Well guys I finally have the barrel broke in on my 1885 low wall 22 Hornet. I am looking at putting togather a load with lil gun powder and some 40 grain v-max bullets.....

I have two questions, what should the COL be with this bullet? and second, how many grains of lil gun? I have read that you can't over presure the round with that powder but what are you guys finding that works best in your guns?

Thanks for the help,

Jay

Lil'Gun From 9.2 grains to 13.7 grains
Remington 6-1/2 Primer

I use my Ruger Hornet for coyotes, and I have not had good experiences with the 40gr V-max at Hornet velocities, now in my Sako Vixen 222RemMag they work great...
My most accurate load to date is 13gr Lilgun, 45gr Sierra sftpt, win small pistol primer, and WW case. The use of the small pistol primer helped groups considerably.
Fred

Start at about 12.5 grains of Lil'Gun, and work up until you can't fit any more in the case (usually about 13.2 or 13.3 grains, in Winchester cases).
Tap the side of the case with your finger or a pencil until the powder settles down.
I like Federal small pistol primers best, I think I've tried every small rifle & pistol primer made.
I get much better accuracy and case life with Winchester cases, they're thicker than Remington. Thicker neck brass, better bullet concentricity after seating. I use RCBS Competition dies.
I seat the bullets about .020" off the lands. I modified the magazine of my CZ for the longer cartridges. I fired my Ruger single-shot, because the cartridges wouldn't fit in the magazine.
Put your electronic, digital scale to good use weighing your Hornet cases, and grouping them into lots of +/- 0.1 grains.
I like the 40-grain V-Maxes, but also recommend the Berger 22/40 MEF's and the Starke 40-grain flat-base varmint bullets.
You might also want to think about moly-coating the bullets, since virtually eliminates fouling. Shoot all day without cleaning...
Regards, George.

[ 09-19-2003, 04:07: Message edited by: George Capriola ]

My best load in my Hornet is the 35 gr. VMAX, 13 gr. Lil'Gun, CCI Small Pistol primers and Winchester brass. I shoot a Contender carbine 21". Woodchucks drop to any chest hit, this bullet is devastating.

Wow, seems like I am just one of the choir. I have the CZ 527 American and it loves 13.0 grains of Lil' Gun with the 40 grain VMax. At 100 yards its a one holer. .020" off the lands is a good place to start. At that OAL they will not fit into the magazine. Moot in your case of course. I had a local gunsmith try altering the magazine, but we still could not get the longer length to feed reliably. I shoot it as a single shot. I'd like to know what the trick was for that modification. shooter...

Thanks for the information guys! I had a friend call me up last night to tell me his good news. He also found that 13 grains of little gun shoots the best in his 77/22 hornet. So I guess that is where I will start.

Thanks again,

Jay

Weather you have a 1-16 or a 1-14 barrel will determine what bullet high/low in weight your gun will shoot best.
Loads for .22 Hornet:
W-680 [45gr bullet] work up to 1/2 gr over max.
IMR 4227 work up to 1/2 gr over max.
2400 Hornady and Sierra list and I shoot 9.7gr.
If you want to go low...7.3gr of IMR 4227.

AGAIN, ANOTHER FAVORITE
Depending which gun I use the 35 or 40 V-Max.
As I am bone lazt when it comes to loading I use 11gr WW296 with either. The measure is left set for that and for the 77/22 I stuff a 35 at magazine length and for the rest of the guns it is a 40 seated to the base of neck. We shoot 1000's of these a year.

Ed

Forgot to say,

WATCH using L'IL Gun. This has shone very odd performance in some Hornets. I have a 527FS that is faster at 11grs then at 13.5grs. Throat configuration has something to do with it but not all. I found it to be spooky in the guns I have access to , and quit it and stuck with the "easy" WW296 or WW680. In my youth I used a ton of Unique as well as 2400.

ED

I laoded up some sierra 40 (.223) and 35 vmax ww brass and 61/2 and fed 100 primers. Trimmed NEW brass and deburred the flash holes hit them with one shot and ran through rcbs dies. Checked the 5-10 scale with check weights and put 11.7 gn (90% of book max of 13) of lilgun in each. Also loaded 5 rounds 40 gn seierras with 10.5 of H4198 and 61/2 primers. Shot the first 5 35 vmax w/ 61/2 to sight in then shot the first 4 40 sierra w/ 61/2 no problem, the last one flattened the primer and blew a nice bright ring right in front of the head. So then I shot the 5 w/ 4198 no problems. Then shot 2 35 vmax with fed 100 into .750 at 150 yds with no problems.

Later I stuck the paper clip in the high pressure brass to find a nice ring inside so I cut it open to find the thickness reduced to about 1/3 of the original thickness at the ring right above the head. It would have separated at the next firing for sure. Did not have a chrono so have no idea what speed I was getting but those little vmax bullets actually sound like they sizzle going down range. FYI outside temp was low to mid 70s.

These were shot in a savage 23D with excellent bore and mechanics. Some people said this action is not very strong but in this case it showed no problems signs under high pressure.

So from my experience you can overload lilgun very easily in the regular hornet. The part that bothers me is that it seems very unpredictable which can get you in trouble no matter how careful you are. I'll be putting the rest on my lawn, I've experienced a case head failure in the past and ended up in the eye docs office for 3 visits and still have problems with my right eye from it.

RJS

Deputy-
13 grains of Lil' Gun behind either a 40 or 45 grain bullet. It will be compressed, but it shoots. Lots of luck.