Can a 22LR Contender Carbine Barrel be Rechambered to 22WMR or 22 Hornet?

[Camp Cook]

Can a factory 21" s/s tapered 22LR Contender carbine barrel be rechambered to 22WMR or a .223" bullet diameter 22 Hornet?

[Bugflipper]

Yes 22lr is .223. 22 wmr is .224. It is common for a 22lr to be rechambered to 22 mag while using the original tube. Not nearly as common but some people go with a .224 centerfire in a 22lr rechamber. As for the hornet a k hornet using a .224 bullet gives quite a few more choices to find suitable accuracy. As you know you would be a little more limited in selection with a .223 diameter. I have never done a 22lr to hornet conversion. But I do run .224 bullets in my k-hornet which has a .223 bore.

[Ladobe]

.223 verses .224 bore won't make enough difference to worry about IMO.   One of those "folks do it all the time" without a problem things.   TC's 22LR barrels have a 1:15 twist, while their 22WMR, 22 Hornet and 22 K-Hornet have 1:12.   Depending on the velocities driven at, with the weights of bullets you'd normally be shooting in any of them the difference in twist won't amount to enough to worry about either.

[Camp Cook]

I asked Walt Berger here is his response to using his .224" bullets in a 22LR barrel rechambered to 22 Hornet.

Hi Camp,
 
DO NOT again DO NOT shoot any of our 224 caliber bullets in a rim fire barrel

If we can be of any additional help feel free to contact us.
 
Walt Berger
Berger Bullets
Technical Advisor

[Bugflipper]

The question would better be posed to J.D. Jones. If a guy wrote me asking about shooting centerfire bullets in a rimfire barrel I would think he was crazy and hope his family would not sue me after the low pressure barrel exploded from the excessive pressure. Contenders are a bit different. Their blanks are centerfire and rimfire both. Just depends which caliber they ream it too. The question towards Walt should have been .224 in a .223 barrel since technically with a contender you actually do have a centerfire barrel cut to a rimfire chamber.

[OleFreak]

Howdy folks.  I’m new here and still feeling my way around.  My first ‘search’ has left me a bit puzzled but the 'why' part is none of my business.  I recently asked ‘the censored one’ the same .22LR conversion question and he replied with:

“George, over the years I have reworked a lot of .22 LR barrels to either .22 Mag. or one of the Hornets.  My favorite of all for prairie dogs especially is a 20" K-Hornet I made with a .223" groove, 1-16" twist .22 LR barrel, and the bullet it shoot best is the .224" Sierra 40 gr. HP, not a "Hornet" bullet.  So long as the barrel is throated large enough, you can shoot the .224's just fine.... by large enough, I mean my .22 throater is just barely over .224", cuts about .2241".  It is close enough to bullet size that once and only once we ran into some .22 Mags with .2245" bullets that would not chamber of course.  Accuracy from the LR barrels is superb.  I've run about 3500 rounds through that K-Hornet, close to 1000 were .223's but it still shoots the .224's best.”

$oon as I recover from my latest projects I will be sending out my poorly performing 21” .22LR tapered carbine barrel for either a WMR or K-Hornet conversion and 11 degree crown and see if it works out for me.  Just can’t help loving on my Contenders.

[martineta]

why not just sell the 22 barrel and buy a hornet barrel?

[Camp Cook]

I'm in Canada and due to the new totally stupid US export laws it is almost impossible to import barrels for the Contenders now basically the only way to get them is to find them used on the internet or to buy a used complete rifle if you can find one.

I have spoken with he that cannot be named many times over the years and have had a barrel rechambered by him I will call and get his input...

thanks everyone for the advise...

[Bugflipper]

IMHO you would be better off in the long run to not rechamber the .22lr. Barrels may be hard to come by for you. But the cheap price for practice with the 22 could be a lot more advantageous.

[OleFreak]

My .22LR standard chamber carbine barrel while not all that bad it is junk compared to the accuracy I get from both my 14” and 21” .22LR Match chamber barrels that have seen 50 to 1 more ‘practice’ rounds run through them than all my other center fire toys combined.  Hopefully a rechamber and 11 deg. target crown will turn my otherwise reject barrel into a keeper that will group and also have notably more power than before.  I have .22LR well covered but presently have a big performance gap between it and .223 Remington.  Either WMR, Hornet, or K-Hornet would help to fill in between those two just fine.  For .22 K-Hornet I would much prefer to go custom with 1 in 12” or quicker twist or at least start with a T/C 23” G2 stainless bull but my slower twist skinny blue ‘core’ barrel is paid for.  I was very pleased to see ‘the censored one’ report his personal success using the .224” Sierra 40gr. HP (#1385 VM) from his own favorite PD gun that began life as a .223” groove slow twist .22LR that he re-chambered to .22K-Hornet.

[Camp Cook]

I already have a 16.5" T/C Custom Shop 22LR match chamber barrel which is why I have no interest in keeping the 21" stainless steel 22LR barrel I just acquired as a 22LR I'm even thinking I'll sell it if I can't do anything with it.

I originally bought the 16.5" barrel for my son who is now 26 years old to hunt grouse/rabbits with he has grown up now an I have started life again and have a young son that is turning 4 years old this month so the 16.5" barrel is now set up with him with a donated butt stock from one of our Greybeard friends.

Here is a pic of him with his 22LR rifle when I first put it together for him and yes I need to move the rear sight forward...      



Here he is again but with his older brother out hunting grouse when he was only 2 1/2 years old with his older brother yep that is the same 16.5" 22LR barrel.

[VA Jim]

I've got a 14" 22 rimfire that was rechambered to 22 hornet and it shoots great. Go for it.

[Camp Cook]

and your shooting .223" or .224" or both bullet diameters in it?

[VA Jim]

I'm shooting 35 and 40 grain v-maxes (.224).