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6 shooter in 22 hornet

53hawkeye
Picked up 2 of these today...

Great Western in .22 Hornet, 5 1/2" bbl, deluxe blue finish, with stag grips.
neither one ever shot and in original boxes. listing on paper work in box for 91.50 and up.
John Wayne endorsing and showing his two richly engraved on back page of ad.

In the box is a warning on a tag taped on inside of lid. It reads...

"Do not fire .22 Hornet factory ammo in these revolvers.
Use .22 Hornet Pistol ammo only.
Use bullets .222 inches in dia. such as Hornady for 22 jet magnum. (40 grains)
Listed below are loads for 40 grain Hornady bullets .222 dia.
5.0 Unique 9.3 2400
8.0 H240 7.0 AL-7
Herco, blue dot, 630, and 296 can also be used.

I never heard of this round in any six-shooter.
Do you have any back ground?

Thanks,
Brent
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Comments

10 comments

Date Votes
  • rufe-snow
    Great Western was only in business for a relatively short period of time. Roughly 1954/62, based in the LA area, of Calli. Wasn't aware that they made any of their revolvers in 22 Hornet?

    Between Colt bringing out the second generation SAA in the mid 50's, and Bill Rugers centerfire and rimfire single action revolvers, they couldn't compete and went belly up.

    In the early to mid 60's when they started to fail and go under. Their guns were sold in kit form by mail order. They would just sell you a package of parts that included the whole revolver. It was up to you to put it together. Many of the Great Western revolvers that turn up on the market are these bubbaized guns, that were put together in some guys basement. Great care should be taken to make sure that a Grteat Western revolver is safe to shoot, i.e. it's in time, and locks up correctly when the trigger is pulled.
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  • hrf
    Never heard of ".22 Hornet Pistol ammo" but if you fire them wear ear protection: Years ago I had a Colt Bisley converted to Hornet with Christie cylinder and 5-1/2" barrel, and I'm certain it was a major reason why I wear hearing aids today.
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  • 53hawkeye
    pics to follow......

    dsc00427a.jpg
    dsc00425c.jpg
    dsc00426iop.jpg
    dsc00420c.jpg
    dukead.jpg


    current signature aside, here are a few pics and I wouldn't be afraid to shoot either one of these. There were a total of four of these pistols all boxed.
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  • rufe-snow
    My guess is that your revolvers were put together from available parts after the demise of the Great Western Co. They seem to be in excellent shape, but unless it can be established that their factory original, and not some gunsmiths handiwork, would they be anything more then interesting conversation pieces.


    Taurus and Magnum Research brought out revolvers chambered for the Hornet in the 90's. Given the "setback/lockup" problems with high pressure bottle neck cartridges, I doubt if they are still in production. If they are, they would probably have to use handloaded ammo with data similar to that given with your guns.
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  • hedgehopper62
    I suspect these guns were made from 22L/R. bore dia for bullets .222 the loads listed are the same as my 22jets I have in rifle and pistols.some of the older 22 hornets was .223.tks hedge[:D]
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  • westkybanded
    Smith & Wesson did a few prototypes in hornet before they settled on the jet. They had bad setback problems.
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  • glabray
    There have not been a lot of successful weddings of bottleneck cases and revolvers. The design, with more case head area than bullet base area causes more force on the case head (lbs, not PSI) than on the bullet. The result is a greater setback of the case than with a straight case design. The setback can easily be enough to cause binding of the case head against the frame when turning the cylinder.
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  • v35
    32-20, 38-40 and 44-40 are all bottleneck cartridges albeit low pressure. Higher pressure revolvers need small diameter,in-frame firing pins as in the Ruger single actions to reduce primer flow into the firing pin hole.
    Additionally, the breech face in the frame needs to be slightly angled
    to allow the fired case to break free as the cylinder rotates.
    I believe the revolvers may actually have been produced by Hy Hunter or Great Western Arms as production guns or samples.
    I've heard Sauer may have produced later GW guns.
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  • rufe-snow
    Found this Great Western enthusiasts site by GOOGLEing. It has a photo of one in .22 Hornet, and notes that G W only made 50, ( in 22 Hornet) all with consecutive serial numbers. This seems to reaffirm that the revolvers owned by 53hawkeye are factory original.

    http://www.greatwesternfirearms.com/htm/models.htm
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  • hrf
    The Bisley I had converted to Hornet had the firing pin and recoil plate replaced with those from 2nd generation single actions, and don't recall any setback issues, with either factory ammo or handloads. As I recall, the Christie cylinder was recessed for case rims, although I don't see how that would affect setback.
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