Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles Reloading the .22 Hornet with other than lil gun

I haven't had a lot of luck with my Ruger M77 in .22 Hornet using lil gun and bullets from 33g to 53 grain.

I'm thinking of trying H-110 next since I have some but wonder what weight of bullet it is best with?

What other powders and bullet weights should I try?

I have Privi, Remington, Winchester, and Hornady brass. I've used Rem 6 1/2 primers and various pistol primers, I just can't get under 1 moa for 10 shots at 100 yards.

Rifle has a 6-24x Sightron scope.

As a comparison, I can shoot my Ar-15 using iron sights off bags into 1.3 moa for 10 shots repeatedly so I don't think my issues are my technique.

Thanks,

Szumi

Ruger M77 Hornets are known to be "iffy" for accuracy. Some of them shoot fine. Others...well, no. It apparently has to do with the two-piece bolt. There are guys who are happy to help empty your wallet to tighten up the bolt gap, but it may still be a coin toss for accuracy. For the difference in trade, you could probably get a CZ or even a used Browning Hornet. At least then the rifle would be a know quantity.

As for powders, my second favorite in the Hornet is Accurate 1680. It's very close to the powder in factory ammo. Figure about 2650 fps with a 45-grain bullet. I find 110/296 to be a wee bit fast in the Hornet; it produces a pretty high pressure peak for the velocity it gives. If you use it, you'd probably be wise to stick to bullets 40 grains and under.

Another vote for Accurate Arms 1680 (along with the Speer 40 grain bullet).

Two piece bolts can be very accurate like rem. 40x rimfire! The biggest problem is that it is a ruger thats all. I have had a good ruger hornet, and 4 that were not so good, I like the 77/22's but accurate is not all that great as a norm. IF he is getting 10 shots close to an honest inch that very well my be all that gun will do , just my thoughts. Oh yea aint the newest 77/22's got a threaded barrelas now ? that just might be a help in the accuracy department not played with one yet

My own opinion - not definitive by any means - is that the M77 rimfire simply wasn't capable of being upgraded from rimfire to centerfire. If they had designed a scaled down version of the regular M77, it might have been a winner in Hornet; as Browning did.

Rocky is probably on target with this one as usual. But I would try AA 1680 before I sold the Ruger and bought a CZ. Another thing I have found with my hornets is seating depth can make a huge difference.

As suggested try AA1680, I never could get Lil Gun to shoot well for either of mine. And load the Hornet for what is intended. If you need 3300 fps then buy a .222, don't try to hot rod the Hornet.

I have heard 1680 is excellent, but never tried it in my Browning..My best success has been 4227 and some H110..Have had this little gun since '95..It is a great one for everthing from small game to varmit..a great tree squirrel gun where it is legal..

Crowrifle,

Did you ever try magnum primers with Li'l Gun in your Hornets?

No sir, only CCI and Remington small rifle and small pistol primers.

In little cals primers play a more major role has been my experience. My hornet, Brown n Micro wouldn't do much unitl I went with CCI BR primers, lilgun was my prefered with 45 grainer.
I have to think it was the primer that made this little gun a 1 hole group at a hunert yards. Same deal when I rolled some for my buddies Ruger hornet. Something to consider. Hornetguy here should weigh in on this. He was very helpful back when I was testing and retesting.

Tacksmacker

Crowrifle,

My experience with the Hornet backs up what tacksmacker posted: The Hornet is more primer sensitive than most other rifle rounds.

Li'l Gun is by the slowest-burning powder used by most handloaders use in the Hornet, and also a ball powder. I've had excellent luck with CCI BR-4's in most Hornets with Li'l Gun, but recently ran a test with various primers in my very accurate Ruger 1B, using 13.0 Li'l Gun and the new 40-grain Nosler Varmageddon bullet, which has so far been slightly more accurate than any other 40-grain plastic-tip I've tried in this rifle. The primers tried were CCI BR-4's, CCI small-pistol primers, Federal 205M's and CCI 450's. The 450's were definitely the best primer with the combination.

A lot of the stuff we "know" about the Hornet has been around for decades, but modern components have changed things. I keep being surprised by the little round.

Thanks for the info. I never considered using the CCI 450 because some old sage had warned me about the bullet being forced from the case before powder ignition when using them.

While I am pretty happy with my current load, I do like the idea of getting close to 3000 fps with no signs of pressure with Lil Gun. One thing I not like about Lil Gun was that it seemed to be a 'dirty' powder ( for lack of a better term ), but maybe the hotter primer will fix that.

Yeah the Hornet has always amazed me with what it does with 12 - 13 grains of powder. Can't see me not ever having a few around. Gonna try some of the 40-grain Nosler Varmageddon bullets also. Many thanks.

When LiL Gun first hit the market I read an article whose author I don't remember. In the article he said he was using CCI 450's with 13gr LiL Gun, and 40gr Bal. Tip. Having played with various Hornets over the years I thought the primer was a misprint. Aquired some LiL Gun and pressed on with the usual assorment of pistol primers plus the Rem 6.5. Was quite disapointed after the glowing praise bestowed upon the powder in the article. Finally went against conventional wisdom and tried the 450's and things improved dramatically. Since then I have experimented with side by side comparisons of primers and LiL Gun. For me in my guns I have found that CCI 550 small pistol mag, CCI BR4, and CCI 450 to give nearly identical performance. Winchester small rifle gave similar vel. but not the accuracy. CCI 400, Fed Match, Rem. 6.5 gave some good accuracy but lagged some in vel. In general pistol primers were a bust with the exception of the CCI 550. Try the hotter primers they may do then trick.

I've been on the small pistol primer/Lilgun bandwagon for over 15 years with my Ruger M77 Hornet. Works great, very accurate and very fast. A few weeks ago, I tried Rem 7 1/2 primers, and they worked very well, on par with any of the spp loads, but the 7 1/2 only worked well in Winchester brass. The spp loads work well in Win and Rem brass.

To the OP, have you tried a Lee Collet Die for your Hornet?

I purchased my CZ 527 Hornet first and found a Lil�Gun load that worked quite well. When I purchased a well-worn Ruger M77/22 Hornet I used the same load and got good .5� results after I changed the trigger spring. This is all that I have had to do to that Ruger. Since it has a longer barrel than my CZ, it is faster. I get a consistent 3150 fps with the Ruger using 13 grains of Lil�Gun pushing a 40-grain V-Max (Z-Max is the same bullet) and a Winchester Small Rifle primer, plus I get no pressure signs out of this load. I find that the WSR primers are almost as hot as magnums and are very consistent. I do load the bullet out to an OAL of 1.910� so I have to single feed it.

I use Lil'Gun and the Hornady 40 gr V-MAX with Rem 7.5 BR Primers . Nothing works better in my Browning A-Bolt and Encore Hornet

1680 sierra 40 grain varmint enough said.

1680 and 40 grain V-Max enough said.

As for reloading tips, I never size more than about 1/4" of the neck. Case life skyrockets.