I am looking for the toughest .224 bullet that might shoot well in a 1 in 16 .22 Hornet. I shoot hogs with my Hornet and have trouble with traditional hornet bullets just blowing up on the shoulder blade. I shoot some 45 gr Barnes TSX and they work fine on the hogs...but can’t make them shout much better than 2” at 100. Rifle will shoot Sierra 45 g Hornet bullets all in one hole.

My Hornet likes the Winchester factory Jacketed soft point and it has shot through gobblers, coyotes, and such, but never a hog.
However, a shot into the ear , back of head, eye, etc might work for you.

Yessir, mine likes those fine too...just looking for a bit tougher. They are about exactly the same the Sierras as to toughness.

Make sure your jumping those Barnes at least .050". Accuracy should improve at least some, if not a lot.

WW Brass
Hornady 55gr soft point
13.0 gr lil-gun
CCI small rifle mag primer
COL 1.850"
Vel 2677 fps

2650-2700 fps may not sound so sexy, but, it'll easily shoot to 300 yards provided accuracy is there, plus, I have buddies that kill deer and pigs regularly with this bullet pushed to Warp 20 in 22-250's and 220 Swifts, it'll certainly be tougher and penetrate much deeper at 22 Hornet speeds.

16 twist will easily stabilize the 55gr Hornady.

I believe the Sierra 40 HP is a tougher bullet. I use it in my hornets for coyotes.

Shoot them behind the shoulder blades.

that copper bullet is killing you because of length.
try to find something short, the original hornet bullets were round nose designs.

As finicky as the Hornet is, I have never been able to get ANY Barnes bullet to shoot groups worth a hoot. Don't use them in Hornet for that reason. I use the 35 Grain V-Max with Lil Gun. For my 3 Hornets that works best for me group wise. But I believe some of the guys gave you the best sage advice, shoot the m in the eye or ear. I usually hunt hogs from blinds with a 223, and if I follow that plan I never lose one. Body shots! There'y off in the woods and lost.

I hear all of the advice and use it. The 45 gr Barnes in the Hornet is a great killer. The accuracy is acceptable for hogs. I would just like a bit more accuracy for other things I shoot with it. Just thought someone might know of that special bullet. Thank you kindly for all the advice.

I have always shot AA-1680 in my Hornet. Going to try some Lil’ Gun with the Barnes 45 gr TSX.

If you were close I can make you any bullet you wish.

In fact, I might design a new light bullet just to try in the Hornet.

I could never get it to shoot as accurately as other 22 center fire.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
If you were close I can make you any bullet you wish.

In fact, I might design a new light bullet just to try in the Hornet.

I could never get it to shoot as accurately as other 22 center fire.

If you were close...I would take you up on that. Can you get Lil’ Gun powder Saeed? I would be interested to hear what you think of it in the Hornet. Seems people either love or hate it.

How about a 55FMJ? If that will stabilize it should be relatively tough. There are AP available in 223 also...

I cut the backs off of tracers to get a 40gr bullet that works well in my Hornets:

You know, we seem to have some sort of magnetic attraction to geniuses!

We were talking about making some round nose bullets for the Hornet, and in the discussion it weas mentioned that we need short bullets.

Someone said "make them fatter then!"

I had another thought. The nosler ballistic tip has a thick plug of solid copper at the base. Take a 40gr ballistic tip and load it backwards in the hornet. If it's accurate I think it will do what you want.

quote:

Originally posted by ledvm:

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
If you were close I can make you any bullet you wish.

In fact, I might design a new light bullet just to try in the Hornet.

I could never get it to shoot as accurately as other 22 center fire.

If you were close...I would take you up on that. Can you get Lil’ Gun powder Saeed? I would be interested to hear what you think of it in the Hornet. Seems people either love or hate it.

Lil gun and small pistol primers are a good key to accuracy!

I have been using the 45gr Barnes XLC (blue coated) in my Hornet for decades. I have a Ruger M77 Sporter, with 1 in 14 twist.

