It's hard to verbalize. I've owned about half of the .22CF's under the sun, or so it seems, and I keep coming back to the Hornet. Were it me, I would try a Hornet and see for myself- the frugality of the round and its quietness while filling the niche between .22RF and .223 are but a couple reasons. That is admittedly a moot point if one has the capability to download the .223 to Hornet levels of course.
I no longer feel the need to whack varmints at 2-400 yards. The occasional groundhog in the middle of a pasture is fair game for the Hornet, but truth be told mine gets more of a workout in the squirrel woods than anywhere else. With cast bullets at 1800-1900 fps or so it extends my range on squirrels farther than I'm comfy doing with a .22LR.
Going smaller is one way for an older guy (who is experiencing some angst about where his looniness should lead) to assuage his newfound good sense and feed his quest for something new at the same time. (Spoken as a 64 year old who is going through much the same introspection.
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