Time for a new rifle company?

[JDHasty]

The loss of new CZ 527s is a tragedy in my book. I have three and have given a couple away and had planned to buy a couple more in the future.

As for anything else being suitable for a repeater based on a Hornet cartridge, I am not aware of anything other than the Ruger and Savage. The Howa Mini certainly isn't an action that will work.

I have been using Remington 580 series and 788s for decades and like them quite well. I pestered Remington in the 1980s and early 1990s about making a 680 that would chamber Hornet cartridges. It would be larger in diameter than a 580 series and smaller than a 788. It would be adaptable to rimmed and rimless cartridges and Remington was already making magazines that work for both. They would just have to be scaled to fit. It can also be made up into a very nice looking rifle using the 541S and 541T as a model. They responded to me the Hornet was obsolete and there would be no demand for it in the future.

To which I responded that if they cared to ask the Hornet the response would have resembled:

Mark Twain was undecided whether to be more amused or annoyed when a Journal representative informed him today of the report in New York that he was dying in poverty in London ... The great humorist, while not perhaps very robust, is in the best of health. He said: ‘I can understand perfectly how the report of my illness got about, I have even heard on good authority that I was dead. James Ross Clemens, a cousin of mine, was seriously ill two or three weeks ago in London, but is well now. The report of my illness grew out of his illness. The report of my death was an exaggeration.’

I remember reading, as a kid in the 1960s, how the 45/70 Govt and 22 Hornet were for all intents and purposes to be considered obsolete and the suggestion was that the 222 Remington and 221 Fireball had all but put the final nail in the coffin of the latter. That the old fuddy duddies who refused to recognize this as a stone cold natural fact were obviously stuck in the past and overdue for the grave as well.

I didn't buy it then and I don't buy it today.

[Bill K]

[quote=JDHasty;. The Howa Mini certainly isn't an action that will work.[/QUOTE]

Why not ? even if a single shot ? Curious

[Bayou City Boy]

Sadly, our small bore diameter/small cartridge affliction here represents a very small niche market in the total scheme of things related to firearms. Most companies can sell far more 30-06 and 243 Winchester rifles and ammunition than they can using the 22 Hornet case.

That's where they put their money, and it makes sense for them to do so. Sadly.

The tooling at CZ had reached the end of its life. Very likely they did a cost analysis and going a different route was more cost effective for CZ management to sell to the shareholders. Sadly.

Companies don't survive financially by making a few ardent, but still few in numbers, customers happy. That's life in the corporate world.

-BCB

[JDHasty]

Originally Posted by Bill K

Why not ? even if a single shot ? Curious

Can’t push feed rimmed cartridges in a repeating rifle. Or at least I haven’t seen any decent examples of that being done.

[barretcreek]

Zastava is still importing their mini mauser under their own name. Handled a couple at the last show. Rough but I guess they can be finessed.

https://zastavaarmsusa.com/

Site is confusing about Hornet chambering.

[Bayou City Boy]

Which bolt face on the mini's Mauser action has the AR type ejector and is fully push feed? Is it the 223 bolt face? Iirc, it also came in a 7.62x39 bolt face?

-BCB

[Hal]

Originally Posted by JDHasty

Can’t push feed rimmed cartridges in a repeating rifle. Or at least I haven’t seen any decent examples of that being done.

.225 post 64 model 70
.22 Hornet,.218 Bee, .25-20 Model 43 Winchester
.220 Swift Ruger 77,tang saftey
Didn't Savage make a bolt action 30-30

Hal

[JDHasty]

Those are mostly examples of controlled round feed actions. The Swift is semi rimmed. True rimmed cartridges just don’t seem to feed unless the bolt grabs them right out of the magazine. We have Mod 70 & Sako & CZ Hornets sitting here and they all got hold of the cartridge as it comes out of the magazine. The post 64 Mod 70 in 225 I just don’t know about how much of a rim it has. I’ve never looked real close at them.

[JDHasty]

Originally Posted by Bayou City Boy

Which bolt face on the mini's Mauser action has the AR type ejector and is fully push feed? Is it the 223 bolt face? Iirc, it also came in a 7.62x39 bolt face?

-BCB

You are correct. I stand corrected, with a magazine that works it would make up into a good Hornet action. But they are generally rough as a corn cob when new.

[Bayou City Boy]

P-14 Enfield actions/rifles chamber in 303 British and Krag Jorgenson riles chambered in 30-40 US made it work.

And even though the 220 Swift case is a semi-rimmed cartridge, it has a rim, and it works in Model 70 CRF action and in Model 77 CRF action rifles.

The 47-70 cartridge had a huge following years ago in the Siamese Mauser action.

-BCB