22 Hornet

16 October 2002, 04:42

500nitro

22 Hornet

I recently dug out an old Martini cadet actioned 22 Hornet I had made up nearly 20 years ago and had not fired a single round thru.
I scoped it and presented it to my 10 year old son and took him out to the range on the weekend where he and the gun were put thru their paces.
I had some winchester and sako ammo which is the same age as the rifle.
The winchester load was a bit hotter than the sako, and also split a few of the cases.
The little rifle shoots well, grouping in .9".
The trigger was a horrendous 4 1/2lbs which did not help, so it has been worked down to a clean 3lb.
Now the little guy is gung ho to shoot, so reloading is next on the agenda.
Is the Hornet easy to load for or is it a quirky little round?
I want to experiment with cast gaschecked bullets as well, so any info would be gratefully recieved.

16 October 2002, 07:13

Paul H

I have never loaded for the hornet, but it does have a reputation as being a bit tempermental to get the most accurate loads from. There was an article in Handloader about a year ago that went into getting good hornet loads.

16 October 2002, 09:46

Hot Core

quote:
Originally posted by 500nitro:
The little rifle shoots well, grouping in .9".

Is the Hornet easy to load for or is it a quirky little round?

I want to experiment with cast gaschecked bullets as well, so any info would be gratefully recieved.

Hey 500nitro, Let me wish you and the boy "continued" groups like that. I had various Hornets for 35 years and finally had enough of them a few years ago. Even had one of the old M43s that had controlled feed and a 0.223" Bore Diameter.

The problem I had with ALL of mine is they would shoot fairly well(slightly under 1") one day and the next day it was good to get 1.5" groups. So, as you guessed, they can indeed be a quirky little round.

If your Chamber and the Resizing Die are a close match so that the cases are not over-stressed, you have the "best" opportunity for some half way decent accuracy.

Use the lowest temperature Primers you can find. I used a lot of Rem 6 1/2s but seemed to have better overall luck with the Rem 1 1/2s and CCI 500s. The SAAMI MAX Pressure is low enough that you can use the Pistol Primers without over stressing them and they gave me better average accuracy.

I'm not sure how many powders I tried over the years, but I used all those listed in the Hodgdon, Hornady, IMR and Speer Manuals - 9 or 10. However, I did not get to try the relatively new Hodgdon Lil'Gun and it is my understanding from other folks that this is an absolutely excellent Powder for the Hornet.

Bullet wise, I shot more of the 45gr SemiPointed styles than the others. And I didn't get to try any of the Plastic Tip stuff. So, the new 40gr Plastic Tip bullets may shoot great in a Hornet, I don't know.

I also shot some 45gr Gas Checked bullets with H4227, WW680 and 2400. They worked pretty well with one exception - ricochets. The guy that made them used Linotype and they could be "UNSAFE" depending on what's off in the distance. He told me they were quite difficult to get to cast properly so he quit carrying them.

One last thing, I'd be reluctant to continue shooting the factory ammo that is splitting. It only takes one to "cut" a spot in the chamber wall. I had some "old" Remingtons(I think) do that to me a long long time ago and they replaced them 2-for-1.

Best of luck to you.

[ 10-16-2002, 00:49: Message edited by: Hot Core ]

16 October 2002, 13:39

<George Capriola>

Nitro,
The Hornet can be a little fussy, but I hope I can save you some trouble with this recipe:
Use Hodgdon's Lil'Gun powder. The Hornet case won't hold enough Lil'Gun to generate dangerously high pressures. Start at about 12.5 grains, work your way up to 13.2 grains. You're sure to find a load you like in that range.
Use small pistol primers. I use Federal #100's. The small rifle primers can pop the bullet out of the case before the powder is completely ignited.
Hornady V-Maxes work really well. I use the 40-grainers, but lots of Hornet shooters like the 35-grainers too (my Ruger 77/22VHZ doesn't do well with the 35-grainers). I stay away from the Sierra and Hornady "Hornet" bullets, because they use thinner copper cases and at Lil'Gun velocities, they can come apart before they reach the target (especially the 35-grain bullets).
If you want to get really crazy, sort your cases by weight (+/- 0.1 grain), sort again by rim thickness, turn the necks (not good for case life), and use competition seating dies.
Good luck with your Hornet. It's a really fun gun to shoot, and you'll never get tired of it.
(By the way, if you want to shoot a lot, you'll have to reload for it... Factory ammo's about 50 cents per round...)
Regards, George.

16 October 2002, 20:14

500nitro

Thanks a lot guys.
It sounds like this will be a whole new reloading experience. We will probably try and develop a gascheck load so he can shoot a lot without busting the pocket book, and a nice little load for varmint and small game hunting using one of the suggested jacketed bullets.

17 October 2002, 01:20

500,
I have a cz American in a .22 Hornet and I love it. It was bloody tempremental to find a load for, but I found it did not like winchester primers, it just loves Rem 7 1/2's. I load the 45 gr SN sierra .224 in front of 11 grains of win 296, with an OAL of 1.71" it shoots under 1" and has a leupold 3-9x50 Varix 11 mounted on top in Hillver Rings. Any fox on a calm night out to 200 yards is dead as long as I do my bit.

So spend the time to find the right diet for it and your little bloke will love this round.