doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com A Niedner .22 centerfire of some kind High-Wall

Another title for this thread could be "It seems I'll never learn".

Anyway for your viewing pleasure a early (first year) high-wall with the octagon top and the horizontal firing pin retaining pin. My favorite high-wall configuration pistol-grip and SST.

Now for the bad news, The caliber is .22-hornet, the bore is perfect, has most of the blue, the breech block is bushed and looks like they mounted the barrel on this action at Niedners.

Sweet rifle but a bit short barreled for me in a caliber I would not have use for. Is it a very early rifle? I ask because of the Ballard-like buttplate.

Ever seen a low wall .22 with Rigby flats? I have another one of those large low wall actions and someone suggested...

Brent

Maybe I'm out of touch, but why is 22 Hornet a problem?

Not much use for it in Alaska. But then there is not a lot of use for many rifles I have ;-).

The reason I bought the rifle was from the information I had I believed that the bore was not perfect, it is.

Looking at the back of the firing pin there was not a Mann-Niedner modification so I ASSUMED that the barrel had been on another rifle. My plan was to put this barrel on another high-wall I have and make this a Schuetzen rifle. Remember the Ballard with the Winchester barrel? Same deal.


The barrel is 26" and heavy, the original barrel was a half-round 30" No. 3 in caliber .32-40.

My buddy, who worked in Alaska years ago, had a film he took of him and some eskimos crossing a lake and getting the drop on some caribou and they killed 4 of them with a .22 hornet model 70 one of them had.The gun looks like it is totally devoid of finish but still shot good enough.

I pulled it apart and removed a lot of old dried powder and grease. It does have a bushed firing pin hole with one of the flat firing pins I have seen on other Niedner rifles.

I put my Lyman 5A on and need to find some ammo. Lets keep this to ourselves or the woodchucks in the lower 48 will be buying plane tickets to Alaska.

That rifle looks like a natural for that scope. But the, of course, it is a natural...

Agree on the caliber. One that just doesn't have so many applications, at least for me, and on a highwall, is just a PITA.

A .38-50 and it would be one hell of a deer/antelope rifle (for me in my warped world of bpcrs).

Brent

FWIW, I've killed perhaps 2 dozen whitetails with various 22 cals from LR to Swift. Never lost a single one. In times past, the Hornet was a favorite of Alaskan natives because of its accuracy, light weight and low cost. But not usually for bears....
Regards, Joe

Definitely need a range report on this little beauty. I've never seen a sweeter highwall I don't think.

Is there a state in the nation where whitetails can be legally hunted with a hornet? None that I know of.

That one can is not the same as one should. That's a nice rifle for sure, but it is no one's idea of an ideal deer rifle.

A dedicated 'chucker would find it fun, but some of the other .22s would be preferred, I'm sure.