I've been on the hunt for a 22 Hornet for a couple of years now, and I'm always surprised as to how expensive they are.  A good CZ will run twice to three times the cost of a 223.
Why are they so expensive?  What am I missing?  Yes I know I can load down a 223 to match ballistics but it's not the same as that little zipping round with only 15 grains of powder and little noise.
Gos

price is due to the economy of scale of a niche market.  There simply isn’t the volume to be as cheap and scarcity later raises prices.

New CZ 527s in .17 Hornet, .22 Hornet, .204 Ruger were on the local racks for high $600s when they were still in production.  I held off as I wanted a full stock .22 Hornet, even more niche.  Of course they never made any again but I chanced in to a lightly used cz527 American in .22 Hornet.

The first box of ammo was free!  A friend of a friend not knowing much about guns bought a box of Remington for an inherited .22 long rifle.  He crumpled one trying to load it so I got a box of 49.  After that I bought two boxes of PPU mostly for the brass.  Iirc it was $18 a box of 50 then.

Good luck finding any in stock anywhere at twice the price.  It is a reloader’s cartridge imho.

I have a Kimber 82 in .22 hornet.   I wanted a CZ and Ruger 77/22.  They are hard to find for a reasonable price.  Ammo is thru the roof.  Try a find ppu at bass pro shop or cabelas.  It’s probably $.80 a round.  Higher everywhere else and the brass for reloading is about the same.  I still have some cheaper ammo but I’m careful with it.

I have three .22 Hornets, a Browning 1885, a Zastava M85 Mini Mauser and a Remington 799 (a Zastava M85 rebranded for Remington), both placed in new old stock Interms Mini Mauser stocks (also made by Zastava for Interarms).

The Browning is a 1 MOA rifle and doesn’t like longer bullets, starting with the 40 gr V-Max.

The Mini Mausers are both 1/2 MOA to 3/4 MOA force shot group rifles, depending on the load. Both do very well with the 40 gr V-Max.

Ammunition is hard to find and the last box I saw recently was priced at $90.


However about 10 years ago I bought 1000 rounds of PPU.45 gr RNSP ammo at prices that were only slightly higher than the cost of new PPU brass.  The ammo itself was nothing to write home about accuracy wise. However the brass has kept me in the .22 Hornet game for the last decade,

.22 Hornet is very neighbor friendly given the mild report and it’s a very accurate cartridge to load for.

.22 Hornet brass however varies a lot in internal volume.  Hornady brass is by far the lowest volume and has smaller than normal flash holes that can cause issues  with some decapping pins.   Remington is at the other extreme and it’s well suited to lighter weight bullets with fluffy powders like Lil Gun..  PPU and Winchester are in the middle.

I have about 250 pieces of 22 hornet k from a dead relative.  

Does anyone know if a gun chambered in 22 hornet can be reamed to chamber 22 k hornet?

Have a chance to buy an A bolt chambered in 22 hornet.

The K is exactly that, a standard Hornet reamed to a K Hornet. Its about as simple as reaming a chamber gets.

The 22 hornet was my go to ground squirrel rifle when I was heavy into that sport. I have just two Hornet chambered rifles left. One is my old buddy, a Savage model 23 with an old Redfield 6X. It has the smaller diameter barrel but it actually likes plain old Winchester 46gr.HPs. Somewhere in my reloading notes I’ve got a couple of excellent loads for that specific rifle. My other Hornet is a late manufacture Savage model 340. I hated the fake Monte Carlo stock so I shaped it to look like a euro style stock. Stripped it down and hit the stock with some Chestnut Ridge stain. It’s a neat rifle.

I did it, yes you can and fire form the brass. I hated it after I converted it to the K never could develop a good load for it. The Ruger is by far the best I have had, but the prices they go for now are insane.

I have a CZ 527 in 22K Hornet. Bought it new in probably 2004-2006 and almost immediately had it reamed out to K.

Barely ever used it though, just didn't have the time to work with it. And now I'm usually not interested in shooting anything I can't suppress, so I'd ideally want to get the barrel threaded.

Thought about selling it but it's the only wood stocked 527 I have left and when I pick it up it just feels too nice.

I have a Browning Micro hunter 22 hornet.  I've had it 10+ years and never shot it.

@AeroE

Are you sure?

I know they were .223, my brother has a Pre-64 Win 70 Super Grade that's .223, and I have a H&R M4 Survival Rifle from the 50's in .22 Hornet I believe is .223, never heard of or read they were .222.

In for info and an education.

I have a Ruger 77/22 hornet I bought about 25 or so years ago.  Been a good rifle.  Had it reamed out to K-Hornet.

I impulse bought a CZ 17 hornet about 5 years ago.  Neat gun.  Haven’t even shot it


Nice thing about the K Hornet is it pushes a 40 grain bullet about 2950 fps. But is only about as loud as a .22 magnum…..and you can reload it……making it pretty cheap to shoot

Yes.

They are definitely efficient. I haven't fired my K Hornet in over 15 years, but I remember when I first got it being surprised at how quiet it was.

I was talking TC's with a friend and asked him about his 223 barrel and the first thing he said was that it was too loud and he wished he'd have gone with a Hornet.