Cabela's recently had a promotion where they give you $150 credit on your next purchase if you spend $500. I bought a $499.99 CZ .22 Hornet and a box of Remington primers and got the credit to use on another rifle I already have on layaway there.

I had a couple of small left over lots of .22 Hornet ammo from my TC Contender pistol. It was loaded too long to feed through the magazine so it was fired single shot.

One batch gave indifferent accuracy using Sierra .223 diameter Hornet bullets.
The other batch was a bit hard to chamber and accuracy kept improving as I shot them up.
The last group was fired watching the mirage.
It was 7 shots in about one inch.
3 holes were in about a 3/16" group when the mirage was moving... 3 shots were 1/2" to the right in .25" when the mirage was straight up.
The seventh shot was a flier just above the moving mirage shots.
I need to get some more ammo loaded. This one is a blast to shoot. I have shot a .22WMR a lot but the .22 Hornet is like shooting a real rifle.

I have the CZ Hornet (as well as a Martini Model 12/15 Hornet). My CZ thrives on 13 grains of Lil'Gun under a 35 grain V-Max loaded as long as will fit in the magazine. It is almost impossible to shoot over 1/2 inch groups with this load and this rifle.
Pete

Thanks PJ,
I keep seeing Lil Gun metioned as very accurate in the .22 Hornet on multiple sites.

I have a 22 K-Hornet in a Ruger revolver with an 8" barrel and I love that round. Its cheap to shoot and lots of fun. Yes, Lil Gun works well in those small cases too.

ireload,

That CZ Hornet sounds like a winner. I know a guy who has one and says it shoots real well.
I have two Hornets, both Rugers; one is a Number 1 and the other a Model 77. I get good accuracy with 13.0 grains of Lil-Gun, and somewhere close to 10.0 grains of H-110, with better looking groups coming from the H-110. I use small pistol primers and crimp bullets.

Good luck with yours. They are a blast to shoot.

Don

I use 13.0gr Lilgun under a 45gr Barnes XLC for a coyote load. It goes just over 2,900fps. With a standard 45gr sftpt, it get's 2850fps.

Small pistol primers and Lilgun are the way to go with a Hornet.

quote:

Originally posted by ireload2:
Thanks PJ,
I keep seeing Lil Gun metioned as very accurate in the .22 Hornet on multiple sites.

13.2g of Lil'Gun and the 35g V-MAX is "the" standard load in my CZ Hornet. They can be loaded to fit in the magazine just fine. You have to work at it to shoot groups as big as 3/4" with this load. Zero it about an inch high at 100 yards and you will be zeroed at about 160 yards.

I tried about every other combination and ended up right back with this as my standard load.

I tried the small pistol primers but they did not group nearlly as well for me as the CCI400.

If you want to shoot longer bullets and seat them properly, they probably won't fit in the magazine. It is a lot easier to shoot it single shot if you have one of the single shot magazine replacements like this one:

http://www.sinclairintl.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?catego...m=56-1000&type=store

It works great. Drop the cartridge in the reciever, close the bolt and you are ready to go.

Fitch

I have an Anschutz .22 Hornet that is scary accurate with it's favorite load using WW cases (it doesn't like Rem cases), with 13.2 of Lil'Gun and a WSR primer (No luck at all with pistol primers in mine) topped with a 40 grain V-Max seated out to where it won't fit in the magazine but is near the lands (I wish it was a single shot anyway).
I mention that load cause when I bought a CZ .22 Hornet a few years back to convert into a .17 Ackley Hornet I grabbed a MTM box of 50 of em and took it to the range to shoot before conversion to get a baseline of performance. Normally I wouldn't interchange loads but Lil'Gun was fairly new then and Hornady claimed a max load with it and a 40 grainer was 13.7 as memory serves. At any rate they chambered well so off to the range. I broke in the barrel a bit in plans of reusing it in something else then sighted it in and started shooting with a load developed for another rifle. Needless to say I had a hard time tearing it down after this.
If your not hung up on a repeater I'd suggest trying the 40 V-Max and or 40 BlitzKing seated out a ways to find the best accuracy it's capable of. With the better BC of the 40 it way outperforms the ping-pong ball 35 V-Max IMO although they do really pop at 135ish yards and under and do fit in the magazine. Just a thought.



