Small calibre`s really get the old juices flowing and despite what some uninitiated people think they have a real place in vermin control in Britain today. More familiar to us are the .17 calibre rounds such as the .17 Mach 2 or .17 HMR rimfires or the .17 Ak Hornet, .17 Fireball , .17 Remington and Hornady`s new .17 Hornet. However since the late seventies a chap from...
.14 Walker Hornet
Introduction
Small calibre`s
really get the old juices flowing and despite what some uninitiated people
think they have a real place in vermin control in Britain today. More familiar
to us are the .17 calibre rounds such as the .17 Mach 2 or .17 HMR rimfires or
the .17 Ak Hornet, .17 Fireball , .17 Remington and Hornady`s new .17 Hornet.
However since the late seventies a chap from the States called Bill Eichelberger has produced sub calibres
from .14 diameter, in fact .144, .12 ( .123) and even the diminutive .10 ( .103
) bullet diameters, that’s tiny! Bill designed a series of cartridges to shoot
these projectiles that look no larger than a stout mouse dropping in cartridges
ranging from reformed .22rimfire cases, necked down .25 pistol brass right up
to the totally disproportionate .222 Rem Mag case as used by the .204 Ruger
round.
Ten calibre loads
such as the 10 Eichelberger Squirrel is based on a shortened Hornet case and
will shoot a 7.2 grain bullet at nearly 4000 fps with only 6.5 grains of
powder. Similarly the 12 Eichelberger Carbine based on a .30 carbine case can
send a 10 grain bullet at over 4350 fps with 13 or so grains of powder. That’s
very fast and frugal on the powder but problems really lie in bullet quality or
more importantly consistency and trying to keep the bore clean. .103 is a tiny hole to try and get a cleaning
brush or jag down which is why the more practical, relatively speaking is the
.14 calibre cartridge variants.
Rifle Spec
Therefore to me the .14 Eichelberger Hornet or the
earlier .14 Walker Hornet round designed by David Walker based on a .22 Hornet
case with the neck reduced and body taper straightened or “improved” makes more
sense.
Sourcing all the relevant
materials needed to fabricate let alone feed such a rifle can be problematic but as luck would have it I knew a chap called Dennis’s who was selling a .14 Walker
Hornet based on the Ruger No 3 action. Being a single shot rifle it suits the
.14 Walker Hornet as trying to get these small rounds to feed reliably can be a
problem with rimmed case construction. The forend was reworked with a tension
screw through the bottom of the forend to allow you to achieve a perfect tension
on the stock screw to the securing hanger to optimise accuracy. The real gem was
the stainless steel barrel sourced from the States from Lawrence barrel works
who specialise in .14 or smaller barrels although www.pac-nor.com
also now offer .144 barrels. The profile was pure sporter with a 24 inch length
and rifling twist of 1 in 8.75 inch that seems a little fast but which is necessary
to stabilise bullets of this size, weight and length.
Case Prep
In total there are
four forming dies to reduce the neck diameter down from the parent virgin .22
Hornet brass to that of .144 inside diameter. You need to lube between each
swaging procedure, to avoid bent, collapsed or stuck cases and annealing is highly
recommended, I use a WoodChuckden Annealer. You now need to fire form or blow
out the case in the rifles chamber to achieve the “Improved” case profile. But
first because of all that case neck reduction it has meant the brass has
thickened around the neck area so it will not chamber. You now need to neck
turn the brass, again on specialised K
and M or Sinclair neck turners to achieve a 0.166 neck diameter (i.e. 11 thou
per neck side), so that
when a bullet is seated in the case you have an adequate clearance between it
and the chamber walls.
I used a Wilson
rotary cutter from Reloading Solutions to trim the case length to fit the
chamber length and then deburr inside and out of the case mouth so as not to
score the bullet on seating.
Finally you can load
your first .14 case and fire form it in the chamber to achieve the final Walker
Improved shape. Specialised reloading dies from Neil Jones from the USA make`s set`s of decapping/ full length or neck sizing
dies and bullet seater dies to your rifles specification. These are usually
hand dies and need the use of an Arbor press (again Sinclair), they give a
better degree of “feel” or precision when reloading small calibres that I have
found over the normal threaded die sets.
I used a fire
forming reduced load of 9 grains Reloder 10X which perfectly reconfigured the
brass and hey presto one .14 Walker Hornet case.
Loads of Fun
Great care has to
be taken when reloading any small calibres as the minute increase in powder
charge can cause pressures to suddenly sky rocket. Getting the powder into the
tiny neck of a .14 calibre is tricky in the first place! I used a Harrell pistol powder measure that deals
with weights from 0-25 grains and when combined with a .14 powder funnel
between the delivery tube and case and a bit of gentle “twirling” to create a
vortex flow, I managed to fill the cases.
