Thinking of one of these for my son's Birthday at the end of the summer. How do they shoot? I've heard great things about the Ruger #1 in the hornet, but my son is only turning 9 and want I want to get him something not quite so portley. The 24" barrel may be a little slower than the 26" tube of the #1, but that won't matter. Any informed opinions? Thanks

well if they are anything at all like the old browning low wall hornet, they will do very well indeed & being as they are essentially the same i would expect good things, even better if you rechamber into 22 khornet

The Hornet round has very limited energy. The case come out of the black powder days. It head spaces on the rim , thin brass ,and is a long taper case. I would never get a Hornet rifle for my kids when I could get a 221 Fireball, 222 Rem, or 223 Rem . Of the 20 some different round I have reloaded the Hornet is the bastard of the bunch.

quote:

Originally posted by bracer:
The Hornet round has very limited energy. The case come out of the black powder days. It head spaces on the rim , thin brass ,and is a long taper case. I would never get a Hornet rifle for my kids when I could get a 221 Fireball, 222 Rem, or 223 Rem . Of the 20 some different round I have reloaded the Hornet is the bastard of the bunch.

If you have indeed loaded for the .22 Hornet and could not get as good of accuracy and case life from it as any other small cased 22 center fire, then you simply don't know what you are doing.

The Hornet case does NOT have to headspsce on the rim. It IS a bottle necked cartridge and if you use fire formed brass and neck size only, headspace is just fine.

Just like any other round, if you expect accuracy, that means proper loading techniques.

I have owned 4 different .22 Hornet Browning 1885 low walls. same gun as the Winchester being discussed here.

With good 40-45 g bullets in handloads ALL of them would shoot 1/2 MOA three shot groups. Two of the would do under 3/10ths.As a matter of fact, all of them were slightly more accurate than the .223 and 22-250 1885s I have owned.

Nothing wrong with the Hornet in a good gun and loaded by someone who gives it a little respect.

Which some folks are incapable of since they prejudge the round due to it's supposed "faults" without even giving it a chance.

I used a Model 77-22 Hornet Ruger for several years and before that a 340 Stevens.

I hand loaded all the ammo I used in both rifles and enjoyed using them for javelina, wild turkeys and other Hornet sized game.

I killed one deer with a Hornet and the only deer that I know that I hit and lost was with a Hornet.

I had an issue with Hornet brass not lasting real long, 3 to 5 loadings, but in reality Hornet brass does not cost that damn much.

The Hornet is a fine caliber to mess around with, but it does have its limitations.

The main one in my rifle useage, was size of critters and effective ranges on those critters.

I enjoyed hunting with the Hornets I had and regularly took javelina out to 125 yards with them.

After I retired and my hunting changed I just decided that for my "small gun" either my wifes 257 Roberts or my 6.5x55 were all I needed, so the Hornets wwere sold.

I can't speak of the rifle, but I've had about 17 years experience with the Hornet. Nice, mild round. No recoil, decent ballistics.

Here is my coyote load: 45gr Barnes XLC, 13.0gr Lilgun, Rem case and a small pistol primer. Velocity is around 2,900fps and accuracy is MOA.

Rifle is a Ruger M77 sporter with the 20" barrel.

It must be my Kimber Mdl 82 22 Hornet . I have ben reloading since 1953. I neck size most all of the rounds that I reload. I have spent more time trying to find an accurate load for the Hornet than any of other rifles . I live in prairie dog country and have shot them with 17 HM2, 17 HMR, 17 Fireball, 17 Rem, 204 Ruger, 22 LR, 22 WMR, 22 Hornet, 221 Fireball,222 Rem, 223 Rem, 22-250 Rem, 220 Swift and 243 Win bolt action rifles. Of the rifles I own the 22 Hornet is the bastard of the ones I have.

Must be your rifle bracer cause the Hornet as a round is like many other old rounds made new by modern components and good loading technique. As mentioned neck size only and the Hornet headspaces on the datum line like any other case. Case life is great as well if you don't try to turn it into .221 Fireball. I have had a number of CZ's I used as wildcat platforms and I always shoot em first to establish a baseline, all of em were shooters as are my two Anschutz Hornets. The round is as accurate as the rifle and shooter allow.
This is a fairly typical 5 shot group for my Anschutz at 100 yards. That is the small BR target and that group measures a titch under 1/2 inch center to center.



That would be this Anschutz with a 10 inch barrel that is above the two Rugers.



I've never shot that Browning but if the rifle doesn't have issues it should be a dandy for the young fella, very little noise (still wear hearing protection of course), negligible recoil so no flinches from this one. Great 200ish yard or some better rifle. Big on fun factor.
As to a shorter barrel not to worry, I use that same load in a 22 inch barreled rifle and it chronos right at 3,000FPS and out of that 10 inch handgun it still clocks 2,650ish FPS, any length rifle barrel will get all the velocity a little Hornet case has to offer.
As you might can tell I'm a big fan of the round .

quote:

Originally posted by bracer:
It must be my Kimber Mdl 82 22 Hornet . I have ben reloading since 1953. I neck size most all of the rounds that I reload. I have spent more time trying to find an accurate load for the Hornet than any of other rifles . I live in prairie dog country and have shot them with 17 HM2, 17 HMR, 17 Fireball, 17 Rem, 204 Ruger, 22 LR, 22 WMR, 22 Hornet, 221 Fireball,222 Rem, 223 Rem, 22-250 Rem, 220 Swift and 243 Win bolt action rifles. Of the rifles I own the 22 Hornet is the bastard of the ones I have.

Bracer
If you an opportunity to get yourself a CZ 527 in hornet, I'm pretty sure you will find a new appreciation for the round. FS