Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints .22 Hornet

Tell me about the .22 Hornet. Something about this little cartridge has been talking to me lately. Range? Accuracy? Rifles? -al

The Hornet has talked to me, and whispered in my ear at night, for many years. I started out shooting a M70 Winchester, of all things, in that round. Shot it so much, we had to rebarrel it. Sold it for a .222 Remington. I've lately had a yen for a stainless Ruger. Nice lines, weight. Good basics. Disappointing accuracy-1.5 plus MOA. Folks that have rechambered to K-Hornet report nice sub-MOA groups. Big Stick whispered causually once that he's on the prowl for them. Buy from a disappointed owner cheap, have a good gunsmith rechamber to either K, or standard, Hornet; and presto the ideal light sweetheart. Then resell at top dollar, etc. He hasn't said it in print, but I suspect that's one of the things he's been up to lately. It will take care of all your varmiting chores to at least 150 yds. A little further if the wind is absent. Has an excellent rep around the world on lots bigger critters in the hands of a cool, competent shot. See the .22 Centerfire on Big Game posts. Remington, and Winchester, still make their excellent HP bullets, and ammo. This is the bullet that I found works well on stuff you want to eat, or is a little out of the standard varmit class for this round. It's a tougher bullet than your standard .22 varmit bullet. Have fun, E

As long as the Hornet owner understands the practical limitations of the cartridge from the gitgo, I can't imagine him being disappointed. It is known for it's inherent accuracy potential in a good rifle, and there are many out there, in all price categories. Range is roughly 175 to maybe a hair over 200 yards for varminting. I would look into the K-Hornet if you reload, or the .218 Bee. (Just a little more zip, and better case life.) All are just so pleasant, charming and useful.

There was an excellent 2 part article on the Hornet in Rifle magazine, about 6 months ago more or less. I would recommend it as required reading. If you are serious, email me and I will go look up the issues.<P>For a while, I had an itch at both ends bought several Hornets and .45/70s. Both are neat rounds to play or hunt with, with very minimal recoil for what they do.<P>All of the above posts were accurate and to the point, almost everyone agrees that the K-hornet has better intrinsic accuracy than the Hornet. Although I have never chambered for one.....YET, LOL.<P>If money is no object get one of the Anschutz 1730's, absolutely top notch, but quality costs. If you scrounge around gun shows, you might find a Sako 78(?, not positive of model #) in .22 Hornet, they are usually good rifles if you can buy them right, which, to me, is around $500 to $550. I am not sure, don't think they do, off the top of my head, but if CZ makes a .22 hornet it will be a bargain.<BR>And the Ruger is a decent gun for the money, but you will have to replace the trigger, they are horrible from the factory.<P>Most of the single shots, such as the Ruger and Browning, TEND, not written in stone, to be a little tougher to get to a decent level of accuracy than the equivalent bolt actions. TCs often shoot well. But most can be coaxed into less than a MOA with a little work. Realistically, if you can get 3/4 MOA out of any hornet then you have a very fine gun, and are pushing the limits of the round. And that is very adequate for the ranges it can work at.

E-mail me and I will send you a write up I did several years ago about loading and shooting 22 hornet. It may well be my favorite round.<BR>rcfairingjuno.com<P>------------------<BR>In HIS Service<BR>Scott F

Thanks for the input. Sounds like something I must have. I'll ask again later for the reading material after I get one. A Contender would be fun? -al

A Contender is fun in any caliber. You may have to wait a while for a new on as they are not making them right now. The new model is supposed to be ready in the spring of 2001 but last I saw they don't even have a picture of one yet. <P>I have shot the hornet in both pistol and rifle configuration in a TC and both were a lot of fun.<P>------------------<BR>In HIS Service<BR>Scott F

