22 k-hornet field trial

[aulrich]

So I had the k-hornet out for a field trial, I was out on the weekend shooting gophers. Now this was to be a limited field trial but some bone head forgot to bring his 10/22 doh! I had it sighted fairly close from the last load testing run but since I only had 50 rounds I thought I would start close and move back making adjustments as required. As it turned out the sighting was good enough best shot of the day was somewhere between 125 and 150 off my knee with a satisfying distribution of chunks. I was a little surprise since the last load testing the accuracy was only so-so, but I discovered that too much crimping can also cause accuracy problems , so I loosened the crimping and it seems to have made a difference I will confirm on paper later.  The load was 50 gr sierra blitz 13 gr lil'gun and Winchester small pistol.

My son (age 11 the one who the rifle is actually for) was out but he was having fun with my old 22. He is turning into quite the marksman. He had a little trouble finding targets but after he locked on they were in trouble he knocked off a good number of them between 75 and 100 yards. The ones under 75 yards seem to mostly fall to head shots. It was funny I would watch him shoot and head shots don't sound the same as body shots so after a shot I would cal miss but he would say no, low and behold he would get that delayed tail spin/ funky chicken of a head shot, after a couple of shots I would just trust his call.

[quickdtoo]

Sounds like a good day!!

thx for sharing,

Tim

[Bob A]

Aulrich,

Sounds like you and your son had some fun. I have never been able to shoot my 22 like your son can.

What kind of dies are you using on the K-hornet? Full resize? Partial or Neck only?
Have you tried lighter bullets? I'm curious how you wound up with 50gr for gophers and squirrels. Have you found that the heavier bullets give you better accuracy?

Thanks,

Bob A

[aulrich]

I use RCBS FL dies  but I don't fully size I size just enough to ensure proper chambering a little more than neck sizing but not much call it 3/4 sizing. 


The reason for the heavy bullets was to stretch out the the regular hornet's capabilities as a coyote gun.  between the weight and better bc it add anywhere from 50 to 75 yards of effective range. The rule of thumb I use is 400 ftlbs of striking energy your typical hornet load drops below that, anywhere from 100 to 125, it's closer to 200 with the bigger bullet. I figure it is better training to use the same load for gophers and coyotes so I don't want to be changing sight in on them. This gun is step two of becoming a deer hunter, gophers teach basic field shooting the coyotes teach how to get a shot of with an animal that is wary. So when it comes to deer hunting it is only a half step up compared to starting at deer.

His shooting ability is good but I attribute that to part natural ability and lots of rounds expended at a steel flipper target, one of those self reseting one shoot the lower 4 then shoot the upper one to release them, they are the best 22 accessory ever invented.

I won't say that on the last 3 trips to the cabin he has caught the most and the biggest fish as well.