This is a repost as I break this out every time the topic of CZ Hornets comes up. Happily if anything it shoots better as a .17 Ackley Hornet. Bet ya love it.
P.S.
I had a 20X scope on it

I have the CZ hornet for a couple years now and I love it it is one of the best hornets I ever had.I use 40 vmax with 13.2 grns lilgun and a cci br primer and I modified the clip so I can seat them near the lands I get 3000 fps with this load and it shoots 1/2 inch or less, and the 40s fly better than the 35s and buck the wind better.I also have a standard clip and shoot the cheap winchester or remington 45-46 grn HP and they shoot good less than a inch at a hundred,they are good plinkers.To modify the clip I took out the 2 pins and slid out the spacer and cut it to where the pins were and redrilled the top spacer hole and the bottom pin goes in front of the spacer and holds it in place it's tight I then bent the follower in the front and back to take up the space I did heat it so it wouldn't break and would bend ezier some guys weld a spacer on the follower,but I didn't find it neccesary and it works great for a couple years now.Have fun it's a great gun.

Fireball I did the magazine deal but after it became a .17 Ackley, works as well as possible with that improved Ackley case. Never really thought about it for a standard Hornet but that's a good idea. I agree the 40 V-max makes a whole different cartridge out of it. By the way, I get about exactly the same velocity out of my Anschutz 3,000ish FPS.

Thanks for the input guys.
Looks like I need to get a box of the 40 grn V Max and try them out. I already have the single loading technique worked out.

Please keep us posted, it's most interesting especially to small caliber nut's like myself. I'm also CZ psycho so it's double interesting to see how others data stacks up against your own.
One aspect that gets mentioned a lot with the Hornet is pistol primers as opposed to small rifle. As I said I've had no luck with em but I know guys that have so???
I read a two part article by Ross Sefried years ago on the .22 Hornet (great article), first part in one months "Handloader" the conclusion next month in "Rifle. His experience was that the pistol primers indeed worked well in some of his loads but he specifically mentioned Lil'Gun as one it did not work in for him. I do know Lil'Gun has a real high nitro content and is tough to get lit if you will. I found out about the high nitro content by leaving it in an RCBS plastic tube powder measure over night once, when I took it out of the tube the next day the whole inside was dimpled like an orange peel. I called Hodgdon and the tech explained what was going on, due to the high nitro base it was more or less eating into the plastic, Lil'Gun has so much nitro it's always felt almost damp to me. I now use those Nalgene bottle hard plastic containers.
My best overall luck in three Hornets and several .17 Ackley Hornets as well as two K's has been plain old WSR primers, I have a friend who swears by crimping to get a better burn and he uses pistol primers. They all seem to like what they like huh?

quote:

ireload2

The hornet really is a great cartridge! Amazingly effective on small game with heavier bullets. (I haven't tried the lighter bullets so I can't comment there).

quote:

Originally posted by montdoug:
I have an Anschutz .22 Hornet that is scary accurate with it's favourite load .......

I too have an Anschutz. Mine has a rust damaged bore but amazingly, still seems to shoot well. I have had very good results with 50gr Sierra Blitz bullets. 55gr Hornady Spire Point's seem to group well too. I haven't done a proper grouping from a bench yet. I use Federal primers and AR2205 (H4227).

I was using cci br primers with great results then I heard about the pistol primers and tried them and they were cheaper but i ended up having a couple pierced primers so i'm back to using the cci br primers they are stronger with great accuracy.I'm using 40 vmax moly coated with 13.2 grns lilgun,I shot 2 fox with this load one at 180 yards and the other at 200 and it put a 5 inch hole in them!

Fireball it would appear we've ended up at similar conlusions. I found another pic on the computer of that first range day with my CZ Hornet before conversion. Here's another 5 shot group that while not as good as the first one I posted sure makes ya grin.



Here's another picture of the exact same load in an Anschutz Exemplar hand gun I have, it has a 3X to 12X Burris BallisticPlex scope and it's the first handgun (albeit a 10 inch barreled bolt handgun with a bipod) I've ever used to shoot numerous under 1/2 inch 5 shot groups at 100 yards. That's three for three on .22 Hornets with that load for me.



On this one I stepped up a tenth cause of the 10 inch barrel. This load gets almost exactly 3,000 fps out of both rifles and surprisingly 2,650 fps out of the 10 inch handgun (I expected more velocity loss than that in a 10 inch barrel).
Without boring ya to tears with more pics I have a .266 5 shot groups cut out and pasted on the wall my wife shot with that Anschutz rifle and that load.
303Guy they are indeed amazing.
Fireball I also concur completely on the rat smacking factor, I've dumped rock chucks instantly at well in excess of 250 yards with that load. It's a real rat spreader on gophers and p-dogs to that range and even further.
I don't believe in magic loads but this one comes close. At least for accuracy it does cause again, it's sure a long way from fitting the magazine. As I said however I wish they were all single shots anyway, but that's just me.