Ok, here are the facts.
Anschutz 1433 full stock carbine 22 Hornet made in 1974 (mint).
Two factory loads Hornady 35 gr and Remington 45 gr.
One handload 40 gr Sierra Hornet bullet and 11grs of W296 powder.
Leupold 3x9 ultralight scope.
All three shot groups about 1.5" at 50 yds not 100 yds. Really? My shotguns and muzzle loader do as well.
I went through the routine of checking scope mounts, etc.
What gives?

Could it be a cockpit problem?

Seriously, I would check to see if the barrel is free floated and I would also check the muzzle to make sure that it is not damaged.

Here is a thread on another forum discussing .22 Hornet loads http://thefiringline.com/forums/arch...?t-422199.html

You may have a rifle that is picky about what load works.

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Corripe Cervisiam

Slug the bore, it might be .223" instead of .224", as it is European.

Check the chamber and throat, you may need to seat the bullets out longer to engage the rifling.

The end cap might be causing stock fit problems, a neighbor had this problem with a full stock CZ 527 .222 carbine.

Chamber is .224 according to specs but I am suspicious of that little screw at the end of the forend tip.

It can't be anything with the gun:

ITS NOT THE GUN: Its YOU!

Check or have checked, the crown to see if it is dinged, burred or scratched. How is the bore??

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Still Running Against the Wind

Try the hornady 35 gr v-max with Hodgdon's LIL GUN powder, Winchester brass,& Remington's #7 1/2 small rifle bench rest primer. I don't remember the exact powder charge but I had very accurate results with both the 35 & 40 gr v-max bullets in a couple of CZ 527's and a Savage M 40. Hornets can be a witch to load for. Also try Sierra's #1200 (40gr) & 1210 (45gr) bullets I got good results with them too. I have found that Hodgdon's LIL GUN will tame a Hornet real quick.

Full stock rifles rarely shoot as well as their 3/4 length stocked versions. They require a muzzle cap which screws up normal bbl. harmonics in addition to iffy bbl. to wood contact in the bbl. channel.

Anshutz has an excellant accuracy reputation and believe it or not I have seen full stock rifles by them and other makers shoot worse.

If the rifle was mine and I couldn't live with that level of accuracy I would trade or sell it. If that is not an option I would full length epoxy bed the barrel. But...

Before you do that make sure the crown is good. Look real close at the bolt handle and make sure it isn't touching the stock in the handle cut-out. Check the guard screws, over tight is as bad as loose. Install another scope that is known to be rock solid. Make sure the bbl. isn't copper fouled by using something like Sweets 7.62. You can't see all copper fouling with the naked eye and all so called copper cleaners won't work as well as the label claims.

Also, don't let anyone convince you that the Hornet isn't capable of fine accuracy. I have one that will shoot 5 shot groups at 100 yds. that can be covered by a dime, consistantly, with reloads.

Let us know how this plays out. Good luck.

Joe

As I learned with my last .22 Hornet, free floating the barrel goes a long way. After that I found factory ammo to be dismal at best so I handloaded everything, and my best loads were Nosler ballistic tips with 7.4 grains of 2400 with a small pistol primer (not magnum). The groups shrank to next to nothing, especially after I free floated the barrel.

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Vaya con Dios

You have two of the hardest thing to overcome in accuracy. 1. A full stocked rifle is always difficult to make shoot good in any caliber. 2. 22 Hornet is one of the most difficult rounds to load for as they are very picky to develop. After discussing with a friend that is par-excellent gunsmith and hand-loader discussing the problems he encountered with a Cooper I decided I would explore other calibers instead.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

Tend to agree. Hornets can be problematic, IMO, and throwing the full-stock in doesn't help. I had a half-stocked Anschutz and after MUCH tinkering, I never did get it to shoot satisfactorily and (probably foolishly) got angry with it and sold it off. Best I could do with it was 1.5-1.75" at 100-yards. I bought a CZ .221 Fireball to replace it and it has been an excellent little rifle.

If you are going to get that rifle to shoot, it may take a lot of experimenting. I always got my best results with Win296, Remington brass and Remington 6-1/2 primers, and Hornady bullets.

I know people who have had good luck with Hornets, but I am not one of them. Only one I ever heard of being a one-hole rifle was an old Model 54 Winchester and it was something of a local legend.

I have this very early model 70 hornet that has been rechambered to K-hornet. This one is date stamped 1935 under the barrel and probley used a left over model 54 barrel. They take the smaller bullet as someone else said that the europeans use.



Dont know whats wrong with photobucket today.