Ellie Mae,<BR>You will find the Hornet to be a nice little round, if you follow all the precision reloading rules to the letter. It is important to keep the cases trimmed and it helps to uniform the flash holes and also the primer pockets. The advent of Lil Gun powder from Hogdgon has made the Hornet much easier to load for. 13 Grains of LiL Gun and a CCI 400 or Remington 6 1/2 , or Win Small Rifle primer is a good load for all 3 of my Hornets. Although the general rule to reduce the max load and work up should be adhered to.<BR> Using the 40 grain Nosler BT will get you an additional 150 to 180 fps at 100 yards or around 2150 fps. So, it is a viable 200 yard small game round. The BT has a superior BC to the other light bullets that I am aware of.<BR> My Browning Low Wall shoots 40, 45 and 50 grain bullets to about .6 to .7 inch groups at 100 yards day after day and last <BR>saturday it shot a 2.2 inch group at 200 yards.<BR> Mind your reloading manners and the Hornet will serve as your low recoil and low report workhorse. Enjoy and don't mind the naysayers about poor accuracy. Go the K-Hornet route and it might just get better. A-Frame and Rocky appear to be the Web Hornet Gurus.<BR>Just my 2 cents.

I love the Hornet. I have a New England Handi-Rifle chambered for the Hornet (cost $199). It really likes the 35 grain V-Max by Hornady and consistently shoots under a surprising 1" group at 100 yards. The rifle certainly isn't as pretty as the rifles displayed by Varmint Al, but it gets the job done.

The hornet may whisper sweet nothings in your ear, but when you get to the loading bench you'll get your fingers pinched and maybe even have the tips cut off. Half the shoulders will collapse cause the expander ball will be for .223 bullets while your rifle needs .224s. Then you'll discover you can't hot rod it and get decent case life. I changed to a .221 Fireball, it don't make any more noise and shoots a heavier bullet at an honest 3000 fps. The only thing the Hornet is good for is staying inside 'yotes when you use bullets designed for the .220 Swift, they mushroom and don't exit messing up the pelt. Since the pelts don't have any value now, why bother. [img]images/icons/tongue.gif" border="0[/img]

Slamfire, You have a fine round with the Fireball. I will one day have one myself. But, I think your bad luck with the Hornet doesn't make it bad for the rest of us. I have had no bad luck and it is quieter in my ears than a Fireball by a good margin, although the Fireball eats it up in performance. The Hornet is still a good 200 yard round with the new powder and good for the short range stuff as well. I sure wish I could afford a new Fireball. Do you have any idea if a Low Wall Hornet could be converted to a Fireball.<BR>Good shootin'<BR>Greg Harrison

I've had two or three Hornets in T/C pistols and carbines, a Kimber M82 Hornet sporter and a M82 Hornet in the heavy varmint barrel, and a Kimber M82 in K-Hornet. Then I got a 21" Fox Ridge bull barrel in .221 Fireball for my T/C Carbine and forgot all about the Hornet.<P>Nothing against the Hornet. But the Fireball is what the Hornet should be. You can get a Hornet to shoot and some shoot pretty good, but pretty good for a Hornet is usually (in my experience) 3/4" on a really good, windless day. And you often have to try several loads to get it. Maybe it was that one Fox Ridge barrel, but my Fireball shot all kinds of loads sub-moa. The Fireball has all the attributes of the Hornet, quiet, nice 150-175 yard varminter, in a short and fat case that is easy to load and willing to please when it comes to accuracy.<P>Wonder why the Hornet is still around and Fireballs are scarce as hen's teeth? The vagaries of the American shooter, I guess. Oh well.

