Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Reloading the .22 Hornet

A Ruger 77/hornet found its way into my possession ..

I'm sure I've read Lil'Gun is the powder.. Any tips on preferred dies, primers ?? Or other advice would be very helpful. I've never had one of these. Not expecting much, hope I'm surprised.

TIA!

Rocky Raab is you man for this.

So is Mule Deer..

Also wondering if there is an aftermarket barrel for this is the original is toast..... Or if it's even worth messing with. It just fell in my lap so I'll play with it awhile. Have a good supply of 40 NBT's, probably the only appropriate bullet I have on hand..

You may or may not have seen this link.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/18922802/1

DF

I hope you didn't get one of the early Rugers with the pinned barrel. They had a reputation of mediocre accuracy.

flint: Do you have any more info on the pinned barrel? Do you know what serial number or date when Ruger switched to a threaded barrel? Thanks.

LIl Gun
Small Pistol primers
Bullet of your choice.

Set dies to just partial necksize. Don't bump the shellholder and overly size the base or you'll have problems with cases splitting

Shoot...have fun.

My Ruger has the earlier pinned barrel, in fact, its the RS model and shoots like a house afire. I suspect a lot of the Hornet that won't shoot have copper fouled barrels.

Sometime, I believe in late 2009 they gave up and changed to threaded barrel. I shouldn't have said "pinned"...it was that Vee block system same as 77/22. No clue as to serial number. The earlier style could be helped by the generous application of Loctite 660, I did a couple for customers, they reported an improvement in accuracy...although I think eventually their rifles were sold downriver.

Failing availability of LilGun, try 300-MP, H110, 296. As Caplock said, adjust FL due to size only 1/2 or so of the neck (or get a Lee Collet Die). Try different primers.

Another option is the Lee collet neck sizer. It works for Hornet and K-Hornet.

DF

I bought one when they first came out. Tried every accurizing/reloading trick known to man, best I could get out of it was 2" - 3" (+/-) at 100 yds.

Good info! haven't seen the rifle yet. It was my wife's fathers and he passed away.

I was thinking a good barrel cleaning would be in order before anything else. Used collet dies in the past a time or two with fine results.

I did a couple of searches here, evidently I worded it poorly as I didn't get any useful info.. Thanks !

2'' groups will lose my interest quickly, 1'' isn't terribly exciting !

Years ago had a Kimber hornet. Wish I still had it although it wasn't super accurate by any means.. Damn nice looker though, that helped, lol.

I have a Ruger no.3 (1976) and a Kimber SA (1985) and neither one liked LG much. The no.3 likes IMR 4227 and the Kimber does its best with Win 680 (discontinued) and IMR 4227. 22 Magnum level loads can be made by dropping down IMR 4227 and 2400 loads.

I use CCI BR primers in both guns.

Early on I used the Speer 45 spitzer in both but have added tipped 40 grain bullets…Sierra 40 BK, Nosler BT and tipped Varmageddon bullets. Reduced loads do really well with Speer’s 46 Flat nose and Sierra’s 40 and 45 Hornet bullets along with the 50 gr Blitz soft point. I have several hundred 40 gr Jacketed hollow points that Winchester loads in 22 Magnum and they’re useful in duplicating that cartridge.

Pretty sure that barrel is threaded, not pinned, as are all AFIK CF barrels. Won’t be cheap to re-barrel. I can’t imagine anyone wearing one out, so apart from corrosion, maybe it just needs a good cleaning, and at worst, some fire-lapping.

I’ve used LilGun and H110 with excellent results. H110 gets standard SP primers, LG needs hot ones like Mule Deer’s favorite CCI 450s, which gave him the best results. Ross Seyfried also recommended hot ones for LG, magnum SP, and also Rem 7 1/2s, again from memory. Pay attention to OAL length in data, some is for single shots and won’t fit your magazine, plus you might have to drop your charge a bit.

40gr plastic tips, 30gr Varmint Grenades, and Speer 46gr FPs have all shot very well in my Browning. There are good bargains to be had in 40gr soft-points online; I’ve paid as little as $.10 or $.12 a pop on sale. Helps defray the brutal cost of primers.

If you can get consistent 1” groups, don’t fret, those will do just fine for killing stuff inside Hornet range.

That is exactly what my customers reported. My own Hornet, a Browning Micro, using Ross Seyfried's loading advice, will stack 5 @ 100yds in less than a nickel and once in a while a bit better in zero wind. Unfortunately my Lil Gun reloads aren't any better that the store bought Hornady 35gr Vmax. I try to get between 3,000 and 3,100 fps, that seems to be what the Baby Browning prefers. Old Win 680 is an awesome accuracy powder, with the heavy (for dangerous game) 45 gr Sierra but alas, faded into history. I know nothing of AA 1680.

I think about the most important thing to start with is find the right primer and I bet it will be the small pistol. Yes, it makes that much difference.

There are a bunch of other details (and exceptions) to the loading advice suggested so far, too many to list here. My chapter on the .22 Hornet and .22 K-Hornet The Big Book of Gun Gack goes over them pretty thoroughly, along with loads for five different rifles, three standard .22 Hornets and two K-Hornets.

I also take a different look at why rechambering to .22 K-Hornet often results in finer accuracy. The common theory is the case then headspaces on the shoulder, instead of the rim, but I eventually came to the conclusion it's because K-Hornet get sized straighter in typical expander-ball dies, and explain why.

Will also note that by far the smallest groups I've fired from a .22 Hornet came from handloads put together with a Lee Loader, the simple set-up that resembles the dies usually used by benchrest shooters.

I have 3, a Winchester Super Grade, a Sako L46 and a custom model 70 cut down action. They are not fussy and I use one load in all three, getting minute of gopher to 200 yards with no sweat.

13 grains of Lil Gun and 40 grain Hornady VMax bullets…

Loaded for a friend with the 77V. Factory loads grouped as above. L'il Gun 13gr, Remm 6 1/2 primers, and, I believe, Sierra 40gr spitzers, due to feeding through the Ruger's rotary mag. Consistent 3/4" and smaller groups from then on.