I posted earlier about a 219B .22 Hornet that I bought from a poster on this board which had been rechambered to .22-30-30 AI. I sent it to an Indiana gunsmith to have it relined to .25-20, a cartridge I've always loved and used and reloaded (.22 Hornet reline wasn't feasible with that huge chamber).
Got it back about a month ago (about the same time my computer hard drive died on me....). Reline was very competent--you can't tell it was relined except if you dropped a .22 Hornet into the chamber, it would disappear. The reline job was done quickly once we got a liner--about a month later I got the barrel back with the .25-20 extractor I had supplied fitted to it.
FINALLY got it to a range of sorts--back lot of a friend's place in the hills north of LA. The big public ranges up there have been closed because of Red Flag fire danger alerts. But he's only got a little place and the longest decent shot I could get was right at 70 yards. Fired 5 3-shot groups at that range, three of my handloads with 87 gr. hard lead flatnoses and two with factory W-W jacketed 86 gr softpoints. The average of the handloads was just over an inch and the W-Ws were right around 1 1/2". This was with a new bore that had only been well-cleaned and then had a light smoothing with JB Bore Paste. The scope is a Leupold 2.5X Ultralight and I was shooting from a picnic table with the rifle held in my hands with my elbows on the table.
Think I can do better with a more stable rest and once I get my cataracts removed and don't need bifocals, but was satisfied with the results--I could hit a jackrabbit from a sitting position at that range every shot and a coyote at 100 yards or more. .25-20s weren't made to shoot a country mile.... The trigger on this rifle could also use some smoothing.
I think it's a keeper, especially with its fitted 12 guage barrel and forend. I cut the oversized pistol grip cover off and reshaped the grip into a "half pistol grip," and glassed the head of the stock to stop any cracking when using 12 guage shotshells. The .25-20 has no felt recoil at all.
