This intended to be a general discussion on reloading and shooting the 22 hornet/K-hornet.

I have a heap of fun loading, testing and experimenting with my 1431/32 Anschutz in 22 Hornet. It has a rough chamber so I am forced to lube my loaded cartridges to prevent case stretch and head separation (which happens half way up the case where there is a reamer groove).

I am busy testing a load I have developed in my 'firing tube'. This load consists of 13.7gr Lil'Gun behind a 55gr Sierra semi-point. This may sound like an overload, but it is not. Just don't try it at home!. That said, I use a 'technique' to keep pressures approximately equal to the normal 13gr-55gr load. This involves no case neck sizing. That on its own produces low pressure and inconsistent 'burn'. To raise pressure, I use a cardboard wad over the powder, compress the powder to seating depth then add molten bullet lube and seat the bullet. To do this, I heat the bullet in molten bullet lube. This technique worked very well with H4227 but that powder burns well enough to use the same powder charge. Case life is indefinite!

The 'firing tube' only tests for pressure signs and consistency and inside the 'tube', I can place whatever test medium I choose. To get a comparison, I use a beer can with top cup away, filled with water-saturated furniture padding as well as steel plates for crater comparison. The wet padding in a can gives a good bullet expansion comparison as well as 'power' comparison. I used to use wet sand but found that as I started getting heavier bullets to go faster, all I had was a dry, leaded lump of sand.

Oh, the 'firing tube' is completely quiet, so I can use it in my shed. The muzzle is pressed against a rubber entry cone. It is made from carbon steel pipe, is carpet lined and has a sand over 4140 steel base.

I look forward to your contributions.

Hi Mate
Unfortunately the only powder us in Oz seem to get is the AR varities

I have a 22K hornet in Anschutz and I have my favourite load below

AR2205 12.1 Grains
Projectile was 40Grain...

Hi Beefa. I think the AR powders are pretty darn good! A shop here in Auckland sells Lil'Gun - probably because they have a whole bunch of hornet enthusiasts working there! It's a funny thing. You don't see many 2nd hand hornets for sale.

I switched to Lil'Gun simply because I wanted to shoot heavier bullets. The heavy's have given me the best groups so far but they need to be driven fast enough to stabilize.

I have an air rifle pellet load for the hornet using AR2205. I fill the case to the base of the neck (about 11 or 12 gr, I think) then seat the pellet using a cross shaped piece of paper hand towel. The case is un-sized. This load has more power than a 22lr. I have no idea of the velocity but the supersonic crack is quite 'sharp'.

OK, now I have a specific question.

What is going on here? Is it my bad reloading, or my bad shooting, or the rifle, or the wind?

I have been to two different ranges, the one tends to have a gusting crosswind which changes from quartering towards the targets to quartering towards the benches. The other had a strong downrange wind - directly towards the targets.

I have three test targets before me with identical loads of 13.1 gr Lil'Gun behind Remington 55gr bulk bullets.

The first group fired at the range with quartering winds gave a reasonably circular group of just over 1 MOA.

The second group fired later in the day when the wind had picked up has less vertical spread (about 3/4 MOA) but with a 2 1/2 MOA horizontal spread.

The third group was fired at the range with directly toward target winds. 5 shots grouped at 0.65 MOA. Two more shots went 1 MOA high opening the group to 1.6 MOA.

Another set of loads fired at the crosswind range produced reasonable circular groups earlier getting bigger later. (Horrible group size). But combining those groups, an 8 o'clock to 2 o'clock spread becomes evident. (Fifteen shots total).

Next, is a group with a load of 12.5 gr Lil'Gun behind a 58gr Hornady spire point (with the exposed lead tip cut off). This too was with the strong tail wind. The group is a nice vertical string 0.07 MOA wide by 0.74 MOA high.

I can say that as the day progressed, my aim picture got better to the point that I was absolutely confident that I had not pulled the shot. The groups still did not improve.

In my experience, the Hornet is strongly effected by winds when you get out to 100 yards or more, and I've used a Hornet since 1968. My current Hornet is an Anschutz M1733, loading 11.3 grains of IMR 4227, Sierra and Nosler 45 grain bullets, assorted brass from Remington, Winchester, and RWS. This recipe has always performed less than moa, and accounted for a herd of woodchucks.
FYI, this Hornet is my favorite practice rifle when I am working up for Africa.
LLS