MOST UNIQUE RIFLE CARTRIDGE?

[Ratkiller 0]

What is the most unique rifle cartridge that everybody owns? By unique I mean obscure/old....I feel I am very boring with only a 17hmr lol

[JonathanL 4]

I have a .14 Walker Hornet which is a .22 Hornet case necked down to accept a .14 cal bullet and fire-formed to produce a sharper shoulder.

 

Also, have a Mannlicher-Schoenauer Mod 1903 full stock carbine in 6.5x54mm and an Issac Hollis Snider action rook rifle in .380LR which is off ticket under the antique exemption.

 

J.

[air gun ant 1,666]

I have a .14 Walker Hornet which is a .22 Hornet case necked down to accept a .14 cal bullet and fire-formed to produce a sharper shoulder.

 

Also, have a Mannlicher-Schoenauer Mod 1903 full stock carbine in 6.5x54mm and an Issac Hollis Snider action rook rifle in .380LR which is off ticket under the antique exemption.

 

J.

 

.14 sounds intresting?

[JonathanL 4]

I have a .14 Walker Hornet which is a .22 Hornet case necked down to accept a .14 cal bullet and fire-formed to produce a sharper shoulder.

 

Also, have a Mannlicher-Schoenauer Mod 1903 full stock carbine in 6.5x54mm and an Issac Hollis Snider action rook rifle in .380LR which is off ticket under the antique exemption.

 

J.

 

.14 sounds intresting?

 

Believe me it is - especially trying to get bullets for it! I think I'm going to have to finally take the financial hit and get a set of swaging dies to make my own at some point.

 

Edited August 2, 2011 by JonathanL

[air gun ant 1,666]

So what is it's primary use? Vermin or range? How does it shoot?

Whats th accuracy and knock down power like? Just intrested as I've never heard of it before? Not had alot to do with fac before but will be applying soon ;-)

Atb ant

[JonathanL 4]

So what is it's primary use? Vermin or range? How does it shoot?

Whats th accuracy and knock down power like? Just intrested as I've never heard of it before? Not had alot to do with fac before but will be applying soon ;-)

Atb ant

 

I primarily use it on a range as I've had no land for years. There are several .14 cartridges out there and their main purpose is game shooting. Mostly for small game but a few people who hunt things like Coyotes for the pelts use them as they cause very little pelt damage.

 

There are a couple of versions based on the Hornet case and one or two on the .221 Fireball case and some on .32 ACP cases. There are also some based on .22rf brass but I couldn't fancy pulling the bullets and reforming live RF brass to be honest.

 

I also have a reamer to build one based on the .222 case which apparently gets staggering ballistics but the feeling is that it's just too much and they burn out the throats in very short order.

 

There are some .10 cals around too but they're just stupid, quite frankly!;-)

 

I haven't actually shot it very much due to one thing and another. However, I'm trying to source some bullets from the US. I got some years ago and found that I went through a lot fire-forming the brass and lost of a lot of the brass as it wasn't something I'd done before. You need to anneal the necks or they split when you try to fire-form them.

 

I have to admit that I nearly took on too much getting it. The problems you encounter with going to very small calibre rifles are things like; where do you get cleaning rods, jags and brushed from as everything on the market is too large. Even putting powder in the case is a challenge as most funnels are too large. You need to get specialist dies to reform the brass, although there are a few people who will do it for you.

 

You have to be very carefull in assembling the ammo. Because it is such a small calibre very small differences in powder or bullet weight can make big differences to the pressure generated. The Eichelberger .14 cal manual says;

 

'When loading for any of the .14 calibers, extra care must be exercised when measuring out powder charges. Because of the small bore diameter, exceeding recommended load by as little as .01 grains can bring about disastrous results'

 

Hmmm, think I need to dig through all my crap and see if I have any bullets left - feela reloading session coming on!

 

J.

Edited August 2, 2011 by JonathanL

[air gun ant 1,666]

Sounds like an experienced persons only job! I'm just applying for my fac and am torn as to weather .17hmr or .22 rimmy for rabbits, crows etc, but I have small walk around shoot putting 70 ex layers down just started this year and may need the occasional fox? What would you recommend in the smaller calibres?

 

Sorry not trying to steal the thread from the op

Atb

Ant

[Ratkiller 0]

I have used both the 17hmr and the 22LR. If you want to hunt the occasional fox, I would say go with the 17hmr. It has a lot more power at 2500 fps vs. the 22 LRs 1200 fps and should mean you are able to make about a 150 yard shot on the foxes. The only downside is that rabbits shot in the body with a 17hmr hollowpoint or Vmax tip tend to be really badly damaged and may have a lot of edible meat ruined. Of course there are full metal jacket loads that will reduce the damage or you can always just aim for the head. Personally I would go with the 17hmr as it is more flexible and you can choose multiple bullet types instead of just a plain lead bullet.

[Ratkiller 0]

A bit curious on that 14, how fast does it shoot? It seems that it would be a pretty quick little round with how small of a bullet it shoots. Does it hit the 4000 fps mark?

[JonathanL 4]

A bit curious on that 14, how fast does it shoot? It seems that it would be a pretty quick little round with how small of a bullet it shoots. Does it hit the 4000 fps mark?

 

As I say, I haven't shot it that much due to various reasons. I used up a lot of bullets fire-forming the brass (of which I lost a lot until I figured out how to do it properly) and so have done very little chrono testing.

 

The only ones I've put over a chrono so far have been 12.5grn molly coated bullets with 10.5grns of Reloader 7. These were basically my starting load after I got the brass to form properly and I think there is quite a bit of increase left in them yet. They clocked an average of 3,750fps from a 26" barrel.

 

The reason I think there is quite a bit more velocity to go with this is that the Eichelberger loading manual I have gives a top load of 9.9grns of AA1680 (which is faster burning than Re7) with a 13grn bullet from a 21" barrel. Based on that, I would guess that there is probably another 150-200fps obtainable with Re7. Maybe a slower powder would get it even higher. I also have some 11grn and 10grn bullets to try so I would have no problems believing that well over 4,000fps is easily obtainable.

 

I've just had a dig through all my stuff and have discovered that I have more bullets left than I thought so there will definitely be a reloading session coming up soon!

 

The best place to go to read up on small and weird calibres is http://www.saubier.com/forum.html I got loads and loads of good information from the guys there and probably couldn't have built mine were it not for the very nice people there.

 

J.

Edited August 3, 2011 by JonathanL

[air gun ant 1,666]

I have used both the 17hmr and the 22LR. If you want to hunt the occasional fox, I would say go with the 17hmr. It has a lot more power at 2500 fps vs. the 22 LRs 1200 fps and should mean you are able to make about a 150 yard shot on the foxes. The only downside is that rabbits shot in the body with a 17hmr hollowpoint or Vmax tip tend to be really badly damaged and may have a lot of edible meat ruined. Of course there are full metal jacket loads that will reduce the damage or you can always just aim for the head. Personally I would go with the 17hmr as it is more flexible and you can choose multiple bullet types instead of just a plain lead bullet.