Reloading the .22 Hornet

20 September 2001, 08:17

Fritz Kraut

Reloading the .22 Hornet - difficult?

Gentlemen,

the only way to get rid of a temptation is to fall for it. So today I went to the old men who sells rifles in next town. He has had an old Brno .22 Hornet in the racks for a week or two. He offered it to a very reasonable price and I brought it home for testing.

I have spend an hour with cleaning it to take away od grese and dirt. The rifle is marked 49, which ought to be the factoring year. It looks like a Brno Fox, but is stamped ZKW 465. All metal is beautifully polished and blued, and not that rough at all as the later models. It has a nice classic stock with schnabel foreend. There are three screws connecting stock and metal: the usual two in the magasine plate and one under the rear sight.

And now my question: I have been told and have read, that the .22 Hornet should be difficult to load, as the case necks are extremely weak. What are your opinions abut handloading this little cartridge? Iï¿½m curious, as I would like to loadd it, but hesitate regarding the difficulties.

Yours,

Fritz K.

P.S. I havenï¿½t shot it - that must wait till friday.

20 September 2001, 08:37

<Patrick_D>

Fritz,

Maybe I should not be here, as I don't have a hornet. But a buddy of mine has shot hornet for many a long year, and has had some problems with runout on the necks.

I was ordering up some Forster benchrest dies and he asked me to get some in hornet. These arrived a few weeks back and have been duly tried. Runout is now a thing of the past for him. So I don't know what other problems might be around, but have a look at the Forster dies. They are excellent.

Patrick

20 September 2001, 09:06

Aquavit

I do not laod for the hornet myself, but they are also notorious for case head separation. I've seen this numerous times in my friend's contender chambered for this round.

20 September 2001, 09:58

Fritz Kraut

quote:
Originally posted by Aquavit:
...but they are also notorious for case head separation.

Thanks for your answers!
That was exactly one of the difficulties i was thinking about. Perhaps the tiny dimensions of the case make it extremly sensible for correct chambering measures? And perhaps just neck-sizing could be a way of avoiding this?

Fritz K.

20 September 2001, 11:17

<gruvinbass>

Fritz,

The only problem I know of with the neck of the Hornet is that it's extremely thin and splits very easily. My father owned a Ruger No. 1 and he normally got about three reloads out of a new case before the neck split. Having watched him cuss over the necks for years, when I got my Hornet, I immediately had it rechambered to K hornet, and I've had no problems with the necks whatsoever. I do stick to neck sizing only. Other than that, the Hornet is no more or less difficult than any other round to reload. Regards, Chad

20 September 2001, 12:51

Hot Core

Hey Fritz, I wrestled with 22Hornets for 35 years prior to trading the last one off. They most certainly can be frustrating. You will get a good Load working for you and then all of a sudden it just goes from 1" groups to 2" groups for no reason at all.

Powder - There is a new Powder on the market that has been just an excellent match for that small Case - Hodgdon's Lil'Gun. Most folks over here think it is the very best Powder ever made for the Hornet.

Primers - Since the SAAMI Pressure MAX for it is so low, you can "SAFELY" use Pistol Primers. That is an advantage, apparently because of the reduced flame. The Hornet is however the most sensitive Cartridge I've ever loaded when it comes to Primers. So, try as many different brands as you can lay your hands on. I always did this "after" I had a Load that looked like it had some real potential.

Bullets - This could be a bit tricky for you. Some of the original old Hornets were made with a 0.223" Bore rather than the current 0.224" Bore. I've used some 0.224" bullets in my old Hornets and found Pressure to raise (as would be expected) and accuracy to be negatively affected. Changing back to the 0.223" bullets helped get the Pressure back to where it should have been and accuracy imporved. So, just be aware of this.

Also had some of the newer Hornets with the 0.224" Bore and had no reason to use the smaller bullets in them.

I found the "short-length" bullets(40gr, 45gr & 50gr Semi Pointed) to stabilize the best for me. I never tried any of the Plastic Tipped bullets in the Hornet, so I can't comment on them.

Cases - As has been said, the regular 22Hornet shape is just not conducive to either fine long-term accuracy or long case-life. I agree that having the chamber re-cut to the K-Hornet version is the best thing you can do(in most of them).

You may find some interesting Threads on this cartridge on the Small Caliber Board as well.

For what it is worth, I swapped my last one on a 223Rem and couldn't be happier. I can duplicate 22Hornet velocity with better accuracy using the same old bullets and 1x.xgr of "2400" Powder. Plus, I can take the velocity right on up if I so desire. The same would be true of a rifle chambered for the 222Rem.

Good luck to you if you decided to give it a try.

