Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters MD and other .22 Hornet Fans--Educate Me

I have been sitting on a Ruger 1A .22 Hornet for over a year and finally have gotten the time to start playing with this rifle. I have followed various threads in the past and thought I had a handle on where to start but I seem to have lost a lot of my reference material since then.

This is my first time messing with this cartridge or any rifle cartridge this small. I am hoping to shorten my learning curve on which dies I should be looking to and what steps I should include or avoid in the handloading process with such small / fragile brass.

I have a BUNCH of Nosler 40gr BTV seconds on hand so that is my planned projectile currently. Is Lil'Gun still the powder of choice? I also have 2400 and H110 on hand.

Sm pistol primers vs Sm rifle primers? I seem to remember this being another area of sway back and forth.

Not looking for 300yd performance on rodents since this will mostly be used for paper punching and small animals of opportunity while woods walking (less than 150yds and probably well inside of that more commonly). Minute of ground squirrel / crow @ 100yds is my goal.

Found success with Redding dies, L'il Gun and SRP. Most any bullet of the Nosler/Sierra/Hornady family 50 gr or less will work.

Ditto. Try some 2400 and maybe some SP primers, they might surprise you. Mind the thin neck walls, pretty easy to get crooked cartridges.

I have owned and reloaded for the Hornet and K-Hornet since the seventies and have to say there is no better time than now to shoot and load for a Hornet. In the old days the powders and bullets seemed to peter out at about 175 yards. The bullets were not very aerodynamic and velocities were considerably lower than today. In the seventies and eighties I used 45 grain Hornady soft points and H110 or IMR 4227 for powders. Today I use Hornady V-Max and Nosler BTs with Lil Gun or A1680. Haven't tried the newer powders that have hit the market in the last couple of years since I am fully stocked with Lil Gun and A1680. I am getting about 3000 fps out of a 20 inch K Hornet Contender barrel. With the longer #1 Barrel you will do better. Some complain of short case life and crushed shoulders in the Hornet, but I rarely have any issues with the tapered base bullets I shoot. Oversizing is probably the main cause of short case life. You might want to look at using a Lee collet neck sizing die. It greatly lengthens case life. I do have to trim my .22 Hornet cases much more than the K Hornet case.

Case life will be an issue no matter how you size them, and load mildly to help some. Worth it to get it reamed to K hornet.

Mule Deer clued me in to Lil Gun and CCI Small Rifle Magnum primers. 3000 FPS with the Hornady or Sierra 40 grain pills.

I haven't had to trim K-Hornet cases even once since I got the barrel. Would love to have a #1 and get it K'ed.

The load I use in my Browning 1885 is...13 grs of Lil' Gun, 40gr Hornady V-Max, Rem 9 1/2 primer, Lee factory crimp die, seated out just off the lands Neck sizing with Redding die, bullet seater is Forster. Pretty universal load for the Hornet now. In my rifle it's well under an inch at 100yds.

I have a couple .22 Hornets, but never shoot them, a 1930's vintage Savage 19H and a 1980's vintage Savage 24F.

The only .22 Hornet that I wished that I had bought when I had a change to was a minty Anschutz 1433 that could have been mine for around $700. 20/20 hindsight makes that a steal of a deal.

Here's a link to a lot of info on the .22 Hornet and K-Hornet.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/11390994/1

DF

In my TCR83 with 23" barrel I'm getting about 2950 fps with PPU cases, 13 gas of Lil' Gun, 40 gr Nosler BTs, and WSR primers.

Looks like most stuff has been covered already, but will comment that case life when using Li'l Gun (and a really good alternative, Alliant 300-MP) is REALLY good, because they attain top velocities at far lower pressures than traditional Hornet powders like 2400 and H110.

Have also found that the CCI-450 small rifle magnum primer attained the best accuracy in my rifle with 300-MP, along with Li'l Gun. But it's always worthwhile to try at least 3 primers in such small cases. They seem to be more senistive to primer changes than larger cartridges. Might also note that in my .17 Hornady Hornet, the CCI 450 was not the most accurate primer, even though I also use what are very slow-burning powders for it. Instead the Remington 7-1/2 works best.

I've settled on 300-MP and CCI-450's in my .22 K-Hornets.

I've tried a bunch of combos and to me, this is the cream of the crop.

DF

Well, I can see some 300-MP powder in my future.

The best accuracy from my 1885 has been with 11.1gr of H110, 40gr Vmaxes, and either F100M of CCI 500 pistol primers. That said, when I finally tried JB's load of 13.0gr of LiLGun and CCI 450s, it was also very accurate and if you look at the load data, pressures are way down from the ones from H110 and similar powders. The Hornet is one of the rounds that gets top velocity and low pressure from LilGun, like the .357. BTW, those VMaxes are seared way out, about 1.91 IIRC in my rifle. Can't do that with most repeaters.

When the weather breaks I hope to do a real side by side comparison of my load an JB's; same brass, same day, to see which is really the best, but honestly both shoot well enough for any use I have, and 11,000 lbs of additional pressure is a big price to pay for a tenth of an inch or so, even if that turns out to really be the case.

I use Lee Collet dies, and sometimes a Lee Loader for the first sizing. Don't even own a FL die yet.

Those 9 1/2s must be a bear to seat!

Just pickin'😜

Another note: Along with 300-MP, CFEBLK is also a very good powder in the K-Hornet.

One primer of note is the Remington 6.5.

It's a tweener between the small pistol and small rifle when the Hornet and Bees were popular.

your gonna like reloading and shooting your Ruger # 1 in a 22 Hornet ,this cartridge has no recoil at all .i use Federal primers in my Hornets. good luck,Pete53

Pappy348, "Those 9 1/2s must be a bear to seat!" Oops! My bad, Remington 7 1/2"