Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Reloading the .22 Hornet

Really nice, but in your case, no surprise.

I love that fiddleback grain on the third one to the right. The other two are pretty cool, too.

I always liked those old Pre-64 Hornets. Gunner500 has one, IIRC, Super Grade.

DF

Does yours have the two piece bolt body? They were problematic. The bolt can be bushed for better results.

Nice trio, Shrapnel. I'll be sure to try that load and the others mentioned.. I have a good supply of different primers so can experiment there.

Don't know about the bolt body yet, should have the rifle in hand next week.

My star Hornet amongst my small collection of esoteric .22 Hornet rifles is a Winchester M54, rechambered to K-Hornet by Lyle Kilbourn himself (the "K" in K-Hornet). It dotes on Li'l Gun and 1680 + 45gr. bullets equally well, both sparked by Remington 6 1/2's, the SRM primers didn't seem to make any difference. Could also be because I load pretty conservatively?

2400 loads get started with sp primers, usually 6.0gr. + 45gr. cast bullets, a universally good load in all my Hornets - for a skinch over 1700fps. A "funner than enough" load. I find myself loading about two of them for every one "normal" Hornet cartridge. If you have access to a Lee "Bator" 52 gr. mold, cast them soft and size to throat diameter (with attendant proper sizing of case necks) and push them with the same 6.0 gr. 2400. (The bullet is a stubby design that works in typical Hornet barrels - no longer than a Speer 45 grainer.) Your gun will love it and the squirrels will beg for a cease-fire.

I stumbled onto an old LE Wilson straight line sizer and seater (for use in an arbor press) for the Hornet. They work a treat for constructing really straight ammo. I keep threatening to send a couple K-Hornet fired cases to Wilson's to have them make me a custom set of those dies.

I mention in my chapter on the .22 Hornet/K-Hornet in The Big Book of Gun Gack that the smallest 100-yard groups I've shot with a .22 Hornet were put together with a Lee Loader. They averaged under half an inch for 5-shot groups at 100 yards. And that's with the standard round, not the K-Hornet.

There’s something, cathartic is the word I think, about using the Lee Loader. I did finally break down and buy an arbor press to eliminate the hammering, but the Hornet is really easy either way. A Lee Hand Press is another quieter option with regular or collet dies. Someday I may have to invest in a FL die, but with a bunch of brass on hand, maybe not.

This is relevant to my interests, just snagged a Browning 1885 last week in .22 Hornet....

Excellent choice. Had mine since 2000, IIRC. It’s my pet of pets.

The 77/bolts are two-piece, with rear locking lugs. There’s some slop between the head and body, more so in some than others. Inexpensive shim kits are available to reduce that. I’ve done two .22 rifles; one it helped a bit with accuracy, the other was a wash because it was already pretty tight. Easy job, worth trying.

Claro?

I had three: a 77/22, No. 1 and a Browning Low Wall. I shot two loads: Lil' Gun and 40 NBTs and Privi Partizan factory loads. The Lil' Gun / NBT combo was super accurate and fast but may have been too long to feed through the 77 mag. Can't remember. The Privi loads shot well but were slow. I want to say 2400 fps or slower. The Low Wall is the one I miss but would only do 0.75" or so for five shots. The two Rugers were sub 0.5" for five shots at 100.

Thanks for the info Flint

My CZ 527 loves Lil gun and 300MP. CCI 450 rem 6.5 and small pistol primers work pretty much equally well to me. I would part with both of my rim fire rifles before my hornet.

Can you rebarrel to .17 Hornet?

Check with James Calhoon. Google him.

He’s a 527 guru.

DF

Yep, Jim would be the guy to ask.

Just about any .22 Hornet can be rebarreled to .17 Hornet--but one factor in bolt-actions is whether the magazine is long enough to handle plastic-tipped .17s. Which can also be a problem with some plastic-tipped .22 bullets, especially 40-grainers--the reason Hornady started making the 35-grain V-Max.

The SAAMI standard magazine length--and hence overall maximum length--for .22 Hornet ammo was developed long before plastic-tipped bullets appeared, or even real spitzers for the Hornet. Instead the magazine/overall length was standardized when relatively blunt bullets around 45 grains in weight were the Hornet standard, and some magazines don't allow enough room for 40-grain plastic-tips. And the same "problem" applies to the .17 Hornet.

I've owned rifles in both the original .17 Ackley Hornet and Hornady's version. Hornady did a really smart thing when they brought out their .17 Hornet: They shortened the overall case but "blew" it out more than the Ackley version. It holds as much powder as the Ackley, but is just enough shorter to allow the easy use of plastic-tipped .17 bullets--so works better in the SAAMI-standard Hornet magazine.

Some older Hornets, however, have somewhat longer magazines. I've owned two K-Hornets, a CZ 452 and an older Brno, the fore-runner of the 452. The Brno's magazine was enough longer to make a real difference.

All of which is why I tend to prefer single-shot .22 Hornets!

James has take off barrels for a reasonable price.

I’m sure he ends up with a good supply of take off barrels converting 527’s to his .19 cal proprietary round and .17 Hornet.

And he has a single shot adapter for the 527.

DF

you can pull the plastic spacer out of the 527 hornet mag and trim it back some.......can gain enough room to seat 40 gr plastic tips

That’s exactly what I did. The link I posted earlier covers some of it. Just .1” makes a big difference.

DF

Edited to add, my mag spring was too strong. James Calhoon told me how to grind the spring to lighten it a bit. It works. Pictures on how that looks after James’ alteration is in the link.

I bought my CZ 527 22 Hornet about 15 years ago and only ever tried 1 load - the tried and true 13-13.1 grains of L'il Gun and a 40 grain V-max. I don't think that I ever heard of using pistol primers in the Hornet at that time, so my loads all used a CCI SRP.

I slimmed down the plastic filler block in the magazine to allow for a longer COAL, trying to get close to the lands, but never could reach them. Didn't matter, because the rifle still makes 3 shot groups closer to ¼" than to ½" and clocks just a hair over 3K, (3,006 IIRC).

It's been years since I last shot it. I really need to remedy that.