Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles 30 - 35 gr. 22 Hornet loads

Hi, this is my first time here and am hoping for a little advice. I have the Barnes VG 30 gr.HP, Speer TNT Green 30 gr.HP, Hornady 35 V-Max & NTX and the Nosler 35 gr. BT lead free. I have yet to load any of these but hopefully some of you have and will share your pet loads. I will be using a Savage 40 with a 1:14".

Thanks in advance,
FS1

See if the rifle likes Lil Gun. That powder has resurrected the Hornet. You will run out of case capacity before you get pressure. Lil Gun is my go to for 40 grains and higher, but sometimes it doesn't perform up to spec with the lighter bullets. Not sure why. I did get stellar performance with the 35 grain VMax and Lil Gun. That is the most explosive bullet I have shot out of a Hornet. With Winchester brass and 12.5 grains of Lil Gun I was getting 3000 fps in a CZ 527.

If you don't get the velocity or accuracy with Lil Gun and the light bullets, try AA 1680.

I use quite q few of the Nosler 35 grain lead free and the Hornady VMaxs in .223. I push both with 12 grans of Blue Dot. In .223 I am seeing about 3200 IIRC. They do an excellent job on small varmints up to porcupines.

I don't own a Hornet, so I couldn't tell you what you can do with BD in it, but with the above load those bullets will produce eminently satisfying splatter in small varmints and will kill up to coyote size critters well inside 100.

I don't care for the Barnes VGs. I have tried a few weights in a couple calibers. They seem touchy to me about the speed they need to work well and they are harder to get accuracy out of.

Welcome.

Everyone raves about Lil Gun in the Hornet, but it never lived up to all the hype for me in any of the three Hornets I load for. My best Hornet loads are with W680 ( discontinued but you may have some laying around ), AA1680, and 2400. Never really liked the lighter bullets and stuck with the Hornady 40 grain and CCI small rifle primers. Don't over look some of the older Sierra and Speer bullets that were intended for Hornet velocities. They work very well.

I'd have to dig out the range sheets, but I reviewed the 30 Barnes and got the nest results with my standard load: Rem 6 1/2 primer, WW brass partially sized, 13.0 LilGun and a moderate crimp with the Lee FCD. Speed was about 3,300 fps, IIRC.

That. (Got the idea from 'some writer' who had and e-article on the 'net. Thanks RR. )

You're welcome.

I got it from Rocky too. Grins

Rocky's Reloading Room is a must read.

I've never tried the 30 gr bullets in my Hornet but the 35 gr V-Max and the 40 gr Sierrs HP have shot great for me. I use CCI pistol primers and Lil-Gun powder. I worked up my loads a 1/10 th gr at a time till I found the sweet spot. It's hard to believe what 1/10 th gr of powder can do in such a small case.

Do NOT overlook Midsouth's 34gr. HP bullets. They're very inexpensive, and shoot very well in my CZ 527. They run about $41/500, which is a bargain any way you look at it, in this day and age.
I use them with 13.2 1680, WW cases and 6.5 primers, and they shoot under MOA on a regular basis. I DO use a hard crimp on the bullet, to try to improve ignition. Lee's crimp die works well in this regard. I also do not FL size, I just run the unlubed case about a 1/4" into the FL die, sizing only a little of the neck. It seems to work well enough, and I've never come close to sticking a case.

Thanks for the info folks. I've had good results with Lil' Gun and 40 gr. bullets but have not used 1680 yet. The usually good choices such as IMR & H 4227's,4198's, 2400,AC #9 and H110/296 will be used in addition to Alliant's PP 300 MP that I've been wanting to try. I eventually would also like to give the 52 & 53 gr match bullets a go to see how well the 14" twist shoots them.

I've only loaded for five Hornets (one a K-Hornet) and with 30-35 grain bullets have generally gotten the best results with H110. If you have to use lead-free bullets that's certainly among the first powders to try.

But in every rifle 40g-grain bullets and Li'l Gun grouped at least as well and usually better. The primers have mostly been CCI BR4, but CCI 400 and Federal 205M have also worked fine. Five-shot groups in every rifle have been an inch or less at 100 yards. In repeaters, hollow-points such as the Sierra and Berger are usually necessary due to the short magazines.

In single-shots the plastic-tips such as the Hornady V-Max, Nosler Ballistic Tip and Varmageddon, and Sierra Blitzking shoot a LOT flatter and hit harder than any lighter bullet, but even the 40-grain hollow-points hold up better at longer ranges than the 30-35 grain bullets.

Have used bullets up to the 60-grain Nosler Partition in a 1-12 twist T/C Contender barrel. The 50-55 shot well in the same barrel but didn't shoot anywhere near as flat or "splode" varmints like 40's.

If it's a calm day (or I'm reading my wind flags correctly), my 22 Hornet CZ American will keep five shots well under an inch (usually closer to 0.5") with the following load:

Hornady 35 V-Max @ COL = 1.725" and no crimp\
R-P cases primed with CCI 500s (yes, small pistol primers)
11.5 grains of H-110
This load usually chronographs approximately 3,050 fps out of my CZ's 22" OEM barrel.

