Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles 22 Hornet

What are you guys runnig on you Hornets? I am using 45 gr, Sierra and IMR 4227 but am thinking about trying something else. Suggestions?

I'm using H-110, about 10.0 grains in two Hornets because it is the most accurate powder in those rifles, followed closely by Lil-Gun. That same bullet you are using is the most accurate bullet in one of the Hornets, a Ruger 77.
Years ago, my Step Dad got good accuracy in his Hornet with 4227 and the 45 grain Sierra Hornet bullet

H110/W296 can be excellent in the Hornet, but can also be a bit quirky with pressure because it's hard to get good high bullet pull with the ultra-thin Hornet brass. Either 4227 is good and is not as sensitive to bullet pull. AA1680 will allow you to duplicate factory ballistics (2650 fps) with ease.

My personal recipe uses Rem 6 1/2 small rifle primers (NOT 7 1/2), WW brass sized about halfway down the neck, 13.0 of LilGun and a 45-gr bullet held tight with the Lee Factory Crimp. I get 2800 fps and groups just over a half inch all day long.

Mild primers and a crimp seem to work better because they don't unseat the bullet before the powder can light. If I don't have Rem 6 1/2 I use CCI, Rem or Federal small pistol, but not Winchester.

I use the same recipe that RockyRaab uses, but my Ruger 1B with 26" barrel kicks them out at 3000fps. If I can't find the Rem 6 1/2s I have been known to use small pistol primers with similar results.

What Rocky said...that's a great load. In the Hornet, Lil'Gun rules.

Jeff

Just remember that the smaller the round, the more that tiny variations in anything create disproportionately large effects. The main reason the Hornet has a reputation for being "inaccurate" is that reloaders don't pay enough attention to the details when they load for it. Be persnickety and you'll be rewarded.

Great thread and info shared.

What 'significant' changes might occur if ya'll were shooting the Kilbourne-version of the Hornet, a.k.a. the K-Hornet?

Had one. But that was years before LilGun. Today, the regular Hornet with LilGun does what the K version did with other powders. Of course, the K with LilGun is a right little snapper.

The benefits other than a smidge more case capacity, while understandable, are difficult to demonstrate. It is claimed that there is less throat erosion due to changing the angle at which powder particles leave the case. I call that one dubious in a cartridge that NEVER wears out a throat. It is also claimed that the sharper shoulder stops neck growth and splits. But I seldom have to trim Hornet cases, and often get ten firings due to LilGun's low and broad pressure profile.

Today, I doubt if I'd bother to go K.

Rocky,
What are you using this load in? Im using a 77/22 Hornet. You find Lil'Gun give better accuracy than 4227, velocity ,or both? Thanks

Thanks.

Anyone else familiar with the K-Hornet?

What barrel length is optimum with either version?

Gregg and Stubbleduck, mine is a Browning Micro-Medallion with 22" barrel. Sweet.

The K-Hornet will get you 100fps. MAX with the same barrel length. For 40 gr bullets 13 grs. Lil' Gun in R-P cases, you will get 14 in the K. WW cases hold 12.5 without rolling over, but thats it (13.5 in the K). However, I concur with Rocky, a Micro allows you to seat bullets way out there, buying more powder space (most magazine Hornets do not allow this). It is the most undersung, but BEST 22 Hornet out there. There is debate as to barrel diameter (mine is .223), so watch your loads.
Frankly, I would not go past 22 in. in a bolt gun, Ruger N0. 1, maybe. It takes the handiness out of the virtues of the little cartridge.
The K reamer I have makes a short throat, so I agree that it does not get you much.
To get a good bullet pull I simply do not use the expander, using BT bullets and a VLD chamfer. However, seating becomes critical, so start them centered.
I currently have 2 Hornets and one K. The K is used the least.
Favorite loads are 13 grs. Lil'Gun and 40gr. V-Max, BK, or BT (12.3grs. in WW cases) for the Hornet, the K's get one more grain, but I usually shoot 46gr. casts out of it.

Right now I'm using 2400 with the 35 gr. V-Max.Good accuracy.does everything I need it to do.

I used to know a guy who used 4227 in his T/C Contender 22 Hornet. He just poured the powder in until it ran over, leveled it off, then seated the bullet. He figured the Contender barrel was strong enough to handle it. He shot it for years that way. I don't know how much powder he really had in those or what the pressure was like. I'm not recommending it, but it worked for him.

Dick

Even when measured out, my 4227 loads come right up to the top - so close that I have to be careful moving the filled cases into the shellholder for bullet seating, lest I jiggle out a few kernels.

I'll also add this: my Browning may be a 223" or 224" bore. I did slug it, and darn if I can tell which it is even with a good micrometer. I'll call mine a .2235" one. Even before I slugged it, though, I ran tests using bullets of both diameters (and verified as such). Not a peachfuzz whisker of difference that I can detect. They're all bore diameter -whatever that is- by the time they pass the throat, anyway.

I tell people to simply ignore that silly thousandth and just load 'em and shoot 'em.