Here's the quote from Ross's original Handloader article on the 45-grain Nosler SB:
"My favorite all-around Hornet bullet is the last surviving, old-fashioned Nosler Solid Base. This is the 45-grain Hornet with a standard lead tip instead of the plastic nose. It is usually very accurate, quite violent on impact but with enough integrity to plow through plenty of coyote or even the skulls of larger beasts."
This is no doubt true, though I have had different results from some other bullets that Ross reviewed, in other calibers. But I have rarely envisioned the .22 Hornet as an all-around cartridge--unless perhaps as originally designed by Whelen and others as a military survival cartridge. While I did take one deer with the Hornet, using my first Hornet (a T/C Contender Carbine), a whitetail doe with a typical broadside rib shot, I used a 60-grain Nosler Partition, which shot into an inch or so through the 1-12 twist. (This is not the standard Hornet twist-rate, either in older rifles or newer. But I suspect T/C used one of their standard 1-12 twist barrels for the .223--and the 60 Partition was originally designed for the .223 with the then-standard 1-12 twist.)
But despite this, I have always found the Hornet much more useful as a smaller-varmint round--though with slower-velocity cast- and jacketed bulleted loads, where it can duplicate the .22 Long Rifle and .22 Winchester Rimfire Magnum, and works just as well on edible game. But for the job the Hornet became most popular for--varmints up to around 10 pounds--it works best with 40-grain plastic-tips at around 3000 fps. In fact those turn it into a very effective prairie dog round out to 250-300 yards, though it has also worked as far as over 400 on calmer days.
I suspect another reason Ross liked the 45 Solid-Base was that the ogive could be seated to touch the lands, even in repeating rifles with the typical short Hornet magazine. This can definitely help short-range (100-yard) accuracy, but as I stated the low BC of the bullet (or any other blunt Hornet bullet in the 45-grain range) does not result in finer accuracy at longer ranges, because they're so wind-sensitive. And yes, I know this from considerable personal experience.
I learned a lot about handloading the .22 Hornet from Ross's writing, but have continued to experiment with the little round using today's wider range of available bullets and powders.
