CZ 527 - .20 Ackley Hornet

[Eric M]

I received the .20 Ackley Hornet rifle, ammo, brass and dies today.

Here's the breakdown:

2005 CZ Model 527
22" Stainless Barrel
Trigger Guard modified
Calhoon 3 Round flush magazine

#940 rounds - Loaded Ammunition (annealed)
32 grain Z-Max = 560 rounds
32 grain V-Max = 380 rounds

13.5 grains of powder appears to be Lil Gun, Win 296 or IMR 4227. Most likely one of the first two.

#263 pieces of fired brass. Primers show no sign of pressure.

Redding Custom Dies - FL Resize and Bullet Seater.

Neil Jones Custom Sizing Die with #5 different bushings.

 

[Eric M]

Ammo/Brass

 

[rickiesrevenge]

Wow, nice snag! As much as I love my 17AH's I can see why one would do a 20cal today.

 

[Eric M]

Wow, nice snag! As much as I love my 17AH's I can see why one would do a 20cal today.

I have a couple of .204 Rugers and a .20 Tactical. This will fill a nice niche in my 20s!

 

[ray h]

I received the .20 Ackley Hornet rifle, ammo, brass and dies today.

Here's the breakdown:

2005 CZ Model 527
22" Stainless Barrel
Trigger Guard modified
Calhoon 3 Round flush magazine

#940 rounds - Loaded Ammunition (annealed)
32 grain Z-Max = 560 rounds
32 grain V-Max = 380 rounds

13.5 grains of powder appears to be Lil Gun, Win 296 or IMR 4227. Most likely one of the first two.

#263 pieces of fired brass. Primers show no sign of pressure.

Redding Custom Dies - FL Resize and Bullet Seater.

Neil Jones Custom Sizing Die with #5 different bushings.

View attachment 178

Is this the rifle you asked about last week, you said 22 Ack Hornet. Did Bob G build it or E. Harren?? I only remember him taking that rifle for squirrels one time. The Neil Jones bushing die should have one bushing for sizing and the others to form new brass using the same die body. It was chambered with my reamer. I was thinking John used 1680 powder .

 

[Eric M]

This is a Bob Green. There are 263 empties that are definitely fire-formed. The other 940 loaded rounds look like they are not fired at all. You are correct about the Neil Jones dies and bushings. 1680 would make sense as well.

 

[kiwishooter]

Is this the rifle you asked about last week, you said 22 Ack Hornet. Did Bob G build it or E. Harren?? I only remember him taking that rifle for squirrels one time. The Neil Jones bushing die should have one bushing for sizing and the others to form new brass using the same die body. It was chambered with my reamer. I was thinking John used 1680 powder .

Ray have you got a 20AH reamer?

Kiwi

 

[kiwishooter]

I received the .20 Ackley Hornet rifle, ammo, brass and dies today.

Here's the breakdown:

2005 CZ Model 527
22" Stainless Barrel
Trigger Guard modified
Calhoon 3 Round flush magazine

#940 rounds - Loaded Ammunition (annealed)
32 grain Z-Max = 560 rounds
32 grain V-Max = 380 rounds

13.5 grains of powder appears to be Lil Gun, Win 296 or IMR 4227. Most likely one of the first two.

#263 pieces of fired brass. Primers show no sign of pressure.

Redding Custom Dies - FL Resize and Bullet Seater.

Neil Jones Custom Sizing Die with #5 different bushings.

View attachment 178

Eric, I'm jealous, these aren't available for us left hand shooting people. I've always wanted a 20AH I even bought a Redding resizing die off Todd many years ago, he had it on the shelf.
I've got a small frame Martini waiting on a barrel, but still need to order a reamer, I think a 17 & 20 AH Martinis would be a nice pair to own.

Now looking at your pic I was interested in your book collection, I think I may have a number of those books, A Varmint Hunters Odyssey, The Book of the Twenty Two, both the Wildcat Cartridges, PO Ackleys books, Jack O'Conners book, Twenty Two Caliber Varmint Rifles.......just a guess since I can't see the titles of them all.

Kiwi

 

[ray h]

Ray have you got a 20AH reamer?

Kiwi

Yes I have one

 

[Eric M]

Eric, I'm jealous, these aren't available for us left hand shooting people. I've always wanted a 20AH I even bought a Redding resizing die off Todd many years ago, he had it on the shelf.
I've got a small frame Martini waiting on a barrel, but still need to order a reamer, I think a 17 & 20 AH Martinis would be a nice pair to own.

Now looking at your pic I was interested in your book collection, I think I may have a number of those books, A Varmint Hunters Odyssey, The Book of the Twenty Two, both the Wildcat Cartridges, PO Ackleys books, Jack O'Conners book, Twenty Two Caliber Varmint Rifles.......just a guess since I can't see the titles of them all.

Kiwi

I'm going to start a new thread about books! I've got a bunch!

 

[Rick in Oregon]

I'm going to start a new thread about books! I've got a bunch!

Great idea there, Eric.

I've got many of the books you show in this post also. "A Varmint Hunter's Odyssey" by Steve Hanson is one of the ones I refer to often. Steve came here with John Lachuck to shoot rats a few years ago prior to John's passing. While they were at the house here, John was kind enough to autograph a couple of books I had authored by him. Steve also wrote some very good articles for Precision Shooting when it was still being published. Unfortunately, Steve and his wife had health issues and he had to sell much of his rifle collection. He stopped writing soon after. Pity, as I really enjoyed his work and Steve was a good friend.

John at the bench with his custom 10-22. During this shoot, Steve brought one of the very first 204 Ruger's (2006) The shoot and that rifle were the subject of a feature article in PS a month after.



Steve proud with a 'monster' rogue ground squirrel he shot with his .20 cal air rifle along with one so small we accused him of bringing it along as a pet.



BTW Eric, I'm lovin' that CZ 527 in .20AH! Looking forward to seeing it in the field come spring. What an excellent package!

 

[Eric M]

I took the .20 Hornet to the range today. It was cold, foggy and a bit rainy. The plan was to shoot some quick groups and check the function of the rifle, as well as verify that the loaded ammo were not indicating any real pressure signs. Everything went very well. The two groups I shot at 100 yards were decent, especially for quick groups.

Now, I'm going to give it a good cleaning, swap scopes to a permanent option. More to come!

 

[ray h]

I took the .20 Hornet to the range today. It was cold, foggy and a bit rainy. The plan was to shoot some quick groups and check the function of the rifle, as well as verify that the loaded ammo were not indicating any real pressure signs. Everything went very well. The two groups I shot at 100 yards were decent, especially for quick groups.

Now, I'm going to give it a good cleaning, swap scopes to a permanent option. More to come!

View attachment 226

View attachment 228

You said earlier you had 263 fired cases, did the cases you shot appear to be fired at all? Your velocity seems low, I'm wondering if these were his fire forming loads. Cases formed with the Jones die will look almost fired. I (and John did too) always expand the Hornet cases up with a .257 or 6.5mm expander by K&M. This gives a fairly straight wall case. With Jones bushing having a 30* internal shoulder, this gives a larger shoulder when necked back down to head space off. A lot more than just necking down a regular 22 Hornet case. You can set up head space better preventing case stretch near the web. The spread seems a little high also. Going off memory I thought mine went around 3450 fps. Unfortunately all my loading data for over 35 years got accidently tossed when cleaning up after my fire back in 2015. I don't recall ever being at the range when John shot this gun.

 

[Rick in Oregon]

Eric, that's one fine looking rifle! Beautiful stick of wood too.
With tailored handloads, I'm sure it'll be a real shooter by the looks of your first outing. NICE!