My last post did not really answer the first post�s question.<P>The nice things about the Hornet are:<BR>Small appetite. A little powder goes a long way.<BR>Very low recoil.<BR>�Fairly� quiet report, although I�d still recommend hearing protection.<BR>Adequate accuracy for it�s range. I.e., �� is about the best any of mine would do, and most often closer to or slightly above an inch, especially if there was a wind. But the effective range is only going to be about 150, maybe 200 yards at most, so that is plenty accurate enough.<P>Mine made the perfect ground squirrel rifle. These little beggars only offer a target maybe 2� wide and maybe 4-5� high at best when they are standing. Mostly they are on all fours and moving every few seconds. On all fours they offer a target maybe 2 to 2 �� inches high. Even with a super accurate rifle, you can�t hit them consistently much beyond 150 yards. If there is any wind the bullets will be blown way off course <P>I sighted my Hornet dead on at 125 yards, this gave it a mid-range trajectory of only ��. Basically, I used it like a laser beam out to 125 yards. Just aim dead on, no holdover to worry about. With a decent 45 grain spitzer at a MV of 2700 fps it would blow�em up almost as good as a 22-250. <P>I used to live in Upstate New York right on the edge of a small town. My next door neighbor was lterally next door, across the driveway. Behind my house, though, my property was 20 acres with an 8 acre hay field against the side of a hill, maybe 200 yards across at the widest point, with a small patch of woods on the other side. I used to stalk the woodchucks in the hayfield from the woods using the hill as a backstop. Get up to anywhere from 50-100 yards away and let�em have it with the Hornet. The sound was not so loud to bother the neighbors and at that range it killed the chucks as dead as anything else. <P>Good little round. Keep it at 2700 fps or so, don�t try to hotrod it. That�s what .22-250�s and .220 Swifts�s are for. Use it within it�s capabilities and it works just great.<P>And like I said before, a .221 Fireball does all this even better.

I too love the Hornet. I shot several belonging to friends before my first, a late model Winchester M54. I scoped it with a Lyman Super Targetspot (20x) with a 1/4 minute dot. Accuracy nears 1/2 inch, even with the old guns so so bore. It'll do 1-1.5 inch groups with a Lyman receiver sight installed. The second was a Kimber M82. Groups were doing fine with the Leupold 6X when the rear bedding collapsed between the rear action screw and the safety. Groups then became patterns and I haven't yet gotten around to fixing the little thing. After working on several Ruger 77/22 hornets (the blue steel ones) I decided I really didn't need any of that. Had one that the patch seemed to loose contact with the bore 3 times in it's short travel. I never got the accuracy needed and finally gave up. I have heard the problems were with the barrels and the new production rifles are fine.. but I have no experience. My third Hornet is a M527 FS by CZ (used to be BRNO). This is a fullstock box magazine feed sweetheart. .75 inch groups from the box with factory Remingtons. They also produce this rifle in a sporter configuration but the Mannlicher just somehow seems right for this cartridge. I have Bee's, Fireballs, 222's.223's.22-250's, etc. Larger rounds are faster, they can kill at longer ranges and against coyote sized animals at longish ranges they are much better. But to me the Hornet is much like the 30-30, there may be 'better' rounds but it stays here when some of the better rounds fade because it's friendly. Brass life is miserable, the cases are the thickness of a 22 Longrifle. They die young. But they are fairly cheap and they are easily resized and reloaded. Avoid trying to hot rod this round, if you do you will be sorry!!! Load carefully, small cases react quickly to minute powder weight changes. With light bullets it'll kill cleanly to 175 yards or so and you can get over 600 rounds per pound of powder. The real reason it stays is that it's one of the most fun cartridges to shoot I know of... I prefer the CZ over any other(except perhaps a nice M43 Winchester) and find the 35 gr bullets just the ticket...have a great time the gunnut69

My first real centerfire rifle was a new 22 Hornet Savage 340, I was seven. I killed my first Sitka Black tail at age eight with that little rifle. Now 41 years later I still have that hornet while may other rifles have come and gone. I currently own 3 hornets four if you count two Contender barrels. Reloading the hornet is just a little difficult but not overly so. All my hornets shoot v-max 35 gr bullets very well. Case life is a little short so take care and shoot less than max loads, clean cases mechanically, chemicals and polishes eat away at the very thin brass. The hornet is not a 223 or 22-250 so don't expect those kind of performances. It is a lot better than a 22mag.I use my Ruger #3 on coyotes out to about 150 yards, it provides good kills. As far as deer sized game... may be those little Sitka Blacktail but nothing bigger unless you are very competent in your shooting ability or very lucky or both.<BR>The hornet is just a great little round. It belongs up there in the company with the 45/70, 30/06 for one of the all time best rounds. <P>Bullwnkl.

