Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints My first 22 Hornet

1680

I bought a Ruger M77 Hornet a couple of years after they came out and stumbled across a few pounds of AA-1680 and several bags of Winchester 46gr HPs. I wreaked havoc on the local varmints (mostly groundhogs, coyotes, a few crows, and a few badgers). My loads weren't all that hot, but they were accurate. In 2003, I was renting a house right in the middle of a one square mile section (640 acres) of land in northern Missouri. The land-owner had cleaned out several old fence lines and there were a number of brush and stump piles on the property, making it a varmint paradise, so I kept the Ruger loaded and standing in the corner of the kitchen, and it stayed busy almost daily, sometimes morning, before work, and evening after work.

One evening, I had just started fixing dinner and happened to look out one of the kitchen windows, to the north, and noticed something out in the soybeans. I picked up a pair of binoculars that I kept handy there in the kitchen and looked. A little over 200 yds straight north, there was a coyote standing in the beans looking at the house, but only its head was visible above the beans. I grabbed the Hornet, eased the window open, laid a folded dishtowel on the windowsill, leaned over the edge of the counter, and rested the rifle on that dish towel on the windowsill. I lined up the crosshair to put the bullet right between his eyes and squeezed. The coyote disappeared. I half expected to see it pop up somewhere out there, running. After waiting a bit, the dogs and I went out and found him, DRT. I had literally made a canoe out of its cranial cavity. Its skull cap was gone and all of its brains were splattered on the beans for several feet behind where it had been standing. Its face looked like a cartoon with its ears at weird angles and its eyes literally bulging out of its head. Not a difficult shot, but a very memorable one.

A buddy at work also had a M77 Hornet and he got turned on to the Lil' Gun medicine and shared it with me. That lifted our rifles' performance to a whole new plane. I finally shot up all of the Win 46gr HPs and started using several different bullets, but they all benefitted from the better performance of Lil' Gun powder.







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My Hornet shoots very well with Lil’ Gun. It would be where I would start. Once you find your load that will be all you need. Great little cartridge.

My current fav .22 K-Hornet load is the 33 Shock Hammer over 14 gr. 300MP with CCI 450 primers.

Shoots one hole at 50 yds. and is reportedly a good bullet for varmint sized critters. I’ve not drawn blood with it, yet.

Have not clocked it. Supposedly running a bit over 3K fps.

DF

Those CZ’s are 16 twist. Wish they were 12 twist.

I like 300 MP slightly more than Lil gun. 300 MP won’t stick to the powder measure like Lil gun sometimes does. YMMV. I have used both and if I ran out of 300 MP would not hesitate to use Lil gun.

CCI 450’s are JB’s fav primer in the Hornet. They do work.

With 16 twist, the 33 gr. Shock Hammer is short enough to work well. And as a mono, it won’t blow up on ‘Yotes sized critters.

Agree with Limapapa, those stubby little bullets aren’t the best long range choices. But they do well what they’re designed to do.

DF

my CZ will shoot the 40gr plastic tips good , dont know what the twist might be

My Browning has a slight preference for H110 over LilGun, but not enough to really matter. These days, it might come down to what primers you have or can get, SP or CCI 450. LilGun does run at a lot less pressure, so case life might be a factor if your supply is limited. I have a lot of WW brass and have never had a split neck or other issue with my collet-sized brass.

Another good bullet is the 30gr Varmint Grenade. It can go pretty fast and is accurate in my rifle. I also want to try the 45gr TSX which might come in handy for popping a doe if the opportunity arises.

I use the 46 grain Winchester bullet over 4227, H110, or Lil Gun.

It’s put a lot of deer and hogs in the freezer in the last 20 years.

Any 40-45 grain bullet over about 13 grains of lil gun. My contender barrel had a decided preference for Winchester small pistol primers.

I had the opportunity on Friday to shoot my Hornet for the first time scoped. With a Leupold 2x7 gloss compact I had lying around the first three shot group at 100 yards was just under 1/2". Can't argue with that. The load was 11.8 grains of Lil'Gun with a 45 grain Sierra Hornet bullet. I think I need to use a drop tube to get more powder in the case. I think I'm gonna like this. Now to get a coyote to volunteer for testing purposes.
Thanks, and take care!
Rick

For me I find in all my hornets the seem to like the short lighter bullets best like the 33 gr tnt and 35 gr v max
It’s my thought the Sami twist is too slow for anything much heavier than 45
I have been tempted over the years to build a faster twist hornet
33 and 35 s work just fine to 150 yds
Any ferthwr and I have bigger rifles for

Just got a used #1B redone to K Hornet.
Gonna try some Hornady factory ammo in it this week (zero).
Try it out on chucks in a couple months.

AA1680 and a small pistol primer .

I've had a number of Hornets and K-Hornets and they all liked Li'l Gun a lot. Biggest load I ever tried was 13 grains and the little 40 grain bullet topped 3,200 fps from a Ruger #1. 1/2" groups of 3 were easy.

I've had several K-Hornets, and have had the best luck with hotter small-rifle primers, including the CCI 450, and the Winchester SR. (Winchester only makes one SR primer, which is hotter than other "standard" SR primers, sort of a compromise between "standard" and "magnum.)

Along with Li'l Gun, A1680 and Alliant 300-MP are well worth a try.

I've read where the remington 6.5 primer is really good in the hornet? Any experience?