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I have been playing with a really nice Anschutz .22 hornet for years. Really like the rifle, but it is very fussy about the ammunition that it likes to shoot. Rem & Win 45gr. SP factory ammo will only give me 1-3/4 - 2" groups.

Most handloads about 1.5" and even after trying many reccomended handloads it is difficult to shrink the group size much further. (tried 35 Horn v max, 40 & 45 gr. Sierras, 40 speer, Lil gun powder, W296 powder, AA1680, neck sizing, Lee crimp die, etc. The only common recommendation that has yet to be tried is pistol primers. The Horn 35 Vmax and Lil gun shows promise at about 1 1/4" .

I tried two more factory loads a while ago, and was encouraged - RWS 45gr. soft point shot into an inch, which is my maximum group size goal. But RWS ammo costs enough that I just can't afford it.

So I tried Winchester 46 gr. hollow points. Eureka!! a 5 shot group under 1/2"! And then I repeated that performance just to be sure. But I can't find that ammo again, no matter where I look. And cost is a factor when shooting a hornet at high volume in the "gopher" fields.

I went to my local gun store, bought new Winchester cases, two bags of the Win 46 gr. HP bullets, & win small rifle primers. I can match seating depth with the factory loads easy enough.
Any suggestions for powder & charge for factory duplication load? I do have W 296 on hand (and Lil gun and A1680, and H4227).

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I would say your on the right track .I would beleive the factory powder would be win. or hodgen , pull a factory bullet dump the powder, than you will know if you are looking for a ball powder or other and weigh, it cross referance it with some listed loads, that give you a better idea of what powder you are lookin for
I would chrono a couple factory rounds too and see what velocty you are getting and see if you duplicte that with powder charge , refering to load mauals will narrow this down too. if you get the type (ball, extruded ect.) and charge weight.

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Never had the same great results with Lil Gun that others rave about. Having said that, Mule Deer advised that I try CCI Small Rifle Mag primers with Lil Gun. Got the primers, but with the holidays here I have not had a chance to try working up a load with them.

But I have enjoyed great results with 1680 and a Hornady 40 grain V-Max over CCI Small Rifle primers. Shoots very well in both my CZ and Savage 340. FWIW, that load also does very well in my brother's Browning.


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Any suggestions for powder & charge for factory duplication load? I do have W 296

Went back over 20 years worth of load books, and that would be your Huckleberry.




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ive been shooting a k hornet (have4) for 30 years and have always come back to 296 always.have you slugged the bore could be 223 and while you are at it check the twist as well. The winchester ammo is 296 should be easy to check with a mag glass.when i say we shoot alot i mean 2000 just hornets in a week gopher hunting as well as cases of 223.my load all guns 35 hornady b tip 12.5 w 296 small rifle Mag primer and play with seating depth tip short works. Watch your cleaning 3 of my hornets hate a really clean bore and it takes 20 rounds to get them to behave even after hundreds of shots i only swab with hoppes#9 and a dry patch.I would work on a 35 or 40 b tip load again play with fouled barrel and oal the btips explode a gopher 46s in a non k hornet dont i know from vast field testing. hope this helps ps need 6-06 loading data any ideas?

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Originally Posted by growser
ps need 6-06 loading data any ideas?


Look to the 6-284, and 25.06 for data. The case capacity of 6-284 is the same as 6-06. 6-06 is necked down 25.06 case so back off on the loads 15% and work up for bullets in the 75 to 100 gr. For lighter than 75 its the 284 data.

Also this http://www.reloadersnest.com/frontpage.asp?CaliberID=321

Good luck

Last edited by Swifty52; 12/31/12.


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Years ago I had a Ruger 77/22 Hornet that I foolishly rechambered to K-Hornet immediately upon purchase. I could never get it to feed the "improved" cases reliably from the rotary magazine, and it was finicky about loads. I also made the mistake of buying a box of Winchester 46-grain hollow points like you mentioned, and they shot 0.5" five-shot groups while fireforming. Plus they fed slicker than an empty chamber. If I had known that before, I never would have done the rechamber job, and for once in my life would have shot factory loads exclusively. I could never find a load that gave similar performance even using virtually the same cases, bullets and primers as the factory loads, but here's hoping you can.

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Visit Grafs and Sons and check their sale section. Maybe the 46gr Winchester Hornets shown there are what you want.

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Pull one apart


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Originally Posted by huffmanite
Visit Grafs and Sons and check their sale section. Maybe the 46gr Winchester Hornets shown there are what you want.


It would be nice if we could mail order ammunition from companies like Graf's but your government worries that we're a bunch of terrorists up here so that's a no-go.

Thanks for all the encouraging replies, time to get loading some ammo and try out the tips.

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The contention that WW factory ammo is loaded with W296 is not true. I have it on reliable authority that WW Hornet ammo is loaded with a non-canister grade of their long-discontinued W680. The closest you can get with a canister-grade powder is either Accurate 1680 (the name is no coincidence) or LilGun, depending on the lot-lot variation of either.

It is absolutely impossible to determine powder type by visual examination - ESPECIALLY with fine-grained spherical powders.

On Hornet primers - I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that with such a small case, you must either start the bullet off very gently, or very forcibly. A mild primer allows the bullet to stay locked in place under crimp pressure until the powder charge fully ignites; a vigorous primer allows the bullet to leave the case but hesitate at the rifling start long enough to achieve the same thing. A primer in between can cause poor results because it may sometimes unseat the bullet and sometimes not - and never the same way or amount twice.

That's my evolving theory, at any rate.


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Originally Posted by castnblast
...I went to my local gun store, bought new Winchester cases, two bags of the Win 46 gr. HP bullets, & win small rifle primers. I can match seating depth with the factory loads easy enough.

Any suggestions for powder & charge for factory duplication load? I do have W 296 on hand (and Lil gun and A1680, and H4227).


I had a 22 Hornet that wouldn't shoot too well either. I ended up trading it away for another Hornet. Do you have any 2400 on your bench? If not, perhaps you know someone that shoots handgun and might have some for you to try. You don't need much to make up 15-20 cartridges. The max 45 gr. load Alliant lists is 9.0 grains - OAL 1.723 inches.


Safe Shooting!
Steve Redgwell
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am a newbee here, but when talking bout hornets, it hard for me to not pipe in, my ruger hornet, like the others,(rugers) had a "deep throat" it would peg the winc 46 gr hp, making nice flowers,(cover with a quarter or 50 cent piece) but with the rem 45gr, would go everywhere, thats when i took an empty, pushed a bullet into it with fingers, and gently closed it in the chamber pushing the bullet into the case,(i did that 10 times to get a good average) to load with no freebore, i would not have been able to use the rotary clip, i had my smith set the chamber back, "k"ed it and he honed the rough edges off the trigger which put it about 2# , can now cover with a dime smile
also there is a note in the Speer #14 Manual " for this manual we used cci small pistol primers instead of rifle primers, this change allowed higher velocities at safe pressures, and greatly reduced the extreme variation of pressure that limited the number of propellents we showed in previous books. Do not use these loads with small rifle primers as excessive pressure will result. ..."
anyway, you may have to load to your rifles coal, sorry for being so long winded, but not much of a game on the tv.


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