Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Ross Seyfried on the 22 Hornet

Enjoyed his article that showed up in my email today from Wolfe publishing. Was that an older article that got recycled or is Ross back?


41

I learned to use magnum primers in my Hornet from his original article many years ago. Not sure what you were sent.

He explained the difficulties one will find in reloading for the 22 Hornet & he definitely mentioned experimenting with different primers.

Article title


.22 Hornet
Top Loads for the Littlest .22 Centerfire
By: Ross Seyfried | June, 22

That is an excellent article. I still have that magazine. And the one he published on the .17 Remington.

In my opinion, he was about the greatest gunwriter this country has ever seen. Somehow he found time to become an IPSC World Champion and an African guide along the way.

With LilGun, sure. With H110, 2400, and 4227, standard SP. Always am amazed when another Hornet article shows up and they ignore the proven practices of the past and try to make one primer do it all. Tiny case, tiny charge of easy-to-light powder- tiny primer.

The Seyfried articles on the Hornet got me off to the right start, JB finished the job by figgering out the best magnum primer for Lil Gun, the CCI 450.

I am lost on why one would not use LilGun in the Hornet. JB was late...

He truly is a master of all disciplines. Yes he's easily the best this country has produced, even more so than my great uncle Elmer.

If you mean Elmer Keith, Ross isn’t a pimple on Elmer’s butt…

Lil Gun is great, but H110 shades it a bit for accuracy in my rifle with 40gr VMaxes, and other powders have their place too, in mid-range loads for example, or rimfire-equivalent.

Then there’s that old problem of availability. Was down to my last jug of LG until recently. H110 has been easier to find. The primers one has on hand might dictate powder choice too in this age of dearth.

That might be going a bit far, but he certainly has been entertaining and helpful.

Ross is not back with Wolfe. It's a reprint of his original .22 Hornet article--which first appeared around 20 years ago.

The only magazine that I know of which Ross writes for anymore is THE DOUBLE GUN AND SINGLE-SHOT JOURNAL.

Might also mention that Li'l Gun is not the only good modern powder for the Hornet. Alliant Power Pro 300-MP also works well in the same slot, though it's slightly slower burning than LG. CFEBLK is slightly slower then 300-MP, but works well in the K-Hornet and 17 Hornet. But those powders (and Hornady's .17 Hornet) came along after Ross published his initial Hornet article. Would strongly suspect he's used them since...

I read about folks having trouble with the 22H reloading. I can't say that I've loaded a bunch but did keep a Sav 23 and a 219 killing stuff and never found it to be overly hard to load for. 2400, 4227 and Lilgun(after the turn of the millennium) and surprisingly the 46gr Win HP shot tiny groups. I'd buy that bullet a "K" at a time. I kept a little Lyman turret press just set up for the "Bugs" (Hornet and Bee). I used the 218 Bee FL die as a neck sizer for the Hornet.

I bought a bag of those Winchester bullets and one of the very similar Remingtons, about $6.99 a hundred IIRC, probably off the Grafs’s clearance paper they used to mail out. That’s where I also found $7.99 Nosler 150gr .308 Partition Golds (50). Still have the .22s as I found VMaxes about the same time.

I do like the Speer 46gr FPs for light loads, but have yet to stick anything with one.

myself i just use my 22 K-Hornets for critter kill`n , when i reload i just use the Hornady reloading book 11 grs. H110 , 35 gr. V-Max , standard small primers ,now mostly used cases that have been fired to form a K-Hornet case then with my Redding full length die resized. i only have 1x6 tactical Burris scope on a Ruger rifle with a reworked 3lb.trigger . rifle will shoot a inch at 100 yds. when i shoot it on a bench but my son with 30 year old eyes does better . most of my critter kill`n is 40-60 yds. and that rifle is very accurate and would hit a dime then at 50 yds. because i have it dead on at 50 yds. now days i never shoot more than 100 rounds 22 K-Hornet ammo but 90 % of those 100 rds. kills critters dead ! the K-Hornet is a very neat little cartridge that really does alot with 11 grs. of powder , the K-Hornet humbles me for how well it kills critters with no recoil and so cheap to shoot ! i was planning a trip for out west to shoot prairie dogs but now with the high gas prices my K-Hornets and other rifles, son and i won`t be going dang it !

Did Elmer ever write anything besides white man need bigger bullet to kill coyotes? 270 not big enough bullet to small. No less than 500 grains will do. Big fat heavy bullet mo better!! Aaaarrgghhh..

Elmer forgot more than most will ever know.

A dwarf standing on the shoulders of giants. Entertaining none the less.

As the villagers light torches and grab pitchforks.

Ha I was just giving Shrap a hard time.
Elmer’s good I always liked 44 Mag.
All joking aside I don’t think I’ve ever read any of Elmer’s stuff or very little.

There was a time in our world before the internet, computers, even TV when bullets weren't as reliable as they are today. Back when the 243 was introduced bullet reliably was so so. I had some 100gr bullets pencil through and 80's not penetrate and gave up on shooting little bullets at deer. Big heavies were ALWAYS reliable, 180gr RN's in the 300 Sav and 308 and 220's in the 06, I never had a failure. The smallest cartridge I'd deer hunt with was one of the .25's with 100gr Partitions or 117 RN's but those .257 bullets had 50+ years of development over the .243/6mm's in this country.