Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles 22 hornet ?

Got a single shot h&r on the way for my 4 year old son. I am a reloader but have no experience loading for this size Round. Anyone have some tips or bullet suggestions for pigs?

Necks are thin, be careful. I either use a Lee FCD or only resize about 1/2 of the neck with with normal FL dies. 13 gr of Lil Gun or about 10 gr of H110 usually seems to work well. Fitting that much Lil Gun in that tiny case can be challenging.

Almost all bullets for the Hornet are really fragile, are you going to teach him to ear shoot them?

Oh, and Gunner uses 45 gr TSX, claims it works great, it would surely hold together better than anything else I can think of.

Otherwise the various 40 gr plastic tipped bullets are best for varmints.

All I ever load is 13 grains of Lil Gun and a 40 grain Ballistic Tip or Vmax, just like Son of the Gael posted.

If I was looking for something a tad harder, but not quite as much as a copper solid, I'd load the old Sierra 40 grain HP. According to their literature, it is intended for the faster 22's and may be a little too hard to expand at hornet velocities.

I'd expect that they were forecasting a lack of expansion on small varmint like creatures though, and not walking bacon.

Depending on the brand of brass, you might not get 13 grains of Lil Gun in the case. My WW cases only hold about 12.5 or 12.6 grains. Most Hornet brass is destroyed by oversizing. Partial sizing or neck sizing is the answer to long life. Bullets with a slight bevel base or boat tail will seat without mangling the neck. It has been a long time since I crushed the neck on a Hornet case.

Since the rifle is a single shot, you can seat the bullet where it needs to be. Lots of Hornet mags require BTs and VMaxes to be seated deep to fit the mag.

Yeah, necks aren thin. If your not careful you'll crush a few cases when you seat bullets. Champfer inside mouth more than normal and try to use boat tail bullets, helps a lot to keep from crushing cases. Lil' gun is great powder for the Hornet. 45 gr. core-lokt should work good for pigs, 40 gr. v-max or ballistip tip for varmints.

At someone's suggestion here I purchased a Lyman M Die for use with flat based bullets. My Hornet just doesn't seem to like boattails.

Yes.

WW cases
45 gr TSX's
14 gr lil-gun [drop tubed in]
CCI-450 primer
c.o.l. 1.875" [bullets seated in two separate stages]
velocity 2922 fps from 24" barreled M-70

IIRC my rifle is a 14 or 16 twist, this bullet stabilizes just fine so loaded.

Busted a coyote in the chest at 88 yards, bullet exited 2" off center bunghole , have read this combo will work for deer, should do a pig in too without much fuss.

I've loaded some of those Barnes 45 grain X Bullets to 22 Hornet speeds in 223s for some young kids that used them hunting blacktail deer with success...antelope sized critters but the Barnes easily put the skids on them according to the kids dads...

And H&R in a 22 Hornet would be a cool little rifle...great truck gun...

Did you say 4 year old? Thank god your not in my state.Muddy

Keep in mind just neck sizing may not work all the time in a break action you may have to FL size from time to time

Actually the 40 Sierra HP works very similar to the polymer tipped stuff in the Bee and Hornet. The 45 SP Varminter (Sierra) however is a harder bullet and would be a good choice for a tougher-acting bullet without stepping into mono territory.

Muddy yes he is 4 and a show dog couldnt jump the pile of 22 ammo he burned this summer. For those who made intelligent comments thanks for the info and I'll post some grip and grin pics soon as we get everything lined up.

Would a 55 grain ballistic tip be on the heavy side for the hornet?

The hornet works best if you neck size about 1/4 inch of the neck. It will work with a break action, I have some cases fired more than twenty time in a contender. Lil gun and AA 1680 are the two best powders I have used. Small pistol primers work best. 35 to 45 grain bullets work best for me, all my hornets have loved V-Max bullets.

Johnt, As a certified RSO there is no way I would let ANY 4 year old shoot on our NRA funded range no matter how many rounds of ammo you say he has shot. BTW the Hornet posts are pretty much right on, hope you find some brass, GO HAWKS.-Muddy

Good thing the whole world is not vanilla huh....would make for a pretty boring life. Got 800 projectiles ranging from 32 grain to 55 grain on the way. Dies powder and brass will be incoming soon. May buy a case of winchester soft point ammo if brass becomes hard to find. My local store has a pile of winchester ammo.

Can you give a reasonable explantion to why you would not let a kid shoot a gun. Bet my 4YO is glad you he don't have to go to your range.

My Ruger Really like 13 gr. LIL Gun and 40 gr. Nosler Varmagedon bullets. Best combo I've found.

I've had no problems stabilizing 55gr spitzers, boattails, and tipped bullets at Hornet velocity in a 1:14.

wanted to let u guys know grafs has some priv brass showing in stock
http://www.grafs.com/catalog/product/productId/12629/inline/1

Thanks for the heads up.

Too bad my low wall won't chamber those, rims too thick-Muddy

Got some
Thanks

Gotta love range nazi's

I've never seen a properly trained and supervised child be a hazard at a range, but I have seen some adults that should not be handling firearms. Was it a 4 y/o that had to fiddle with his scope while everyone was down range checking their targets? Nope, it was a-dolt. Was it a 4 y/o that put a cocked and loaded pistol on the bench during a cease fire? Nope, it was a-dolt.

My experiences with close calls at ranges were all a result of sub-12 year olds nutzing around. When called out, their adult whatever's blustered about how responsible the kid was, how well trained, blah, blah, blah. Happened three times at my old home range, three different kids, three different proud papas. One, the scariest, was the eight year old who reloaded his dad's M-1 carbine mag while we were all down range hanging targets, then thought he would do Pop a favor by saving him the trouble of pushing it into the gun and chambering a round. Of course, it went off accidentally- scaring the crap out of us. Theretofore, the old man had been bragging about how well trained Sonny Boy was. We bid them both a fond farewell, post haste. Do little kids at a range make me nervous? Yep. Do little kids lugging a loaded rifle almost as tall as they are in the crowded deer woods make me nervous? Yep. In 50 years of shooting/hunting I can't tell you how many proud Papas I've encountered who couldn't wait a couple years for a bit more maturity to season their kids before starting them out. In a hurry to start making memories? Chill out, there's plenty of time and you might well prevent a horrible accident...

I've run into more range trouble with adults than any children.

Children mature at differing rates. Some are ready, some are not. Properly supervised, I see no problem interesting children early, hopefully before they become enamored in everything else vying for their attention. Since many areas allow no shooting except at ranges, we need to figure out how to accommodate the younger shooter.

As noted above, Hornet brass is thin. Cases don't last long. I get best results using a Lee collet neck size die. With fire-formed neck sized brass, I am able to get 13.2 grains of Lil Gun into cases with the powder level about 1/8" below the mouth of the case. I use 40 grain plastic point bullets with that load. Remington cases are a bit bigger, and I can get 13.5 grains into a fire-formed case.

I have cases I have reloaded and shot well over twenty times. Never a problem with case life after I started using a bushing die and sizing about a 1/4" of the neck.

So muddy/mr. sro......where did johnt_ms ever say he was gonna bring his son to your range, whatever state you're in, or any range? The kid probably spends a lot of time with a rifle.