For some reason this seems to be a common problem--Bubba just loves to foul up 219s, esp. Hornets!
Another fix is to have the bore relined. This used to be a normal gunsmithing procedure and didn't cost the earth, although it wasn't cheap.
Another is to have it rebored to a larger caliber: .25-20, .25-35, .32-20, or .357. The first two will cause you some extra work to find cases or ammo, although the .25-35 seems to have had a little spurt of interest recently. Only specialty smiths do the rebores, though, and they do them in "caliber" batches (all the same caliber at once) so if you get lucky it may be quick. If you don't you may have to wait many months.
I have a 219 .25-20 with the bore relined to restore it to a shooter (it was trashed when I got it like many .25-20 bores). Also have a .30-30 barrel that was relined to .25-35 because it had been "ringed" TWICE (sometimes Bubba just don't learn....). Unfortunately the 'smith that did those relines and a bunch of others for me has retired.
As Garnett suggests, the easiest "fix" if a .22 K Hornet reamer won't clean up your chamber (and it may not), IS to rechamber to .219 Zipper. But that has two drawbacks: you'll need to reload with Hornet bullets to get best accuracy because the two ctgs. have different twists, and cases will probably have to be ordered from a custom case former like Graf's, or reformed from .25-35s or .30-30s.
Have fun, I hope you can revive that old gal!
Mike Armstrong
