Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles What's your favorite .22 Hornet load?

I picked up a used CZ .22 Hornet this weekend. I practically stole the thing, about half the price of a new one, and it had a spare magazine and scope with it.
It's been a LONNNNGGGG time since I've messed with the little Hornet round, I'm out of the loop by 35 years or so.
I have some new WW brass, now primed with Remington 6 1/2s, just waitin for some good data to assemble some trial loads.
Lemme know what's worked well for your rifle. Thanks.

Full power loads are Hodgdon Lil Gun and either 35 or 40 gr. Vmax's (per the Hodgdon website). For .22 magnum-like loads, its 8 gr. SR 4759 and 40 gr. Sierra's.

35 V Max over all the Lil Gun I can get in the case and seat the bullet. Oh yeah, use a standard pistol primer too

For years I used H4198 pushing 46gr Win HPs, however in the new age I've switched to Lil Gun pushing 35gr V-max's, which pushes them little pills out at close to 3000fps and deadly accurate. I use this load in 3 different Hornets and it performs!

RWS Cases, Rem 6 1/2 Primers, and bullets crimped with Lee Factory Crimp Die, Waidmannsheil, Dom.

I use small rifle for the Lil Gun loads and small pistol for the SR 4759 loads. Having said that, I vote for whatever works best in your rifle. Don't think you'll go wrong either way.

lil gun with either 35 or 40 gr v max bullets work great !

Ed

As the others have said, there is one powder for the Hornet, Lil Gun.
I shoot 40 Gr bergers in my Anschutz and Kimber, cause they cycle thorugh the clips, and are accurate and explosive.
The 40 Gr plastic tip bullets are great as well, but are too long for most clips/magazines
And in my experience, sm pistol primers are the way to go.

Good luck.

12.5 grains Lil'Gun with a .223 Sierra or Hornady 45 Grain bullet.
Remington 6 1/2 or CCI small rifle primer.

Smaller diameter works well in the Savage 23D.

Case life seems to be better with Lil'gun.

YMMV

I shoot both my K-Hornets, one being a CZ 527, with 40-grain V-Max and 13.0 grains of Lil'Gun. These are my fire form loads plus I used them before I had the Hornets "K'ed". I recently picked up some 36-grain Barnes Varmint Grenades. I am waiting for warmer weather to do any load development, but 13.5 grains of Lil�Gun is about the max you can get into the case. Increase any starting loads in small increments since any change is a big change in these small cases.

Ratsmacker: I have a Ruger #1-B in 22 Hornet that was a "problem child" in the accuracy department for me for many years.
I tried lots of loads and bullets and just could not get it to even be moderately accurate.
IF it did not have such beautiful wood on it the dang thng would have long since gone down the "gusnhow highway"!
I was suggested this load and THIS TYPE OF BRASS by a shooter on this forum in fact - some years ago.
I poo-poo'ed the suggestion at first but tried it anyway and it worked out pretty well indeed.
The Rifle went from shooting 1.700" to 2.000" groups for years, to making groups in the .775" range with the following load: 35 gr. Hornady V-Max bullets, Remington Nickel plated brass (yeah nickel plated!), Federal 205 Match primers and H 110 powder.
Best of luck with your CZ Hornet.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Thanks to all! When the weather breaks around here and warms up some, I'll try some of those loads out. Again, thanks to all!

One other piece of advice is to only partially neck size your brass. The resulting slight bulge in the neck (where it was fire formed) will help center the round in the chamber. Given the low angle sloping shoulder, it made a difference in accuracy for me.

I sized the cases about 3/16" down the neck, just to make sure the necks were round. I've loaded a lot of years, but only the "normally" shaped cases, or pistol cases. I'm using Lee dies, because they were cheap, and came with that factory crimp die, which a lot of Lil Gun users seem to think is mandatory with that powder. They seemed like a good idea at the time, anyhow. d:^)
I'm refinishing the stock, which was "boogered up" pretty badly, and waiting on a magazine catch, which probably got lost during the "boogering" of the stock. I probably won't get to the range for another couple of weeks.
But thanks again, this thing ain't no .221 Fireball, which I also have(CZ also), and love to death. That little thing practically loads itself, and never found a load it didn't like.
I got the Fireball, (and a .204 CZ) both at Whittaker's, which I'm sure you're familiar with.) And yes, Kentucky is a good place to live, even if you DON'T like basketball..........

