22 Hornet

[bobfm10350]

Any one have some 22 Hornet balistics tips?
And what is the average overall length of a 22 hornet round?

[Fanofde4ever]

Hornady makes Vmax in a couple different weights that will work in Hornets, and I believe a couple other companies make some as well.
Per Lyman's newest manual their OALs for loaded ammo is between 1.675" and 1.723".

[bobfm10350]

Any one else have some powder/bullet recomendations as well.

[Pavomesa]

Hornets can be tricky little rifles to load for. The older ones usually have a bore diameter of .223............and not .224 as one might expect. Shooting a .224 bullet in them won't be the end of the world but it can increase pressures slightly. Second thing to worry about is 22 Hornets usually do best with a semi-pointed bullet rather than a spire point. In the heavier bullets especially, they just don't crank out the velocity to really stabalize heavier spitzers. This was really noticable in the hornet I used to own. Hornady and Sierra both used to make .223 semi pointed bullets especially for hornets and that was what mine shot best.

[speyrjb]

I found a combination that shot really well in my Ruger 77/22 hornet. After trying several differnet combos without much success, I did some research on the net and found some guys that used Small Pistol primers instead of small rifle primers, and they used Hogdons Lil' Gun powder. So I decided to give it a try.

I have the load written down at home but I know it was 13gr lil gun with small pistol primer and the bullet that worked the best for me was a 40gr sierra varmiteer hollow point flat back. Itwill shootunder 1/2" consistently with this load. I don't know if it was the primer or the powder but the combination worked really well.

[Pavomesa]

Spey, using pistol primers in any rifle cartridge CAN be a bit risky. Fortunately the Hornet is not very high pressure round as rifles go and I can understand this practice working. But it's worth mentioning that it's not without risk of some fairly serious gas blow back from primer rupture. I learned this lesson pretty well during the years I had a Marlin .357 rifle. For my hottest .357 Magnum loads, I simply had to use small rifle primers as the pistol primers couldn't stand the pressure and would rupture. I don't dispute your idea at all but I do make mention of this for some of the less experienced reloaders. Ruptured primers can be hazardous to a shooters eyes.

[speyrjb]

ORIGINAL: Pavomesa

Spey, using pistol primers in any rifle cartridge CAN be a bit risky. Fortunately the Hornet is not very high pressure round as rifles go and I can understand this practice working. But it's worth mentioning that it's not without risk of some fairly serious gas blow back from primer rupture. I learned this lesson pretty well during the years I had a Marlin .357 rifle. For my hottest .357 Magnum loads, I simply had to use small rifle primers as the pistol primers couldn't stand the pressure and would rupture. I don't dispute your idea at all but I do make mention of this for some of the less experienced reloaders. Ruptured primers can be hazardous to a shooters eyes.

Good Point, safety always first.

Hogdon's 'Lil Gun was designed for small guage shotgun shells like .410 and 28 guage, maybe that's why it worked without any pressure problems. 13gr is almost a compressed load in the 22 hornet and over 300 rounds with this load produced no pressure signs at all.

[redgreen]

I had great success with 12.5 grains of WW296 and a 45 grain spitzer. That load is max, so if you do try it, back it off a tad, as the hornet brass is like tinfoil. That same load worked excellent in the 218 bee as well. Grouping was always under 1/2 inch at 100 yards.