savage 99 .22 Hornet??

[bassman]

Having lots of time on my hands today, I was pondering the possibility of building a .22 Hornet on an older Savage 99 rifle, something chambered in a rimmed cartridge like a 25-35 or a .303 Savage etc. I suppose without researching it that it would be dependent on the rim size as well as the magazine dimensions as to whether it would even be able to hold/feed a case as diminutive as the little Hornet.

AS a lefty with a strong desire to own a left-hand friendly rifle in this chambering, I am sorting thru my options. Having a really hard time sourcing a LH bolt in .22 Hornet at this time.

Any comments or suggestions? Don't be afraid to hurt my feelings with comments on how dumb my idea might be...

 

[tiriaq]

I suppose anything is possible.
Converting a 99 to a .22H repeater would likely be as difficult a conversion as is possible to undertake.

 

[trevj]

Dunno if it could be worse than the fella that was looking for a semi auto in 22H, in the EE the other day.

Dunno that there ever were any semis made in the Hornet, were there?

So, aside from having to make the magazine function with a smaller case, making it feed, closing up the bolt face/extractors to make it grip the smaller case size, and rebarreling it, gee, how hard could it all be?

The .22 Savage High Power, the 25-35, and the 30-30, all used about the same size case (as each other), off the top of my head. So it wasn't that much to make the chamber to fit and calling it all good at the factory.

Lefty friendly? Lesse. Cooper. Ruger. Browning. And, like as not, a special order and a long wait.

There was (briefly) a Ruger No.1 in 22H in the EE this week. I have seen a couple Number 3's over the years.

Your best bet I think would be to plonk yer money down on a LH Browning Micro Midas if you can find one. I'd choose a Ruger second. I like the Coopers, but....when I win the lottery, I'll have one for a beater, for when I don't want to bring out the 'nice' guns, eh? Mail order is gonna have to stand in for availability. Otherwise, a .223 in a lefty, and a reloading kit and manual, and load down to Hornet Velocities if you feel ya gotta. Yeah, I know it's not the same.


Cheers
Trev

 

[Why not?]

.....Otherwise, a .223 in a lefty, and a reloading kit and manual, and load down to Hornet Velocities if you feel ya gotta. Yeah, I know it's not the same.

Cheers
Trev

It's not, however it's a lot easier, much less expensive, and will likely do the same job better.

Ted

 

[trevj]

I sorta think that a nice bolt action repeater scaled to suit the FN 5.7 round would be a pretty cool little rig to fit the same sort of niche a Hornet does. I think it actually comes out a tiny bit higher in the case capacity than the Hornet, but it's made to more or less 'modern' brass specs, rather than the old school thin walls.

Would be pretty sweet, I think!

Cheers
Trev