effect if any on accuracy.

What do you intend to use the rifle for? If shooting bailed pigs in the ear prob no issue. If shooting hares out to 200m....different story perhaps.

Is for bush use, mainly goats and odd Fallow . Rifle is fairly ruff all over, wouldn't re-barrel, threading isn't a cost to me plus will use my 223 suppressor, still groups 25-30mm with 35 and 40 gr projectiles at 80 meters. Looked at ADI's 2205 loads with lighter projectiles, no great difference in velocity between 15" and 24" loads. Always use Winchester small rifle primers, haven't found powder manufacturers quoting loads with pistol primers.

The spp thing is in quest for better accuracy and has been done for many years. If what your doing works for you,stick with it. Hornets are notoriously fussy,with minor variation in loads making major difference on target paper. If your not shooting paper,and hitting where your aiming to good effect on animal...do just carry on...lol