Well, it is a small world. Bought my Hornet at Whittaker's too! And, boy have I shot the snot out of it. I've put well in excess of 500 rounds through it in the last 6 months alone.

I have a set of both the Lee and RCBS dies in Hornet (its a long story that doesn't reflect well on 1) me for forgetting to lube a case and so hopelessly sticking it, I couldn't remove it with the normal drill and tap method--first time in 30 years that has happened 2) the US Post Office for claiming it was lost and 3) RCBS that said they never received it, yet the day after I bought the Lee set, the RCBS die showed up, repaired, in the mail). Anyway, I can't tell any difference in performance with either set.

Whittaker's is a good place to go when you have a pocket full of money. I could spend alot in there in just a short time.

By the by, the only thing I load for my Hornet is a 40 grain Nosler BT over 13.0 grains of Lil' Gun. WW cases and CCI small rifle BR primers.

Maybe the only place I've ever been that had 6 Barret .50's lined up in a row for sale. I'm never surprised what I find there.

10gr of H110 and a 50 bullet - shoots in the .3's from my stock ruger77/22 - stock except for the trigger.

For my CZ, 13.0 LiL Gun, 40gr Nos, CCI550 small pistol mag. primer.
For my NEF, 13.0 AA1680, 45 Sierra Hornet, Rem 6.5 small rifle primer.
For my Sako, 14.0 AA1680, 50 Speer TNT, CCI 450 Small rifle mag. primer. Heavily compressed load pita to load not used much.
Sako also, 10.5 W-W 296, 40gr Nos. CCI550.

The Hornet can indeed be a finicky little devil. What my rifle likes another might not. But I've seen some good tips here. LiLGun has become my favorite Hornet powder. Did a lot of good things with H-110, and it may work out good in your rifle, but my gun prefers LiLGun so thats what it gets. Played with pistol primers but settled on small rifle primers. Never tried AA1680 but I've heard good things about it. Bullets are anyone's guess; see what works in yours. The Lee Factory Crimp die gets used ALWAYS to insure a uniform grip on those thin neck walls, which are N.S.O.'d and the case mouth chamfered to help ease the bullet in, (haven't crumpled a case neck yet, maybe 'cause I was warned about it when I started reloading Hornets).

Fella lives on the north end of the section my Daughter and Son-in-Law live on told us this fall of his favorite load. "Just take the Hornet case, scoop it through a cup of 1680, strike it off with a knife and seat a 35 gr. bullet. You just can't get too much in there, and my loads run around 3300fps." I try to stay on the south end of the section when I'm out there.

I have a Sedgley Low Wall with a .223" barrel. If I shoot H110 in excess of 1 gr. under a listed max, I will blow primers.I suspect its because the bore size is a touch smaller. Lil Gun is just slow enough that I can load it up to the max with no issues.

For varmits I shoot 13 grains of lil' gun and a 40gr. Btip.

For deer I shoot 13 grains of lil'gun and a 45gr. TSX.

.......small pistol primers for both.

My A bolt Hornet loves the max load of Lil'gun ,cci br primer and a 40 gr Vmax; with the bullit seated out as long as will feed through the mag(and stay attached to the case).

Be careful if you try small pistol primers.
In my rifle the pistol primers were deformed enough from the strike of the firing pin that they would leak.

As most others have said, try Li'l Gun and 35 or 40 gr V-Max or BT's. Personally I have difficulty getting 13 gr in any case except Remingtons, about 12.5 gr is about all I can get into the others. YMMV.

I reamed my CZ to K-hornet but both before and after it likes 40 gr V-Max and AA 1680. The hotter the better it likes. I neck size only and then only size about 1/4 inch. No crimp and I get tiny groups and long case life.

