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Grandpa's Varmint Rifles

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A quick glance at a 22 Hornet round is sufficient time to realize this cartridge has been around for a long time. The rimmed base and sloping shoulder angle offer two strong clues that denote its antiquity. Can this be the oldest center-fire varmint cartridge with ammo still available at the sporting goods store? Curiosity was such that I decided to delve into the history of twenty-two caliber center-fire cartridges… and it turns out these varmint eradicators have been with us for a long, long time. And, by the way, the twenty-two center-fire was just about the only chambering for varmint rifles from the late 1800s until 1971 when Remington introduced the 17 Remington. There were a few other cartridges such as the 25-20 Winchester in the mix, but for many years the twenty-two caliber was considered by most hunters to be the ideal size for varmints. Read More...
This is a thread for discussion of the article, Grandpa's Varmint Rifles, By Glenn Burroughs. Here you can ask questions or make comments about the article.
 
I was also interested in the hornet and decided to build me one.

I found out that there were 2 different calibers of barrels so I went with the later bullet diameter
barrel and decided to go with the K Hornet, not to increase velocity but to increase brass life. (The brass is extremely fragile and thin). I also found 4 or 5 different versions of the chambers.

I had a 1875 low wall (Original)that needed a new barrel badly and decided that this rifle would be
perfect for the Hornet.

It is a great cartridge and fun to shoot (Probably the reason it lasted so long).

J E CUSTOM
 
Great article, Glen! (Hope this reply only appears once since I was composing it and it disappeared in mid semicolon!)
I have several friends that still use 220 Swifts for our rapidly disappearing populations of groundhogs but haven't gotten into our rapidly expanding populations of coyotes.
When I was young, most of our legendary hunting and shooting authors were alive and producing articles on a monthly basis which I would read while waiting in a barbershop. I regarding them as gospel and for the most part they were.
Alas, life is a series of intersections....when I reached the intersection of the availability of a particular rifle, my income intersection was somewhere off in the distance!
That being said, another factor was that I was a child of parents raised in the Depression which always regarded a purchase with the eye of necessity; if a rifle was too big for small game for the table and too small for the legal taking of a growing population of whitetails, then it was considered a luxury and therefore was not considered.
My father relented somewhat in the early '60s and purchased me a rifle chambered for the "new" 22 WMR. I suddenly was armed with what seemed to be a laser beam when compared to a .22 LR!
Over half a century and tens of thousand dollars later, I have come to the conclusion that I should have taken up whittling (kidding). The real conclusion is the sadness that the days of seeing 30 and 40 groundhogs in an afternoon of roaming a farm on foot is long gone. I'm at another intersection.....
 
Great article, Glen!

I had a beautiful custom made .218 Bee that was super accurate and fun to shoot, except the rifle had a serious defect. Firing pins broke a lot and the maker couldn't figure what the problem was. I finally sold it back to him because of the many broken firing pins. At least he replaced the firing pins for free but it didn't solve the problem. :rolleyes:
 
I am new to the forum and thought you would be interested in one more .22 wildcat. My grandfather had a 22-'06 built up in the 60's. It shoots well into the 4000+fps range and you can only shoot a 7 or 8 rounds in succession until the bullets disappear in a puff of black smoke. I know you were focused on commercially released options but your article brought back some nice memories of that pre'64 model 70.
 
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