Thanks for all the feedback. My primary use for this will be woodchucks as the weather warms up. I'll be hunting the edges of farm fields and some of these critters burrow under the barns and are pretty close to houses and livestock. These conditions I feel are better suited to the Hornet versus the 22/250 or some of the other typical centerfire varmint cartridges that live in the safe.
I'll be going west for prairie dogs this summer and thought the Hornet would be a good 200 yard rig.
Have to (again) agree with Mule Deer on this one. I shoot hogs up in PA every year and for years, I used the standard factory Winchester 45gr ammo. One day I picked up a box of the Hornady 35gr platic tipped stuff and the effect on the hogs was noticeably more impressive.
Another option, and quite economical while along the same lines, are the 34gr. HPs sold by Midsouth (Varmint Nightmare Extremes, or something silly like that), I use them sitting on top of 1680 in my CZ Hornet. While they are "whiffle bullets" and certainly for short-range use only, they are also very inexpensive and work fine on groundhogs within 150-200 yards. Midway sells the same bullet as their "Dogtown" bullets, they're made by Nosler, IIRC. If you really don't need the range, they are a wonderful alternative, and last time I looked, were under a dime apiece from Midsouth (Midway is prouder of them than Midsouth, I guess). I use a caseful of 1680 and Remington 6.5 primers, and I've been using WW cases.
