Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints 22 hornet.....

What are you favorites? I'm kind of leaning towards a CZ set up, but I don't want to cut the Savage, Remington or other lines short.

I am more familiar with CZ rifles, but was kind of wondering bout that 1:16 twist.....

What say you guys?

Nothing beats a heavy old Pre-war model 70...

That dog doesn't know how close he is to death.




Dave

What kind of range do you typically get with that set up Shrapnel?

Some of them rifles are hard to come by.....

I use Lil Gun powder and 40 grain V-Max. I don't know the velocity, don't really care, but it is still flat to 150 yards...

Ok, point taken. I think a little 22 hornet would be great on some local prairie dogs.....

After I got it, I wondered why it took so many years to discover such a great little cartridge. Of course there are dozens of members here that would make claim of 300+ yards with the Hornet, but my experience is real and not fantasized...

I like my Left Hand Browning A-Bolt and use the 40 gr Hornady V-Max with Lil'Gun. I also have the Hornet in the SS Encore with 24 inch barrel.

I'll use my other guns for long range....I'm just looking for mid range thumpering....

Can't argue with results.....nice set up bea175, but I'm not a lefty..

Looks like I'm going to have to round up some lil gun powder. And some more amax bullets....

I got some V-Max...

I have a few boxes of the 35 gr V-Max but have never tried them

If I were wanting to buy a Hornet today I'd be looking for a Ruger #1 and getting a Ruger 77 rebarreled.

I do have two Hornets and have shot tons of rounds through them. But one is a Savage 340 and the other is an H&R Handi-rifle.

Nostalgia aside, I can't recommend such peasant rifles.



Travis

Having owned just about every make of Hornet ever made, I only held on to a couple. An old TC Contender Carbine and the CZ. If limited I would opt for the CZ. They just plain shoot.

Case full of Lil Gun, CCI Small Rifle Mag primer, and a 40 grain Hornady VMax at about 3K fps works very well out to about 200.

My brother had one of the 10" Hornet barrels on his T/C. That had to be the most accurate Hornet I had ever fired. It was just stupid accurate.

T/C made some good schit.



Travis

Yeah, my old TC has killed more crows than West Nile virus ever will but is completely shot out. Wonder if the factory can do a nip and tuck on it?

They're spending all their money on the design and manufacturing of the ugliest rifle on the planet.

You're probably screwed.



Travis

If Shrapnel ever actually sighted his Hornet in on paper instead of empty Coke cans he might be able to hit animals beyond 150 yards.

I've only owned 5 .22 Hornet rifle, three chambered for the regular round and two for K-Hornet, but have shot them considerably in the field. A 40-grain plastic-tip at 3000+ is easily a 250-300 yard varmint round--just as the .222 Remington was considered a 250-300 yard round back when softpoint 50's at the same basic velocity were the standard load. (My personal record with the Hornet is a prairie dog at 427 yards, but must admit that was an "expensive" dog, since several rounds were fired, just to see what might happen. But 1-shot kills at 250-300 are pretty common, if the wind isn't howling.)

I've tried lighter bullets at higher velocities, including the 35-grain V-Max, but their ballistic coefficients suck so bad the 40's outrange them anywhere past 150 yards, and even at 150 drift noticeably less in the wind. If the magazine doesn't allow the use of 40-grain plastic-tips, one of the sleeker 40-grain hollow-points is still noticeably better than any of the lighter bullets. My favorites HP's are the Berger, Calhoon and Nosler Varmageddon.

The most explosive plastic-tipped 40's are the Hornady V-Max, Nosler Tipped Varmageddon and Sierra BlitzKing. They're all thin-jacketed so expand easily, and all are accurate as well. I usually shoot whichever can be purchased for the best price when I restock. They work best in a single-shot, due to the lack of magazine-length restrictions. In my Ruger No. 1B the overall cartridge length is around 1.9", which is too long for most magazines.

Though several powders will work, I prefer using Hodgdon Li'l Gun. The accuracy is usually good, and the velocity is great, but another factor is pressure. Hornet brass is thin, and Li'l Gun load operate at far lower pressure than any other powder in the Hornet, resulting in much longer-lasting brass.

Get a CZ in 221FB.
The Hornet might have nostalgia going for it but that's all.

Biggest POS I ever owned was a Ruger 77/22H.
I liked the rifle a lot and really wanted it to work out so I did everything I could short of rebarreling including a trip to some guy that specializes in accurizing Rugers. $200+ later and it still wouldn't shoot MOA.

I sold it to a Hound hunter who wanted it for shooting treed Cats and haven't owned a Ruger (rifle) or 22H since.

The 221 will do everything a Hornet will and then some and do it with a case design that makes sense.
You can shoot easily shoot 40gr V-Max at 3000fps with a 221 so why mess with that rinky dink rimmed case if you don't have to?

Get a CZ in .17 Fireball--it will do anything the .221 will, but better.

However, I must also point out that the Hornet does 80-90% of what the .221 does, while using only 2/3 as much powder. I know this from shooting a .221 for a number of years. Don't own one anymore.

We can go on and on in this debate, but the OP wanted to know about the .22 Hornet, not everybody's opinion on what might be better. Of course, many Campfire threads never address the original question. Instead the answers are all about the posters, not the question.