Remember, YMMV - good luck!

for my hornets its h110 and 35 gr vmax or the 33 gr speers that were made for 22 mag

40 gr V-Max and a case full of 1680 work in both the hornet and the K-hornet. I have yet to play with Lil Gun. Maybe this summer but the results I have gotten with 1680 have been more than acceptable, 1/4" groups on paper and lots of dead animals.

Looks like I should give H110 a try first and am also looking forward to trying 1680.

I am lucky not to be forced to go lead free yet but was hoping that a longer bullet may shoot a bit better. Upon measuring a few I found that the Hornady 35 gr. NTX measure 0.725"- 0.735" while their 40 gr. V Max only averages 0.688" and their 35 gr. V Max 0.515". Nosler's lead free 35 gr. is 0.738" while the Combined Tech 40 gr. BT is 0.698". The 30 TNT Green measures 0.475" and is shaped similar to the Sierra 40 SP Hornet Varminter at 0.485". The Barnes 30 gr. VG measures 0.555" and resembles the 0.565" 40 gr. Sierra HP Varminter but has a longer bearing surface.

I don't know if the additional length would matter but will be sure to follow up with range results. Hopefully soon.

Yes, the lead-free bullets are LONG. That's because the cores are less dense than lead, of course. The Barnes 36VG is as long as some lead-core 55-grainers, and it would not stabilize in my Browning Hornet 1-16" barrel. That's likely why Barnes came out with the 30 VG made for the Hornet.

Stability is related to both twist rate and velocity, because it takes both factors to develop a given rpm rate. The slower the twist rate the more velocity you must achieve to reach any given bullet spin rate.

That puts the Hornet in a double whammy; it can't boost velocity due to its limited powder capacity but the traditional 1-16" twist rate demands high velocity to stabilize any bullet longer than the standard 45-gr lead-core it is designed for.

Exactly.

One of my more pleasant magazine assignments in the past couple years was trying just about every varmint bullet made, mostly on prairie dogs. Among those tried were non-toxics from several companies. They worked really well in certain cartridges, but set the Hornet back considerably.

Due to gains in powders and bullets, these days the Hornet can work really well at 250-300 yards, but the lousy ballistic coefficient of any non-toxicbullet that will stabilize in a typical Hornet reverses the clock, returning the cartridge to the days when 200 yards was really stretching the round.

Even when pushed to 4000 fps in the .221 Fireball, the 30-grain Varmint Grenade runs out of oomph at 200, due to the lousy BC. If forced to use non-toxic bullets, I'd go with a bigger round with a faster twist, probably a .223, to take advantage of sleeker bullets like the 35-grain Nosler.

Agree myself for the 22h and the bullet weights and construction.

Only shot one a short time this spring (someone wanted the CZ 22h a LOT more than I did evidently) but first load with Lil Gun and 45 grain SP bullets gave me 1 1/8 inch groups at 200 yards.

Pistol primers BTW with Lil Gun in the hornet.

That was with a 65 dollar 24x scope. Loaded factory OAL, forget the load but doubt you can get "too much" Lil Gun in a hornet.

17AH, same powder, same primer. .8 inch at 200, (better scope, custom barrel).

Never shot 1680. Lots swear by it but I had lil gun here and Id not change anything except work up loads to see HOW good it would have gotten.

The "old" rounds like the 22H and the 222 mag have a place in my heart and mind that will never be replaced.

SOMEDAY Ill find me an "affordable" 22H Anschutz......or at least Ill have fun LOOKING for one. lol

I ran top velocities for the 30 grain Berger VS 50 grain Bergers through the JBM trajectory site for the 222m (I know, off topic, kinda).

Not enough difference for me to switch to lighter bullets in trajectory vs energy lost.

In a 22H.....should I get lucky finding another of interest, the 45 grainers will remain my choice of projectile. Always believed the Hornady "Hornet bullet" in 45 grain was the same construction as the SPSX but just a few grains lighter.

They perform identically on game, as far as these old eyes can tell and well enough providing more "bang flops" than anything else, Ive never seen a reason to even try V-max EXCEPT in 17 cal one day. They were free. LOL.

Guess Im old, sensitive. Shooting something DRT is one thing, blowing it into pieces offends my hunter insticts......at least as I was taught.

Respect, first and formost. Get bullet performance and place the bullet well. Anything more,TO ME, (absolutely NO offense intended for the "Splat" crowd) is offensive to my upbringing. Legal, maybe fun to some, I still cant view such in photos and would immediately stop using any bullet that gave me such results on what little I have left to shoot, so I guess I don't "get" the reason for a lighter bullet. I dont see it giving the hunter squat in performance advantage. My 2 cents only.

I apologize in advance for going off tangent a bit. ONLY my thoughts on the powder/round/bullet combo and etc.

God Bless

Another reason to choose a "splat" bullet is the very real instances of bullets not "splatting" can have a nasty habit of ricocheting, especially where the Hornet is concerned.

Has the potential to be far more offensive....