Shooting the Savage M-40 .22 Hornet

[Semisane]

I bought a sweet little Savage Model 40 .22 Hornet about four years ago. It wears an inexpensive Simmons 4 X 16 PrairieMaster scope.



When I first got the gun I tried the various factory ammo offerings and couldn't get anything better than 1 & 3/4" to 2" groups at 100 yards with anything I tried - really disappointing.

Then I started handloading Hornady .224/40 grain V-Max bullets over Hodgdon's Lil`Gun powder and got great groups. I've been using that bullet ever ever since.

But I recently picked up some .224/35 grain V-Max bullets just to give them a try. Yesterday I had a side-by side shooting session with both bullets. I shot five shots of each bullet at 100, 150 and 200 yards. The targets are below, with the 35 grain bullets on the left and 40 grains on the right.

It looks like I'll be sticking with the 40 grainers.

100 Yards


150 Yards


200 Yards