In 1995 I was spending quite a bit of time with a mate of mine who was using a .224 Clark on rabbits out to 1000 yards on his property in the Wyangala catchment in central western NSW. I wanted to explore my ability to effectively hunt small game at long range and I had my heart set on a serious varmint cartridge, but the .224 Clark was just too potent for me at the time, and with no relevant experience, it was far too much of a varminter for a beginner. That year, Remington released their VSSF rifle and at about the same time the .220 Swift fell back into favour and was being chambered by all of the major manufacturers, including Remington.
And so it came to be that I purchased a Remington Model 700 VSSF chambered in .220 Swift and topped it with a Leupold VX-III 6.5-20x40mm. I shot it for a few months before fitting a Hart 2oz trigger; great bit of gear but it meant I no longer had a safety (nothing lost there!) and rather annoyingly at first, there was no bolt stop!
The Remington Model 700 VSSF .220 Swift with Leupold VX-III 6.5-20 x 40mm;
this fox was called last winter in the NSW central tablelands.
Together this little bit of kit and I tormented bunnies and foxes at stupid distances. Before calicivirus hit our patch, we would throw a blanket over a slab of granite and take an esky along and burn an MTM case full of ammo in half a day. That changed over night and the Swift became a one shot rifle - I had to lug it around all day to get one shot off and that put every rabbit on the property to ground - that's both rabbits these days! A lot of noise and with so few rabbits about it was a lot of gun to carry for the ability to reach out and touch one rabbit.
So it’s been back to stalking blackberry-choked gullies and trawling the paddocks with the light, so I’ve turned back to my rimfire. And the rabbits generally stay just out of reach. I need to find some middle ground.
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For a long time now I've been considering adding a .22 Hornet to the stable. Not too noisy - not as noisy - and much better performance than a rimfire, more than doubling my effective hunting range with the .22 Magnum. When I say "considering a .22 Hornet", I mean that I really want a .218 Bee or something similarly compact and somewhat uncommon; I'm also partial to any of the Ackley Improved versions of the Hornet and it will be fun deciding. Something I could reload for and have a bit of fun with would be perfect; but it can't be just any rifle though.
The lovely Ruger No.1 Single Shot Rifle
As I get older my tastes are changing and the experience is much more valuable than the tally shooting of the 90's. I have something specific in mind, ideally, a Ruger No.1 single shot– the old Farquharson hammerless, falling block rifle action. I figure if I do find a No.1, I'm more likely to stumble across one chambered for the Hornet than anything else and I'd be quite satisfied with that. So what are the odds of finding a suitably sized Ruger No.1 action? Very slim I expect!
Perhaps given the scarcity of the Ruger No.1 on the second hand market, I should give up and look for another little Martini; much more likely to be found in a compact centrefire wildcat? The .310 Cadet I have was sleeved to .22 and converted to rimfire and is a great little rifle - nice to look at and easy to shoot. But I digress... back to the Hornet.
Perhaps given the scarcity of the Ruger No.1 on the second hand market, I should give up and look for another little Martini; much more likely to be found in a compact centrefire wildcat? The .310 Cadet I have was sleeved to .22 and converted to rimfire and is a great little rifle - nice to look at and easy to shoot. But I digress... back to the Hornet.
My Martini is a .22LR Sportco conversion, customised in the mid-1990's
The .17 Hornady Hornet is looking damned good right about now.
ReplyDeleteAdvertised 3,650FPS muzzle velocity, and that is with factory ammunition, pushing a 20gr VMAX pill. With reloads using an appropriate powder you could probably improve that quite a lot.
You've seen how well the 17HMR goes... that's pushing a bigger pill at higher speed. Goodbye to the little 17cal pill not opening up at extended ranges on foxes, like what I had with my HMR.
They apparently made the Ruger No.1 in .22 Hornet - I imagine you'd have to ream the chamber out to .22 Ackley Hornet standards and put a .17cal barrel on but you'd have a nice quiet mid range setup alright!
Maybe I'm just projecting though...
It's quite timely that Hornady launch their .17 Hornet. The numbers are pretty convincing and given that dies, brass and factory ammo are available it does seem like a sensible option. I've read up on most of the wildcats based on the .22 Hornet case and there are some pretty interesting cartridges out there. Just compiling all of the data now but I think the decision is likely to be based on what sounds nice as much as the data analysis. So the best performer may not win this race!
ReplyDeleteI've had my eye out for a Hornet in a Ruger falling block single shot for months now and almost picked up a No.3 new in the box from the states but the seller piked out at the last minute as the export procedure was too much effort. Bit of a shame about the No.3, but there are a few Martinis on the market from time to time. There's a gun show coming up so the decision might be made there...
There are quite a lot of Martini rifles in .22 Hornet that need some love on usedguns.com.au but I'm sure with a good search you'd locate a .22 Hornet No.1, which would be my choice personally.
ReplyDeleteIt wouldn't really matter if it was a crappy barrel or poor blue/timber, seeing as it is a project rifle.