I found Hornady brass to have the largest capacity of all, and took 13gr of Lil'Gun, which I found to be PFM in the Hornet.

Jeff

Greetings. New member, first post. Hope some of you on this thread are still watching this. Hoping for some help. Have Mod 43 in Hornet and have been fooling around with it for several years trying to work up an ideal load. Presently, working with 8.5 gr 4227 and 45 gr. Sierra soft nose, with ww brass and cci 400. Seating bullets to fit clip, which leaves a big space 'twixt bullet and lands, but planning to change this to proper spacing with loads set up to be the first round in chamber, others loaded to fit clip for second, third shot, etc. Curious as to how much/if it will help accuracy with that first shot hand-fed. Always wondered just how good it could be with this rifle (its either a 1in 14 of 1 in 16 twist - can someone confrim/verify this?) a when I started fooling with this rifle, it keyholed 50-55 gr. bullets. Recently obtained wisdom from friend on this board Meddybemps and your discussions are telling me to abandon 4227 for Lil'Gun and I should have an improvement, but am open to ideas that work within my remaining parameters (primer, bullet, case, and gun) that I want to hold constant.

Thanks to any/all for your commentary and wisdom applied to these questioins.

Best,

Dennis

My first choice in powder is certainly Lil Gun. It gets more velocity at lower pressure, so the brass isn't worked as hard. Second choice would be AA1680 and third choice WW296.

For bullet choices I really like the 35 and 40 grain Hornady V Max bullets. The 35 grain might be a better choice for you as it is semi-pointed. My rifle is a Contender, so I don't have to worry about magazine length.

For brass, I use Winchester. It has less capacity than the Remington by about half a grain, but seems to last better for me.

Primer wise, I have just started using pistol primers per the advice of Rocky Raab and others on the board. Seems that the small rifle primers are too powerful and can unseat the bullet before ignition. Currently I am using Fiocci small pistol primers because I stumbled on a great deal for them. My first choice would probably be Winchester, with CCI next.

Jeff,

Are you crimping or just allowing neck tension to hold the bullet?
The only brass I could find was Winchester and I picked up a set of
Forster dies with a benchrest seater.

I burned up factory ammo shooting PD's up in KS in my Micro Medallion and figured it was time to see what it would really do.

Ed

Thanks, guys....I've a bunch of cci 400 to burn through, so I'm feeling like I want to stick with them for the time being. I have not crimped in the bullet, just used neck tension. I also have a bunch of .224 Sierra round nose 45 gr. bullets and am trying to work with them also. I think my options at this point, that is the first/easiest things to change are the powder and bullet seating depth. Any thoughts on these parameters as they might contribute to improvement?

Thanks again!

Dennis

Guys, I am a long time watcher on this site, very little participating with posts.

I bought a CZ Hornet in November. Started off using pistol primers, 35 & 40 gr Vmax and 12.5 grains of Lil Gun. Neck size only and the gun started off shooting very well. I don't bother to crimp.

Worked up loads at 2 tenths of a grain to 13.5. The groups got better nearing 13 grains, and got good groups. Next I tried small rifle primers and can see no difference in group size.

I have also shot the 40 gr. Sierra Hornet bullet with equal accuracy. I am getting older but can still get between 1/2"-5/8" at 100 yards.

In chronographing, 13.5 grains gives me 3050 fps, which was a shock. I will be using it to shoot sage rats this spring. And I really like this gun.

Fred

Don't be shy about posting, Fred, every post helps me out, and probably others as well. No one's opinions or experiences are worthless, and sharing them sure might help save someone some aggravation and time.

Now, if the weatherman would cooperate and give me a decent weekend, I could get out and shoot my "new" little Hornet. So far, I've been frozen out or snowed or iced out every weekend since buying the rifle.

My thanks to all who passed on their loads and experiences.

Ed,

I'd have to find my notes, but I'm pretty sure I crimped them. I'll repost, if I find my memory has failed.....which is likely!