I have an Anshutz rifle in 22 Hornet made around the year 2000, (it is one of the few with a bull stainless barrel: made for the NRA concention around then) as well as other hornets. The biggest accuracy problem is one that can not be overcome without pulling barrel. All center fire rifles made in Germany by law must have free bore chambers. The jump is way too big for a Hornet, so without rechambering the barrle after removing the last 1/4 inch or rebarreling altogether you are stuck with it. I do recomend the Hornady 35 grain V-Max bullet in their factory ammo or for reloading (Try 1680 powder) On my reloads @3100 fps I got sub 1 inch groups @ 3200fps it opened up tp 1.5", these are at 100 yards not 50. This is any easy try, as opposed to stock work. My old Savage 340 will forever out shoot but NEVER outclass my Anshutz. P.S. The old stand by load of 10.5gr of either 4227 and a 45 gr Hornet bullet is a good benchmark(try to weigh each charge- most powder drops suffer on these small charges) it works well in many different rifle and contenders. By the way' I had a CZ that I would have loved to get 1.5" 50 yard groups with. Ivan

Easy fix is to rechamber to K-Hornet. Had a few Kimber Hornets and between the case strech as well as expensive cases that lasted 2-3 firings...I gave up.

Cooper .221 Rem !! Load it UP or DOWN. Shoots .4" at 100 or less...all day long. Screw the antiquated .22 Hornet.

FN in MT

Yeah and the 45-70,38 Special,.44 Special and .45 Colt and,and,and,and

That's interesting. I did not know that but if it is the case, I can see how that might be a problem with the Hornet as opposed to something that fires a longer bullet. I have to wonder just what would prompt the lawmakers to take an interest in such obscure matters? I guess nothing is too minor to be overlooked in a well-regulated Germany.

One poster in Louisiana Joe's link mentioned neck sizing. I had forgotten all about that but that is old Hornet-think. All of the old timers I knew who shot Hornets claimed only to neck-size, so I would guess there is something to that.

I also think his suggestion to free-float is right on track. I am not familiar with the Anschultz cap at the front end, but if you can, keeping it from touching the barrel is where I would start. If not, maybe try interposing a thin piece of rubber or something between the cap and barrel.

If you cannot do a good job of that, then free-floating may not be an answer and you may have to do some "selective bedding." A friend once had a troublesome .300 Weatherby that resisted all attempts to get it shooting decently. He was thinking the modern pillar-bedding route, which I did not really want to be part of on that type of rifle. Weatherby suggested a little more forearm pressure right behind the ornamental tip. A smallish (maybe 1-1/2" long) pad there didn't seem to make any difference. We extended that pad to maybe 3-inches and increased the amount of pressure a bit, and we added about a 1-inch band of glass to the barrel channel directly infront of the action, more as a matter of desperation than really expecting to accomplish much. It seemed an unorthodox approach that probably no riflesmith would suggest, but it was what the barrel liked and the gun then shot 3/4" or 7/8" groups regularly, and sometimes would surprise us with a nice cloverleaf. By modern standards, that all seems more like rifle witch-doctoring than organized trouble-shooting, but you just never know what odd combination may make things click. All I can say is, "Good luck!"

In Germany nothing about gun makeing is "Obscure". They have been free-boreing chambers at least since the early 50's, which is the reason Weatherby has their chambers free bored, as they were made there first. I've been in on conversations with Dieter Anshutz, and the attitude is that center fires are a small side line of makeing the best 22 rim fires on earth. Since they own Styre now, maybe the sons will see center fires differently.
As to the OP, ammo changes are easier than stock changes, if you reload you have been given probably over 100 years of expierance to take advantage of. I know US made Hornet ammo took a nose dive in the 80's. It seems to have made a comeback with all the high priced "Primium" branded loads for sale today. There also use to be Canadian military surplus 22 Hornet found at gun shows that was pretty good in most guns.
When the Hornady V-Max first came out, I tried a box. When I saw it shot well in all my Hornets(plus 2 other guns), I ordered 100 rounds every January for a few years, this gave me a supply of well made brass. I think "Remchester" let quality slip on older cartridges' brass, and put the tooling in new wiz-bang cartriges like "triple fat mags" to sell more rifles not to give us higher quality anything. I have a 338 Lapua Mag. now that is almost a Compleatly new developed (with real research involved) round and look a what brass for that costs.
I think the Hornet is one of the most fun rounds to shoot, Try and have fun getting yours to shoot well, If that won't be fun; sell it to someone else. You can make alot of money over the origional price and still give someone a good deal and they can have the fun. Ivan