RELOADING
Subcaliber Stinger
The .19 Calhoon is quiet, devastatingly efficient and exceptionally accurate. What more do you want?
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Why do gun tinkerers constantly seek new calibers and come up with new cartridges? To fill a specific want or need. Cartridges that we all think of as standards today usually started life as experimental military cartridges or wildcats developed by rifle cranks. The 7mm Remington Magnum, the .22-250 and the .243 are three of the most popular factory rounds today, and all started life as popular wildcats, inspiring manufacturers to finally turn them into production chamberings.
Which of today's wildcats will become tomorrow's factory standard is anyone's guess. But the varminting community is all abuzz about .19 and .20 calibers. Some of the hype is justified, some of it less so. These calibers shoot 27- to 46-grain bullets, which have greater ballistic coefficients than similar bullet weights in .22 caliber. This makes them better for long-range shooting because they have better trajectories and slice through the wind more efficiently. They don't have the same fouling problems that high-velocity .17s are plagued with, so they seem to be an ideal compromise.
But a lot of varmint hunters and target shooters are staying with the standard .22 caliber and simply shooting heavier bullets in faster-twist barrels to achieve the same goal. The new .223 Winchester Super Short Magnum, .220 Swift, .22-250 and a host of other .22-centerfire wildcats will shoot 62- to 75-grain bullets at velocities comparable to the hot .19s and .20s. They also have equal or better downrange performance, plus there is the advantage of a wide range of barrel- and bullet-makers who work in .224-diameter wares.
So where is there an advantage in the .19s and .20s?
How about with a compact cartridge than can run through actions like the CZ 527 or Ruger's 77/Hornet yet has ballistics equivalent to the .223 Remington and noise levels that are about on par with the .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire? This is a cartridge that is devastating on ground squirrels and prairie dogs and yet one that pushes tiny, frangible bullets fast enough to anchor coyotes, foxes and bobcats but doesn't blow gaping holes into hides--a real consideration now that pelt prices are rising again. Does that sound appealing?
THE .19 CALHOON HORNET
Montana winters are long, and the guys at James Calhoon (Dept. GA, Shambo Rt. 304, Havre, MT 59501; 406/395-4079; jamescalhoon.com)--a small, custom bullet-maker in Havre--began reading up on an experimental military round after being shown a little cartridge at a gun show in 1992. Calhoon owner Jim Leahy said the round was called the 4.85 Experimental and was made in 1976 at the Radway Green Factory in England. It was developed for Royal Ordnance as a new battle rifle round.
The cartridge was similar to the .223 but had a longer neck and used a .198-inch bullet that weighed 55 grains. In testing, it outperformed the .223 with a similar bullet weight, but the smaller bore diameter made the use of a jointed field-cleaning rod even more problematic than for the .223. NATO decided to say with the .223 but increased its bullet weight to 62 grains to achieve the same performance levels met by the 4.85 Experimental.
Leahy and his cronies mulled over the .19 for a few more winters before finally making their first rifle in 1998. They settled on two initial cartridges to neck down to .19 for their experiments--the .22 Hornet and the .223 Remington. Since then, Calhoon has made more than 100 completed rifles in .19 caliber and sold more than 300 rebarrel kits, and Cooper Arms also chambers rifles for both cartridges--the .19 Calhoon Hornet and the .19-223. Leahy said he figures there are about 500 of the .19's out there.
