Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles 22 Hornet

I have a 22 Hornet Browning low wall sitting at my ffl that I need to pick up. Three questions:

1. Any load preferences? I have some 40 NBTs somewhere and have h110/296, 2400 accurate number 9 and maybe a couple other powders that might work. Should I try these or skip straight to Lil' Gun or 1680? Any bullet preferences?

2. I have always heard Hornets are quirky to load for. Any tips / tricks to be aware of?

3. Where do you get brass for these things?

Thanks.

There was some Hornet brass on the campfire just the past couple days. I got some and so did someone else. You might post a classified asking for brass.

I use 40 grain V-Max bullets in a pre-war model 70 and they shoot great. I also use Lil gun powder and it works great. You might ask Mule Deer what Lil gun charge he is using, I think I got my information from him. My stuff is at Mike Venturino's where he is using it for an article on the Hornet, so I don't have my dies here for the data that I keep in the box with the dies...

In my experience the faster powders (110/296, 2400, #9) you listed work better with bullets lighter than 40 grains--and work well.

Li'l Gun and 1680 work VERY well with 40's--and 45's I you want to shoot them. But 40-grain plastic-tips get the most out of the Hornet in a single-shot, turning it into a 250-yard varmint rifle. Both also get there with much less pressure than the three faster powders, which results in longer case life. In the thin Hornet cases that helps a lot.

I've gotten very good results in four different Hornets with 13.0 grains of Li'l Gun. Some data doesn't go this high, but I've never been able to figure out why, because it works great and brass lasts a long time. Accuracy has been under an inch for 5-shot groups at 100 yards in every rifle, and a couple rifles average in the .6 to .7" area. 1680 is definitely worth a try as well.

One trick with faster powders is to use small pistol primers, but Li'l Gun and 1680 are actually slow-burning in the Hornet. I've gotten the best results with small rifle primers, or even magnum small rifle primers.

Neat rifle! I had a very accurate Browning Low Wall in .243 once, and kind of regret not having it anymore.

40gr V-Max and 13grs of Lil Gun is the ticket! It's about all I feed my Ruger.

I have ran the 35gr V-Max but much prefer the 40's.

DMD- When you put the blocks on your Hornet place a straight edge on one and make sure there is no height difference. Mine had 15 thou. difference and would string vertically about 3" at 100. After I brass shimmed under the lower one it shoots about 3/4 all day long w/any plastic tipped 40 gr./13 gr LG and Rem 6 1/2 primers. I am going to use Fed. small rifles this year to shoot gophers in Montana though. Love my little low wall but the stocks (Winchester)could have been better finished though. It has taken me a full year to acquire approx 600 cases for it and as far as I know nobody has any in stock anywhere, lucked into mine at gfun shows-Muddy

DMD I just saw that Midway has Privi Hornet ammo for $24.95-Muddy

Thank you. Just got it today.

My best load for my CZ 14 tw 22 hornet is 11.6 of 1680, 40gn nosler bt and fed small pistol primers...2625 fps and easliy moa or better on fairly calm days

I like AA1680 and L'il Gun and I prefer the 40VMAX over the 35 ( if I remember correctly) because Hornet brass is real thin and the boat tail on the 40 is less prone to crush the thin case mouths.

13.0 gr of Lil'gun for the 40gr Works well for me

I've never owned a Hornet but shot one of a friends a lot years ago in Mont. There was a problem, easy to fix, case separations. Being a rimmed case I think they have the same problem as a belted case. Because of where they headspace, the chamber's can be just loose enough to cause lot's of case separations. Partial resize and make the case better fit the chamber.

I think where a lot of people get in trouble with the Hornet is when they try to hot rod it to the nth degree. Accept its limitations and brass will last as long as with anything else. Want more than 2600fps? L'il Gun will get you going faster at reasonable pressure, or step up to a larger cartridge. An extra 2-300fps will only buy one a little more yardage- it'll still be a relatively short range varmint round.

my "22 Hornet" says 223 on the barrels, and is usually loaded with Blue Dot or SR 4759...

as far as "short varmint rounds"... I figure that 80 % plus of all the sage rats or prairie dogs I shoot ( when in Montana) are under 200 yds... 90% are definitely under 250...

sure there are shoots one can take on the ones that are waaaaay out there, and some find that challenging and fun...myself tho, I like to shoot the closer ones and concentrate on red mist and blowing them up or making their parts fly up in the air...

I like to bounce a round right in front of them, and then the Shrapnel really tears them apart...

Well, yes and no. The typical magazine-fed bolt rifle is handicapped because cartridges loaded with plastic-tipped 40-grain bullets usually won't fit in the magazine.

Thus you're limited to soft or hollow-point 40's, or lighter plastic-tips like the 35-grain Hornady V-Max, and its ballistic coefficient is about as bad as the non-tipped 40's. It starts out fast, but the BC is so low (.109) it slows down very quickly. The BC's of non-tipped 40's start at about .150 and go a little higher, but not much. The plastic-tipped 40's are all around .200, or slightly higher.

In my Ruger No. 1B's 26-inch barrel 40's average 3050-3100 fps with 13.0 grains of Li'l Gun, the exactly velocity depend on the bullet and temperature. With a Hornady V-Max, Nosler Ballistic Tip or Tipped Varmageddon, or Sierra Blitzking that turns the Hornet into a solid 250-300 yard varmint rifle.

But even in the 1B, use of one of the low-BC bullets chops 100 yards off that, partly because wind-drift is much worse.