Jeff

I have a #3 in 22Hornet coming, has anyone experience with one?

Dennis, Is that M43 a .223 bore or .224? I have a M54 with a .223 bore and of course it doesn't like the .224 bullets worth a hoot. Might be something to check.

ww brass 35 grn v-max 12grn h 110 cci small pistol primers at 3100 fps in a ruger 77/22hornet or 9grn of 269w 55grn fmj ww , same primer and brass. butchered three buffalo with the 55fmj 1 shot each at about 25 yrds they go all the way through.

I have 2 CZ 527 one is an FS. Hogdon Lilgun is king in both. I shoot the Hornady 50gr sp in mine it shoots 45's as well. 12.6 is a good spot to start. I like small pistol primers but rem 6.5s are good.

Both rifles will shoot into an inch all day as long as you don't heat them up real bad.

Good luck and shoot straight

Bob

11 gr. 4227 and 46 gr. bullet..

Gee, another thread resurrected from the dead....

We could have just started another one on the same topic. Which reminds me, we are overdue for another .22 center fires are no good for big game thread....

Yep! I'll get on it right now.... Look in the Deer Hunting forum.

Hah! Got both topics covered. My best/favorite Hornet load: 55grain cast bullet/6 grains 2400/small pistol primer for 1800fps±. Best centerfire .22 deer load: ditto.

(As long as said deer weigh 2 pounds and live in the tree tops.)

My favorite Hornet load is a .221 FIREBALL.

And after trying several small centerfires for varmint shooting, including the .221 Fireball, my favorite Hornet load is the .17 Hornet.

Have you tried the 20 VarTarg?

Or the .15 Mayfly?

CrowRifle,

Have tried a friend's VarTarg, and it's a nifty little cartridge. I would definitely choose it over the .221 because of the velocity it can get out of 32-grain bullets, which helps considerably within the 300-yard range where the vast majority of small burrowing rodents are shot. The Vartarg and the .17 Fireball shoot noticeably flatter than the .221, which even in these days of laser rangefinders makes hitting tiny targets out to 300 much easier.

But the .17 Hornet gets just about the same velocity with 20-grain bullets as the Vartarg gets with 32's, and does so using about 2/3 as much powder as any of the .221-based rounds. Plus, I can easily dump 100+ rounds in a shirt pocket when doing a walkabout.

The other thing I like about the .17 Hornet is brass is abundant and cheap. In fact, factory ammo is often on sale for such a low price I can't handload it any cheaper, and is incredibly accurate in my CZ. The brass then costs about half as much as .221's.

I always had the best results with light bullets in my hornets...35 gr vmax ant 33 gt tnt

I have two Hornets, a Ruger no. 3 and a Kimber 82 Super America. I use either R-P or W-W brass snd CCI BR-4's in both.

The no.3 likes 11.7 IMR 4227 with the 45 Speer spitzer. For squirrels I've used the old Speer 55 fmj ( a semi-point) and 9.5 grs of IMR 4227. Another reduced load is with either the 50 gr. Speer or Sierra Blitz with 11.5 grs of IMR 4198 (compressed) for about 2250 fps.

For the Kimber I use 11.7 grs of WW 680 (discontinued but I've got a couple of pounds) and the 45 gr Speer

Thing is, all these cartridges have really hit the power curve with new bullets, powders, and KNOWLEDGE. It's great, isn't it?

Well now I gotta get me a .17 Hornet!

Went "gopher" (Richardson's ground squirrel) shooting with a couple of friends in June, one the rancher who owned the land. I let one of them shoot my .17 Hornet for a while, and he decided he needed one. The rancher had a pre-'64 Winchester M70 .22 Hornet, and we sat together while shooting for a couple of hours one day. Afterward he decided he needed a .17 Hornet too.

Lyman 225415 cast 55 grain bullet, #5 Little Dandy rotor charge of Lil'Gun, CCI 450 primer...quarter covers groups from Ruger Number One @ 50.