Gun choice for Tiny 10 and small night cats

[375er]

Does anyone know anything about converting a 22 Hornet to a 22 K Hornet?

Ask @bob35whelen, quite sure he knows.

 

[AZDAVE]

@ActionBob The Khornet is basically a hornet case blown out to a straighter walled case with a 35-40 degree shoulder. Think of it as a ackley improved hornet.
I get basically 125-150fps more out of the Khornet.

I took a standard hornet NEF barrel chucked it in the lathe and fan the K-hornet reamer into and rechambered the rifle. You just shoot standard hornet round in it to fireform the brass.

 

[CBH Australia]

I reckon .243 would do all of the small stuff with a bit to spare

 

[Ridge Runner]

Does anyone know anything about converting a 22 Hornet to a 22 K Hornet?

I actually had to looked it up as to what the differences are. All it takes is a reamer to cut the shoulder. For the 22 K Hornet has a more pronounced shoulder than the 22 Hornet and uses the same fact ammo. After shooting the 22 Hornet ammo in the 22 K Hornet chamber the brass is formed for the 22 K Hornet.

According to the information the 22 Hornet brass only last about 5 - 6 reloads due to the lack of a good shoulder. The 22 K Hornet with the more pronounced shoulder allows for more reloading life of the brass and picks up a few FPS velocity.

Hope this info helps.

EDIT: Seems @AZDAVE and I were typing about the same info only he types faster than me.

 

[IvW]

I reckon .243 would do all of the small stuff with a bit to spare

It will, but you will then be left with doing euro mounts only......

 

[rifletuner]

Sorry about the crappy pic below. I was visiting my friend's farm in Namibia in 2012 and we went out spotlighting over a few nights. I shot 3 different species of cat, including this 15kg caracal. My mate was driving, and got quite excited about it when I shot this guy. He is running sheep & goats over his 50,000 hectare property, so a cat this size was a real issue for him. I used my friends 222Rem with 52gn match bullets for everything and they were all one shot kills that dropped on the spot.

 

[Ridge Runner]

It will, but you will then be left with doing euro mounts only......

I don't know about that.

I killed a (as in 1) ground hog 4 times with my then Remington Model 660 .243 caliber rifle. At 50 - 60 yards. Put 2 touching, almost same hole shots though the groundhog's armpits, with the next 2 rounds; one though the chest, the other through the guts. The fifth round, the gun went back on safe as a light puff of wind blew the standing groundhog over.

That's right all 4 rounds went clean through so fast they didn't knock the groundhog over. He was still clutching his grassy meal in his front paws.

Shot Results:
The first 2 shots pulled out a very small amount of meat out the exit hole.
The chest shot was a clean #2 pencil hole entry and exit.
The gut shot pulled out a bit on intestines out of an almost nickel size exit hole.

This was 40 years ago so I have no idea as to what my reloads were other than I was using standard soft points. Moderate deer loads.

I was invited to the property to eliminate the groundhog population. Needless to say it took the further examination of the groundhog to illustrate my marksmanship that to allowed me to return to hunt the property. At first the landowner and his son thought I couldn't hit the broadside of a barn. As it had appeared I had missed all 4 previous shots.

________________________________________________

Right bullet; Right velocity; Right animal; Correct Shot Placement. Equates to humane kill and miminal hide damage.

Altering any of the forementioned values alters the end results.

 

[towserthemouser]

Following. Anyone have positive or negative experiences using 375 solids on the small stuff?

Used a 375 with solids for duiker, steenbok, and klipspringer; no issues at all. Zipped through, lightning bolt kills, the capes were all fine and useable for taxidermy.

 

[Kharn]

I think the 'fear' of using a larger caliber is the 'potential' of 'blowing the trophy up' due to poor shot placement or / last minute happen-stances "animal turns during shot" and in such potential situations a smaller caliber rifle would do less "blowing up" (if any) than a large caliber rifle, simultaneously good shot placement with a small caliber rifle will get the job done equal to good shot placement of a large caliber rifle, so those two cancel each other out which is why I think more about the former, in conjunction with a slower bullet I'd imagine like a .22hornet instead of say a .22-250