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.