GunnyE7

hello, this is my first post and I need some info on bullet weights and powder for my .22 hornet
I have a Savage mdl 40 and it is dead on with 34&35 grain HPs,its deadly on feral cats,ground hogs,pigeons-the other day I got a shot at a coyote at about 175 yds the shot hit him in the left shoulder but didn't put him down or even slow him down
I have been shooting Hornets for a long time but have never had much luck with bullets over 40 grains they just don't seem to settle in like the lighter weights do.I am loading 12.8 grns of Little gun with 34 grn midway dog town HPs,very accurate out to 200+ yds.what I am wondering is would a different powder give me better performace with heavier bullets (45 grn HPs or ballistic tips?) thanks for any info
Gunny

Big Uncle

Hornets sure can be picky. Mine likes 45 gr Hornet bullets made by Hornady and pushed along with Lil' Gun and a small pistol primer. I had to get the right crimp to make it shoot well. The 45 gr Hornet pill holds together much better than the lighter and more frangible bullets. It blows through a groundhog, fox, etc. at 100 - 150 yards and leaves a nice exit hole.

GunnyE7

Just got done talking with 1 of my shooting buddies and he thinks that maybe the savage isn't able to handle the heavier weight due to rate of twist-when I said not settling in I don't mean all over the map but more like 5 shots inside of a quarter instead of 5 shots in a dime-also every so often a flyer into the ozone
The 34grn are running about 3200 fps with the load stated (chrono) checked if you are having good luck with the heavier weight bullets maybe Iam pushing them a little to hard for my rate of twist?

Big Uncle

Your rifle is shooting great!

I am guessing your Model 40 is a 1 in 14 twist, and it is certainly shooting the light varmit bullets very well. With a 14 twist the heavier bullets really should not be a problem. If your rifle is a 16 maybe the heavier pill could be a problem.

My 14 twist Hornet took some work to find a load with every bullet I tried. Seating depth, crimp, powder, charge weight, and primer changes really affected my results. I burned mostly 2400 and Lil' Gun and finally found something that would work.

I know that the modern light bullet Hornet loads are reasonably fast (and frangible) but I personally don't like the trade-off. You are not going to get anywhere near the same trajectory with the 45 grain pill, and in your rifle the excellent accuracy, but the heavier bullet creates a different hole in the target.

My Hornet is used only for shorter distances in areas where the noise would bother the neighbors. For my purposes I am not concerned with pushing the velocity, but I do want my bullet to put two holes in whatever I shoot. For longer pokes I just use a .223.

redgreen

I had lots of accuracy with WW296. Worked great.

Semisane

Gunny, you might try the 35 or 40 grain Hornady V-Max in you Model 40. Mine really likes that bullet.

GunnyE7

Got digging through some of my boxes of stuff and found a box of Hornady 45grn Hp/Bees,I had set them aside because I had no luck with them.I found a jug 2400,it was my go to before I started using Li'l gun.I started working up a load that had velocity and accuracy and I got one
Privi-partisan brass
Remington-small pistol primers
9.4grn 2400
Hornady .45 grn HP/Bee light crimp
over the cronograph it averages out at 2450 + or -accuracy wise it held dime size groups at 100 it opened a little at 150 but nothing to drastic at 200 it started to drop out but that is about the range a Hornet is good for Thanks again for getting me thinking
Gunny

Semisane- that is quite the group