Using Lil'Gun here in my Winchester. I think they're 16" twist? Dad worked up the loads on mine, can't remember which tipped bullet I bought but he said they were tumbling. Went to a lighter (35 grain I think? Soft point and a hollow point) and immediately shooting under an inch. Hadn't shot it in a while, leaned against the house the other day and rung the 5" gong he has hanging at. 200 yards.

Mine is a Anschutz. Nice action , great trigger but not the strongest. The Lil'gun seems to shoot well with the lower pressures. Use to use H4198, but I like the Lil'gun better.

All are moderate loads. Bug hole gun for sure.

Can't wait for springtime weather so I can continue my 22 Hornet range work with the 1B. What little I snuck in December, it wasn't pretty.

Cheesy,

Mine is exactly like yours except for the Browning branding. I hope it has a fast enough twist to shoot pointy 40s grainers! If not, I will try 35s or less pointy bullets.

Do yourself a favor...try a few loads and if it just don't want to play nice, cut to the chase and have it punched out to K-hornet. It's a completely different rifle plus it headspaces on the shoulder.

I wouldn't say the K-Hornet makes for a completely different rifle, but it often helps.

But in my experience what helps even more is buying a .221 Fireball in the first place.

I thought about K Hornet, but I don't see low walls in Hornet very often so will leave it alone.

Saw a Browning at the local gun show last weekend, wanted $1175.-Muddy

I like your reasoning.

Mule Deer I have a no. 3 in a hornet will it have 1 -10 or the 1-16 twist? thank's Ozzie

One sure fire way to find out. Measure it!

Tagged for interest as I have a pre-war .22 Hornet built on a large Martini action by A.G. Parker:



It's a nominal .223 bore with a 1:14 twist. May have originally been a .22.

I've had it a while but not done much work with it yet, aside from replacing the original front sight with a green FO. However accuracy has been so-so. I just got a Sinclair neck-turning tool and am going to get her out to the range again when the weather improves. I have some 40 & 45 gr. .223 Sierra Hornet bullets, and H110, 2400 & Lil'Gun.

Once I find how she likes to be treated I'll try and come up with a no-gunsmithing scope mount that fits in the rear sight base (minus the actual sight), to accomodate an EER scope. I figure a piece of .22 dovetail base could be milled down to fit, using the spring screw hole and the rear sight cross-pin to secure it.

Stuart

I have the best luck with lighter bullet and back off the powder charge slightly as the brass will last longer.

I'm in the Lil'Gun camp. I have a 77/22 K Hornet and a colett die so I neck size only after fire forming.

+1, and I add a slooowwwww powder (1680) to that mix, I don't think it makes much pressure at all. Still using my original cases with my CZ, and no adverse pressure signs at all. I don't think I could get enough 1680 into the case to cause problems. I have other rifles for "going fast".

Yep, both 1680 and Li'l Gun qualify as slow powders in the Hornet, and produce less pressure than traditional powders for longer brass life.

I found a couple pounds of lil gun, 350 rounds of prvi factory loads from which to extract brass and some 40 Vmaxs so am on my way.

My youngest daughter and my business partners' daughter have discovered they really love to shoot and burned about 500 .22 LRs through my daughter's new pink 10-22 and one of my K22s at the range the other afternoon. Given my stash of .22 LR ammo cant hold up to that volume for long, Hopefully they can prove useful in "harvesting" the prvi brass by using the low wall on the 200 yard gong. The prvis shoot OK, but in every group put four in about 1.5" and throw on off a couple of inches and have a fairly rainbow trajectory.

Once I can get to the brass will start experimenting. Really fun little rifle to shoot. Don't know why I waited so long to buy one.

Does it get close to Lil' Gun velocities?

Close, but not quite. 1680 is slower-burning than Li'l Gun, so you can't get enough in the Hornet case behind a 40-grain bullet. But it does get decent velocities (around 2800 with a 40) at lower pressures than faster Hornet powders.

John, any idea how low a charge of 1680 one could/should start at, specifically for .22RF Mag performance with the Hornet? I stumbled onto a pound of the stuff and want to include it in my cast bullet experiments. I wonder if I may need to switch back to SR primers too since it is so slow burning, relatively speaking. (Thinking not, but it pays to ask sometimes.)

I haven't tried 1680 in smaller than full-case charges in the Hornet, so dunno. My guess is it would work, since probably around 10 grains would result in .22 Magnum velocities with 40's, but have no idea on primer choice. Probably the thing to do is try both rifle and pistol primers and see which shoots best!

I finally found some brass. Loaded 12.7 grains Lil Gun (prvi brass wouldn't hold 13 without some work to keep from spilling), federal 205 and 40-grain VMax. Shooting 5 in about 3/4" at 2800 fps from my Browning Low Wall. I was looking in an older Hodgdon Annual Manual and it showed the 13-grain load to be 28,000 CUP, so should be mild pressure. great round.

Mule Deer,
Ever tried Alliant Power Pro 300-MP? Heard good things about it but we don't get it.

One thing I'm trying with my Hornet is I've moved to a Wilson in-line bullet seater and treating the case like a little benchrest job.
Cheers...
Con

Con,

No, I haven't tried PP 300, and I should, because I have some on hand. But I often don't have time to try everything until some assignment comes along.

A few years ago I bought a new (not older and used) .22 Hornet Lee Loader, which is the more "affordable" version of the Wilson neck sizer and seater. Sorted a few cases to get uniform neck-thickness, then loaded them with the Lee Loader and got the smallest groups I've yet seen out of the No. 1B. They averaged under 1/2" for 5 shots (not 3) at 100 yards, and if I recall correctly the best group had 4 shots in less than .2".

Of course, among the other "tricks" I used when shooting those groups were removing every tiny bit of parallax from he scope, and putting out a couple of wind flags.