• Hey All! Lately there has been more and more scammers on the forum board. They register and replies to members requests for guns and/or parts or other things. The reply contains a gmail or hotmail address or similar ”anonymous” email addresses which they want you to reply to. DO NOT ANSWER ANY STRANGE MESSAGES! They often state something like this: ”Hello! Saw your post about purchasing a stock for a Safari. KnuckleheadBob has one. Email him at: [email protected]” If you receive any strange messages: Check the status of whoever message you. If they have no posts and signed up the same day or very recently, stay away. Same goes for other members they might refer to. Check them too and if they are long standing members, PM them and ask if the message is legit. Most likely it’s not. Then use the report function in each message or post so I can kick them out! Beware of anything that might seem fishy! And again, for all of you who registered your personal name as username, please contact me so I can change it to a more anonymous username. You’d be surprised of how much one can find out about a person from just a username on a forum such ad our! All the best! And be safe! Jim

M78 Hornet

Sako Collectors Club Discussion Forum

First time on this forum and would appreciate some help. I have just purchased a M78 22 hornet in excellent condition need to obtain some information on the rifle that I can't seem to find on the net.

  • Is the rifling twist rate 1/16" or 1/14"?
  • Want is the correct calibre ammo - .223 or .224?
Your assistance will be greatly appreciated.
 
I own one of these and if I recall correctly I measured its twist at about 1-16". That is also what my Riihimaki L46 .222 barrel measures (I don't believe that Sako bothered to change its barrels from those it was using for the Hornet and the Bee when it began chambering the .222).

Inosofar as bullet diameter, it doesn't matter. I use both .223" and .224" bullets in my Sako M78 as well as a Kimber Hornet and a reworked Ruger K-Hornet. While some bullets are more accurate than others in various of these guns, I've seen no correlation between bullet performance and diameter in any of them.

By the way, the M78 was preceded by the P-72 and P-75 which were outwardly identical to it. However, the P-models seemed to have had a slightly narrower magazine as an M78 magazine will not enter their wells.
 
Thanks for the info. Is it true that one should not shoot with heaver that 45 grain ammo as the twist rate of 1-16" can not stabilize anything heaver?
 
Well, I've found little use for bullets heavier than 45 grains in my Hornets, and you'll find it very difficult to make the overall length of the finished round short enough to fit in the magazine with heavier bullets.

But to address your question, no, a 1-16 does beautifully with 50 grainers in my .222's. There has been a lot of misinformation traveling around the net lately about rifling twists, and a growing notion that faster is always better. The twist requirement for any particular bullet is determined more by the bullet's length than its weight; so generally speaking, anything you can reasonbly fit in the M78 magazine will likely stabalize with its 1-16 twist.
 
Manga, I am picking up my M78 Hornet this week so I will let you know how it goes as I am hand loading for it.
Ian
 
Manga, I took the M78 to the range this afternoon and after sighting it in I shot several 1.5 inch groups at 100 yards with both Winchester Factory loads with 45gn PSP projectiles and some of my handloads with 35gn Hornady V-Max bullets. At 100 yards I even managed to get two consecutive bullets through a slightly extended hole with the V-Max. I did go a bit too far and at about 80 shots the fouling got the better of her and the groups opened out to about 4 inches, so I packed it up for the day. Love that rifle!!!
Ian
 
Hi Ian. Thanks for the feedback. I must say that I can not wait to shoot my hornet. The problem we have in South Africa is that the licence for a rifle takes over a year to come through. Hopefully I will get to shoot it by the end of the year. Cheers Manga.
 
Back
Top