Topper 158 22 Hornet bore groove diameter ?

[Lefty Dude]

My 22 Hornet Topper was made in 1978, an AS S/N prefix.

I know that the Hornet has been made with two bore sizes, .223" & .224".

What size was H&R using in 1978 ?

My question is because I have a TC Hornet that I use .224" size bullets.

What will shoot best in the Topper/Handi 22 Hornet ?

[trotterlg]

Nearly for sure it is .224. Hornets very early on in their life were built on 22 RF barrels so had RF sized barrels.  There really isn't any problem fireing .224 bullets through a .223 barrel, I have rechambered NEF .22 barrels to Hornet and they are fine, and I did a Rossi .22 lr to 22 Mag and it works out fine.  Shoot one and see how it does.  Larry

[PHATINJUN]

It is more than likely as Larry states my Jet is .221 bore and my Model 157 22 Hornet is the same they both have 1-16 twist bbl's not the after 1987 1-12 or the even newer 1-9 twists . That stated I used .224 bullets for a few yrs before I switched to the .223 Hornet bullets but I switched mostly because of a cheap supply of .223's I found. Not really any noticable differance in accurecy. Kurt