------------------
Good hunting and clean 1-shot kills, Hot Core

20 September 2001, 14:40

<George Capriola>

Fritz,
The .22 Hornet is a little fussy, but not unreasonably difficult to reload for.
I use Winchester cases, since they seem to be slightly thicker than Remington cases. I get between 5 & 10 reloads per case, unless I turn the necks. Cases with turned necks usually tear in about 3 reloads.
I use RCBS Competition dies, and don't have serious runout problems.
I use Hodgdon's Lil'Gun powder and Federal #100 small pistol primers. I've tried H4227, H110, IMR4227, and W296, and Lil'Gun is by far the best. I've also tried all flavors of small rifle primers & small pistol primers, and have always attained better accuracy with the small pistol primers.
Sort your cases by weight, since the small volume of the case does make a difference. Some think additional sorting by rim thickness aids accuracy, but I'm not sure it makes all that much difference.
You can't fit enough Lil'Gun in a .22 Hornet case to have pressure problems. You shouldn't be able to fit much more than 13.2 grains in the case, and Lil'Gun works best uncompressed. You shouldn't have a problem with .224 bullets if your barrel is .223.
I've had very good accuracy (less than 1" consistantly at 100 yards) with Hornady 40-grain V-Max bullets. I've had really excellent results with Berger 22/40MEF bullets (5/8" and smaller @ 100 yards, consistantly). I shoot a Ruger 77/22VHZ with a 1 in 14" twist barrel, but most Hornets are 1 in 16". I've had very poor results with 35 grain bullets, as the twist is too fast and the bullets fly apart at velocities over 3000 feet per second. They may be just fine out of a 1 in 16" twist barrel, though.
Oops, I forgot to mention, I've found best accuracy with the bullets seated about .020" short of the rifling lands. That's OK for my gun, of course, yours may be different. The bullets are too long to fit in the magazine, but that's OK with me.
Have fun with your Hornet. It's a very pleasant gun to shoot, and fun to develope loads for.
Regards, George.

[This message has been edited by George Capriola (edited 09-20-2001).]

20 September 2001, 17:17

Saeed

Fritz,

The 22 Hornet is no more difficult to load for than any other cartridge.

The problem is you are unlikely to get it to shoot as accurately as any of the other small 22s.

------------------
saeed@ emirates.net.ae

www.accuratereloading.com

21 September 2001, 05:14

Stonecreek

I bought a Hornet (rechambered to K-Hornet) about a year ago, and it offers the most fun of any gun I own. Like any caliber, don't full length size, and the brass will last longer.

21 September 2001, 06:06

<daveinmt>

I too had some problems getting Hornets to shoot well. Since recahmbering to K-Hornet, and using L'Gun and small pistol primers, have had nothing but joy. I get 3300 ft/s out of the 35 Vmaxs, and they shoot consistantly 0.75 to 1.00 MOA out of my Kimber and Ruger. The 35 Vmax works wonders on our local ground squirrels. Dynamic results are not really any different than with my 222 and 50 SXs.

I have experienced no problems with cases, and some have been reloaded in excess of 6 times.

daveinmt

21 September 2001, 06:32

<re5513>

"And now my question: I have been told and have read, that the .22 Hornet should be difficult to load, as the case necks are extremely weak. What are your opinions abut handloading this little cartridge? Iï¿½m curious, as I would like to loadd it, but hesitate regarding the difficulties."

I would reiterate one poster's comments recommending the Forster Bonanza series of dies for the Hornet. I believe this may prove to be a key element to reducing frustration with the cartridge.

In my experience (Ruger M77/22VHZ), the hornet is certainly accurate as I found most any load would deliver 1.5" groups at 100 yards. The issue arrises in the search for better performance. If accuracy is your goal, the first thing I'd do is to abandon hornet-desginated bullets and pick ones known for good inherrent accuracy. For example, 53 gr. Matchking bullets shot far better than any 45 gr. "Hornet" bullets I tried. On game, rapidly expanding bullets can work very well. I settled on 10.0 gr. of AA#9 with moly coated Hornady 50 gr. V-Max bullets. On prairie dogs this load was devastating out to 200 yards with a trajectory not unlike that of an '06. I haven't tried Lil'gun but will give it a go when I get the chance.

As long as you don't push the envelope with the cartridge you should not have too much trouble with case life. Because of the shallow angle of the neck, it's virtually impossible to headspace the round on the neck. This does not mean it's not worth trying though, and the less you work your brass the longer you brass life will be.

I had a hard time finding an accurate load for my Ruger Hornet rifle. 296 and H110 did not shoot well. I achieved acceptable results using AA1680 (though that powder is better in a .221 Fireball). The AA#9 load though is very good, with groups under .5" for 5 shots at 100 yards in my rifle. A friend's Hornet (same Ruger) did not deliver accuracy that was anywhere close to what I was seeing with this load. I could only attribute this to variability in the rifles themselves or to the fact that he was using generic RCBS dies. Because of the thin neck, I believe the hornet must be loaded with dies that support the entire case when seating a bullet. The Forster Bonanza dies (and others) have an internal sleeve that do this.

Good luck. The Hornet has been around a long time but fills a very strong niche in that it is more powerful and accurate than a .22 Mag (not to mention reloadable) yet has a much more mild report compared to the .222 class of cartridges. It is old in it's design (rimmed case) but offers enough value in terms of accuracy and performance to still serve well today. Most people who have a Hornet that shoots, find that is becomes a favorite friend in the gun safe.

Regards,
Rick