.22 Hornet Info

[sailorb]

I just got a 77/22 in .22 Hornet. I've wanted a hornet for a while as an alternative to the .17 rimfires. For about the same price or a bit less, I can roll my own, ammo wise and it seems to me to get better performance. I am looking for advice and input on reloading this cartridge. I have a bunch of manuals and all seem to stress the col of the round. Many suggest that the bullet be touching the lands of the rifling. Is that you all's experience? As part of the purchase, I got dies both FL and neck, plus some once fired empties and bullets in 40gr, 45gr and 55gr. The 40 and 45 are Sierras label for the Hornet and the 55s are Rem PSP.
I have 2400, H110, IMR 4198 and Lil' Gun for powders. Any advise or pet loads to recommend?

 

[mattsbox99]

You only need Lil Gun and the 40 or 45, the 55 is too long. Fill the case with Lil Gun and seat the 40 with Rem 6 1/2 primers in Winchester brass and you'll be very impressed.

 

[MADISON]

I have not used Lil Gun.
With a 45 grain bullet I get dime size acuracy with 9.9 grains of 2400.
All the other powders gave me 1 1/2 inc groups.

 

[rigger]

I use 12.6 grains of Lil Gun under a 40 grain bullet. I tried several different powders but Lil Gun works way better than any of the others in my gun.

I only neck size the Hornet. It headspaces on the rim so full length resizing isn't necessary as long as you fire it in the same gun. It also helps to keep the bullet aligned in the chamber when you neck size instead of full length sizing due to the brass being fire formed to your chamber.

I can't seat mine out far enough to reach the lands and still get them to work in my magazine. It really doesn't seem to affect accuracy in my winchester 43. I've tried seating them out further and loading them single shot with no noticeable change in accuracy. I'd just seat them out as far as you can and still get them to work in your magazine.

 

[Bryan]

When I had my hornets I used H110 can't remember the exact charge,and the 45 grain winchester hollow point.They shot very well from the Ruger 77 and the NEF.The brass seemed like it stretched pretty bad.

 

[cattleduffer]

two important things to remember about the hornet (1) the overall length is critical in a bolt repeater magazine, the reloading manuals always give the correct length. (2) you should crimp the projectile to prevent it from being blasted out of the case prematurely by the primer or being pushed out by a compressed load. i have just checked the boxes i have of winchester hornet ammunition and they are crimped. in the mid seventies i dispatched many foxes in central victoria(australia). i used a light crimp due to the compressed load, very few foxes got away.

cd

 

[Saltwatershooter]

11.0 grains of H110 and 40 grain V-Max is my go to load for a #1.

 

[gray wolf]

Lil Gun and don't look back. The Hornet bullets are a little smaller than the others you have. I have fired both of them with good results.

GW.

 

[Anonymous]

I have had several hornets over the years and found them to be quite finicky and sensitive to minute load variation. I would suggest that you take care to trim your cases , use bench rest primers, and weigh each charge. 40-45 grain bullets are the way to go. Don't mean to bash the hornet but the small case makes tight loading critical in my experience.

 

[Lloyd Smale]

Mine shoots best with aa1680 and a horady 35 vmax. the round is very primer sensitive. Ive had the best overal luck with cci small rifle bench rest primers (and i usually dont buy into the bench rest primer deal) but some primer experimenting will make a big differnce in group size.