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Mother won't let me have any guns, she thinks I might hurt myself with one....anyway...

In the 1998 Gun Digest there is an article by Mark Benneson on the Development of the 22 Hornet cartridge and rifle by the Springfield Aresnal. Further there is a short chapter in "The Springfield 1903" by Col. William Brophy (ret) on the Hornet..I believe page 157...

The Springfield boys...Whelan, Woody, and Woodward developed the 22 Hornet in 1929, had Winchester make up some cartridges and the rest is history...So the FIRST 22 Hornets were converted from the Model 1922 Springfield. What is unusal is that the bolts started life as centerfires and not reworked 22 rimfire. G&H and Sedgley very quickly jumped on the bandwagon and started converting 1903 and 1922 Springfields into Hornets to meet demand as it was the hot new cartridge. Soon thereafter Winchester models 54/70 and Savage 23D began producing Hornets.

The first Hornet that I didn't own was a Savage 23D with Unertl scope...the previous owner shimmed the barrel with some brown paper to make it shoot straight...he claimed it was as accurate as a Sako. I didn't pay $200 for that rifle.

The ultimate rarities in 22 Hornets are the Springfield produced guns... Benneson has tracked 12 of them with several others being known that were not included in his article. The Holy Grail (the first one) of 22 Hornets whereabouts is unkown...it was built on a Martini Henry Action and was presumed to have a Schuezen style Stock?

As an interesting aside Sedgley built 22 Hornets on converted Colt New Service and Single Action Army frames. Colt also made a prototype New Service Target in 22 Hornet...so Ruger is just playing catchup 60 years after the fact...