I'll be the first to admit that my ability to do small things doesn't rank up there with those of a microsurgeon. I'm more than satisfied with my choice it fits my needs better than the .22 Hornet. I used a #3 Ruger for a long time hunting coyotes for pelts. It gave me good service, but I was unhappy with the case life, even when I got hold of some military brass. If you want to use it feel free, I won't try to stop you or to denigrate your choice. I like the .221 Fireball better. I think if you ever get around to trying one you'll like it better too. It's like the .307 Winchester what every .30-30 wishes it could be. [img]images/icons/laugh.gif" border="0[/img]<BR>As for converting from the hornet to the fireball, you'll have to set the barrel back, or end up with a too long throat. But the real question is will your low wall extract rimless cases. Better, I think to just set the barrel back on an old .222 like I did. There are a lot of old Remington 721s available for the conversion. Maybe some one will be willing to part with his.<BR> [img]images/icons/crazy.gif" border="0[/img] [img]images/icons/crazy.gif" border="0[/img]

Slamfire:<BR>I don't aruge that the 221 is not a better choice but the hornet I believe has other virtues. The 221 died because there was nothing it did that a 222 wouldn't do better. I a pistol barrel the 222 or 223 is very difficult to beat. The hornet goes on and on because it is some much gentler that even a 221 and yet more powerful than a 22WMR. The quite excellant 222 is slowly loosing out to the 223 because it's the current military round, ane the ballistically superior 222 mag is all but extinct even though it provides a ballistic advantage over the 223. Buy the way you were speaking of the 722 in 222 not a 721(the long action) to cut off and rechamber. Why bother, the 222 is disticntly superior to the 221 and brass is easily obtainable... I believe that anything that gets good people into the shooting game is a good thing... Good luck with fireball, I was interested in 1 when they were available in the kimber, alas I waited a bit too long and they're really out of my price range now....good luck from the gunnut69

Because it's such a teeny-weeny case, loads for the Hornet sometimes work better with Small Pistol primers. After all, rifle primers are formulated to fire-off MUCH bigger gobs of powder, which are often also slower to ignite than the faster powders that the Hornet favors.<P>Also, when you start low and work up, work up in 1/10-grain or 2/10-grain increments, not full 1-grain increments. A tenth of a grain in the Hornet case (gross capacity only about 14 grains of water, full) is almost exactly the same percentage of load increase or decrease as ONE grain in the .460 Weatherby Magnum case (about 138 grains of water, full) or about the same as HALF a grain in the .30-06 case (about 69 grains of water, full).<P>Increasing Hornet loads a full grain at a time can get you deep into the sticky 'n' stinky right quick.

I own the 22 Hornet in the CZ and it shoots very well. My first 22 hornet was the Ruger 77/22 and is was the worst shooting rifle I have ever owned. The two piece bolt is the major flaw in that rifle, and I sold it. The 22 Hornet is a real sleeper with good range out to 175 yards. With quality handloads you can tune the 22 Hornet to shoot very well. Don't overlook the Browning rifle in the 22 hornet, they are one of the finest rifles made in the 22 Hornet cartridge. I know of only three factory rifle makers chambering for the 22 Hornet. Browning, CZ-USA, Ruger.
<br> Ruger is last on my list of factory rifles to buy these days no matter what cartrigde it is chambered for. Rugers rifle quality has dropped to very poor over the last five years.

I love my Ruger 77/22 in 22 Hornet. Had trouble at first 6 in groups at 100 yds. but after bedding the action and a trigger job and shortening one screw that was too long to tighten down I now get 3/4 in groups at 100 yards. It is a great inexpensive gun if you are willing to work at brining it to perfection, and to me that is half the fun.