From Brad Hinnrichs 8/2005

I first ran across your web page a few years ago when I bought my first 22 Hornet. At the time I was caught up by “Hornet Fever” and spent hours on the web searching for any information that I could find on the hornet. I was excited to find someone as enamored with the little cartridge as myself. I have to say that you have a great web page!

Well just like so many other 77/22’s in 22 hornet my rifle went from shooting ¾ inch groups to shooting 2 inch groups. At the time I had a hornet and a Lyle Kilbourn built 22K Hornet. So I decided to just trade away the little hornet instead of fixing it.

Ever since then I have wanted to get another one of those little rifles to try and figure out why they have a tendency to go south. So I picked up one that didn’t shoot very well a few months ago and started down my trek for hornet redemption.

I started with my favorite pet load and headed to the range. I decided to use a load that has worked well for my other 22 hornet. The first groups that I shot from that gun were about 2.5 inches with a lot of vertical stringing.

The first thing I did was inspect the bolt. I disassembled the bolt and coated al the mating surfaces with dykem layout blue. Then reassembled the bolt and cycled in the action a few times. I then removed it and disassembled it again. I found that the two pieces were only touching on one side and only one locking lug was bearing. So I decided to lap the bolt.
After lapping the bolt and locking lugs I went back to the range. The groups were slightly smaller but this time it had no stringing.

So back to my inspection of the rifle to try and figure out why it was not shooting up to par. I decided to disassemble it for an inspection and noticed that when I was loosening the screws it appeared to have a high spot in the bedding. I surmised that with a small little action like the 77/22 any anomaly in the bedding could cause issues. So I glass bedded the rear tang, front of the receiver, rear recoil lug and the first two inches of the barrel. Indecently bedding the 77/22 can be a little tricky and should not be taken lightly. After this the groups were about 1.5- 1.75 inches, better but I felt the little hornet could do better.

The next thing I did was to look at all the fired brass to see if I could see anything strange. What I noticed was that all the primers of the fired brass were sticking out a few thousands of an inch. So it looked like headspace was an issue.

So I decided to headspace on the neck instead of the rim. To do this I expanded the neck of my brass to 6mm with a 243 die and then neck sized the brass with the hornet die until the bolt would just close on a resized cartridge with a little pressure on the last 10 degrees of bolt travel. Then I went back to the range. This time the rifle would consistently shoot ¾ inch groups at 100 yards. This was by far the biggest improvement that I saw!

This seems to make sense along with your friend that put the shim stock in the two piece bolt. I basically did the same thing but did it to the cartridge. Anyway I thought I would share my experience with you.
Great web page!

Sincerely,

Brad Hinnrichs …….. Hornet Lover