Bullet seating too
is fiddly as .14 calibre bullets can range from 10 to 18 grains which is .22
air gun pellet size!
Faster burning
powders are best in small cases but ultimately with the risk of accelerated
bore wear over time, particularly down that tiny bore. Typically Alliant
Reloder 7 or the newer Reloder 10 X powders have worked well in .17 AK Hornet
and .17 Squirrel cartridges I have used.
I had a small,
supply of 10.5 and 12.0 grain Lucas and Accuracy Supplies bullets. Both being
lead core copper jacketed bullets with small hollow point meplat. I used
Quickload Ballistics program as a starting point, and a load of 9.5 gr of
Hodgdon H4198 powder under a 10.5 grain bullet and ignited by a Federal small
match primer yielded 4011fps. An increase to 10.0 gr gave 4207 fps and 413 ft/lbs
with a top load and pressure of 10.5 gr and a whopping 4283 fps. Accuracy was
ok 1.5 inches at 100 yards but nothing to write home about. The 12 grain
bullets faired better with 1.0 groups and a top load of 10 grains of Vit N133 powder
gave 4023fps and 431ft/lbs energy from the 24 inch Lawrence barrel.
Best accuracy and consistency
however came from the 15 grain moly coated Genco hand swaged bullets which are beautifully
made with a true hollow point design. Trying to pick up these bullets is
hilarious and whilst reloading from the “Reloading Hut” in Scotland the draft
from the shooting window kept blowing the bullets all over the reloading table!
10 grains of Reloder10X
under a 15 grain Genco bullet and primed with a Federal small match primer shot an average of 3203 fps over the
chronograph to produce 342ft/lbs energy, still a bit slow so I upped the charge
by one grain only to 11 grains 10 X powder. There was a big increase in
velocity to 3484 fps and 404ft/lbs energy, that’s 281 fps increase with only
one grain extra powder. The case was becoming full so I squeezed 12 grains of
10 X into the .14 Walker case and sent that Genco bullet flying at 3834 fps and
490ft/lbs, that’s more like it.
Accuracy for each of
those loads shot below one inch at 100 yards with the occasional flier, small
bullet defects or reloading technique are magnified and found out at this stage
of the game.
I still wanted the
magical 4000 fps velocity and so changed the powder from 10 X to the faster
Reloder 7. This time I started straight at 12 grains load as all previous loads
where not showing any pressure signs but you could not get any more powder in
the case anyway.
These 15 grain
Genco bullets and 12 grains of Reloder 7 powder screamed across the chrono at
an average of 4004 fps and 534ft/lbs energy, absolutely perfect with 0. 5 inch accuracy
at 100 yards.
I had no17 grain
bullets at this time so they would have to wait for another day and hooded
crow.
Conclusion
The.14 calibre 15 grain
hollow point at over 4000 fps is a very safe round to shoot as it is highly
frangible and deadly on game too. The 15 grain Genco is just dynamite on hooded
crows and rabbits with instant expansion with lethal results. I would not use
them on foxes although I suspect a head shot would be ok. On rats, feral
pigeons or squirrels 12 grain solids act
like air gun pellets and go straight through with little expansion so ground shots
only but the hollow or soft points, how can I say this tactfully, are very very
humane! With a muzzle can fitted you actually feel the rifle “jet” forward on
the shot as the muzzle blast hits the first blast baffle, absolutely zero
recoil or muzzle flip so all the hits can be seen. Only problem is that in a
stiff breeze well actually anything over
8 mph, causes the small bullet to drift and they soon lose their momentum
beyond 150 to 175 yards. I have had some great 200 yard shots but would not
recommend them.
The only problem
is cleaning the damn thing as .14 cleaning rods bend easily and brass jags are
just small slithers of brass and are easily damaged or lost. At 4000 fps I had to clean after 15-20 rounds
otherwise accuracy tailed of a tad although the Moly coating certainly helped but
that was bearable due to the enormous pleasure shooting the rifle gave. It may
not be ever body’s cup of tea but if you enjoy reloading and experimenting with
wildcats or odd cartridges then a .14 calibre may just be up your alley.
label here
label here
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14 Walker Hornet
14 Walker Hornet
14 Walker Hornet - Pest Control
Ballistic test
Reloading kit
Reloading kit
Reloading kit
14 Walker Hornet
14 Walker Hornet
By Bruce Potts
Contacts
JMS Arms - 07771 962121 - Quickload,
MAE moderators
www.maemoderators.co.ukemail jmsarmsuk.gmail.com
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