I use it for coyotes, and this bullet hits them hard. When I run out of the XLC, I'll switch to TSX.

As has been suggested, get some Lilgun powder and small pistol primers to start. 13.0grs is all that will fit in most Hornet cases, and that is the accuracy node for my rifle.

That load will shoot MOA, or slightly better, at 100yds., and clocks at 2,875-2,900fps.

With the Hornet, small changes, like .2grs in the powder charge, will reflect with accuracy.

In my rifle, 12.2, 12.4 and 12.6 shot about 1.5" at 100yds, while 12.8 and 13.0 shot under 1".

Another powder with similar characteristics to Lilgun is Alliant MP 300, which I have not tried.

These 2 powders are supposed to offer higher velocity, by up to 200fps, and lower pressures, by about 10,000psi, than other powders suitable for the Hornet.

I can vouch for the velocity and accuracy of Lilgun.

Just designed and made these this morning.

I will try them once I am done with our penetration test, which you can see on the Big Bore forum.

Weights are 27, 32 and 40 grains.

Those look wonderful, Saeed. You have such a great machine shop!

Should have thought of Cutting Edge right off. Gonna give these and these a try.

quote:

I have always shot AA-1680 in my Hornet. Going to try some Lil’ Gun with the Barnes 45 gr TSX.

Lil Gun seems to vary in performance quite substantially from lot to lot. The first lot I ever tried gave such wide variations in velocities, regardless of primer, bullet, etc., that I simply gave up on it. However, it worked splendidly in a heavy bullet load in a .45 Colt. I tried a second lot of Lil Gun that behaved much better (although not providing velocities as consistent as AA1680). In the end I settled on AA1680 for virtually all of my Hornet shooting. It yields low pressures, consistent velocities, and if you want more velocity then get one of the two-dozen or so commercially available .22 centerfires that are larger than the Hornet.

Can't help with a "tougher" Hornet bullet, but reversed Ballistic Tips sound intriguing.

Hammer Bullets has a .224 35gr. Hammer Hunter. It's a mono metal bullet that I have been wanting to try out in my 222rem.

I ordered the 2 varieties of Cutting Edge monometals above. I have plenty of AA-1680, Lil’ Gun, and Win 296. I have a variety of primers.

Will see if I can make one of them shoot. Not looking for anything but accuracy and normal Hornet velocity.

Lane, eager to hear about your results with the Raptors.

A solid in any 22 bullets requires a super first class trackers, Ive lost foxes trying preserve pelts, gave up on solids and lost more foxes than I retrieved...A hog is larger than a fox..go figure...In a 222 the 60 gr. Hornady SP or HP will give you fast kills on deer/hogs up to 200 yards, so I figure if it will give you good results at 50 to 200 yds, surely it will work in the Hornet at 50 to 100 yards..

Its sure worth a try...

I was gifted 150 rounds of .22 Hornet FMJ for the M-4 survival rifle. They were promptly pulled and put in .218 Bee cases for varmints at the farm. However since declaring fox/coyotes of limits two years ago, I never used'em. Four years ago I shot, trapped, shoveled and ran over 242 whistle pigs, and only 39 the year after. Now we got coyotes and fox all over the 1600 acres, less vole and ground hog damage. Last year I got seven and this year only 3 so far. It's tough not shooting them with the meat market at $20/fox and $50/yote in NYC.

quote:

Originally posted by Minkman:
I was gifted 150 rounds of .22 Hornet FMJ for the M-4 survival rifle. They were promptly pulled and put in .218 Bee cases for varmints at the farm. However since declaring fox/coyotes of limits two years ago, I never used'em. Four years ago I shot, trapped, shoveled and ran over 242 whistle pigs, and only 39 the year after. Now we got coyotes and fox all over the 1600 acres, less vole and ground hog damage. Last year I got seven and this year only 3 so far. It's tough not shooting them with the meat market at $20/fox and $50/yote in NYC.

MEAT MARKET????