I favor the .22 Hornet for such work. Using a 55 grain Lee Bator cast bullet (actual weight with gas check 52 grains, cast from cheap or free wheel weights, sized .226), 2gr. Bullseye= 1080fps, 2.6gr. PB= 1200fps, and 6gr. 2400= 1600+fps. As per others results, the most expensive component is the primer (CCI small pistol) but whereas others opt out of using gas checks I do use them which increases the per shot cost another 2.5 cents. But, I haven't had to buy lead in years so that balances things out. I'm blessed with a superb 26" barrel on a (German) single shot, with a gain twist that ends in 1-9" near as I can tell, but with a large throat hence the large diameter bullet. It will shoot the low velocity loads into an average of an inch at 50 yards, 10 shots, which is ok but not great. Where it really shines is with the 2400 load which provides groups nearly half as big. Not really .22LR performance, rather more on the order of a .22RF Magnum. All in all I'm quite happy with the Hornet and cast bullets for cheapness, accuracy, and squirrel killing ability.
Accuracy with the Lyman 45 grain 225438 isn't as good, for me. Accuracy with a 60 grain RCBS mold is good but not quite like the Bator. The 52 grainers seem to fall into a sweet spot for my rifle.
I laid in several hundred new cases for this rifle. So far I'm still working on the first hundred, and the rest are getting dusty on the shelf. Without going back through my log and adding them up, I think each case has been fired around 20 times each and still going strong with only a couple failures due to operator error at the loading bench.
That said, I've often pondered the viability of dramatically shortening the Hornet case into something like the .22 Squirrel, only shorter. Say, something to perfectly contain 2-3 grains Bullseye/Red Dot/Clays, and with a nice long neck per the Hornet to nicely hold long-ish bullets. I like a heavier .22 bullet for added wind cheating ability when shooting at what passes for long range with such rigs. A barrel twisted faster than the standard Hornet 1-14 or 1-16 would be wanted for it too for dealing with longer bullets. So many ideas, so little time/money!
Last edited by gnoahhh; 05/04/17.
