Thread: .22 hornet

Afternoon all,

Who’s shooting or loading for a 22 hornet? If factory ammo what are you using is it even available?

If reloading what weights and powder?

Whats your use for the funny wee cartridge?

Is it much quieter that the .222 rem?

Thank you in advance

I’m loading 40grain hollow point with 12.5 grains of lil-gun
Kids use it for rabbits and plinking mostly although it has taken a red hind
No idea how many rabbits possums and wallaby’s this little single shot has taken over the years it’s a great and very accurate little cartridge

Just dragged mine out of the safe. Its been too long. Getting it threaded for a suppressor.
Cheap to run with the similar load above. 12.5 and 40 vmax.
Can be fussy to reload with thin necks. Crushed two cases yesterday not aligned properly when seating the bullet. Different cases have differing capacities of powder.
Great little cartridge.

Great wee cartridge. Factory ammo is available, a bit hard to find at the moment.
I've been loading 40gr Vmax with 11 grains of Win 296. About to try 35gn Vmax with ADI2205, 11.6gns should get close to 2900fps.
A lot quieter than my 22-250, haven't compared it to a 222.

We used it a lot as a kid I don’t no what happened to it I no the .222’s went when the .223 was purchased so maybe it went with them many of goats and peacocks taken with ours a few fallow with a kick up the ass as we weren’t aloud to shoot the fallow without grandad but we managed

yes 22 hornet - quieter than a 222 but has severe limitations on deer - I tried one many years ago and after loosing a couple of deer with it gave up on it- consider this you are out hunting and a good stag pops up - you are seriously under gunned - and I mean seriously - fun to shoot yes- expensive on rabbits hares- 22 Magnum will do there and cheaper to run

I found with mine that the Lee dies did not resize the cases enough to work in an early ZKW465. Every 3rd or so had to be popped out of the chamber with a rod, was fine on a diet of factory ammo so basically the answer I think would have been a skim off the base of the die and check it for function as it was the tapered section of the case body where the issue was. Something to be aware of if you start getting stuck reloaded cases.

I had a sneaky thought to K-hornet mine but it was in such good nick I decided to sell it off - as per regret it now but there you go. If I found one with a damaged barrel I'd get a new tube and make it a K-hornet, noticeable improvement and easier on cases over the standard version.

Edit- I have some .22Bee pills that I used on heavier animals and they were pretty good - a 45gr pill that has a very flat face and a segmented head, designed as a varmint bullet on the Bee cartridge but quite useful at the slower speeds of the Hornet. I think I've got most of a 100 pack left...

Have a old Walther 22 K Hornet version, only has a 20 inch barrel so velocity is about the same as a standard Hornet. I use the 45 gr Hornady SP and 40 gr BT, both work well shooting rabbits out to about 200 yards. Cheap to load , about 600 rounds from a pound of powder. A good improvement on the 22 magnum so long as you reload. Noise wise less than the 222/223 but still a sharp crack if un suppressed. Great wee cartridge.

Whatever you want to know about the Hornet is on the sub-calibre website Saubier.com

From handloaders digest 1994. Note the primers

I started loading for 22 Hornet in 2019 but due to buying several boxes of PPU when I got my old Savage 23D I have not yet done a lot with reloads. I would not describe the PPU as giving me amazing groups but I've had no trouble head and neck shooting hares around 100m from a rest (fence post) and one at 150m with a slight cross wind that took the hare through the kidneys instead of the head.

I love the calibre, cheap to run and entirely capable of taking goat and fallow at my normal ranges - sub 100m. I like the calibre enough to upgrade to an expensive BRNO recently but have not got to use that other than at the range yet. I'm thinking of keeping the Savage and threading it as the action has been turned into a colander by previous owners so little collectors value. But a very good barrel on it. The Brno I would hate to see cut and threaded.

It is louder unsuppressed than 22LR but not by much. So real handy in areas where noise matters and you want to shoot centrefire. I suspect with the price of components others may also show more interest in this old calbre.

If you have a 223 you could just down load it to 22 hornet velocities, and not need to buy another rifle and scope.

My reduced 223 loads shoot freaking awesome. I just used 55gr bullets as that's what I had, but it'd work just the same with some 40's I'm sure.

I was running 14gr of IMR4198 behind the 55gr in 223 rem which gave 2200 fps and tiny little groups.

Originally Posted by GWH

If you have a 223 you could just down load it to 22 hornet velocities, and not need to buy another rifle and scope.

My reduced 223 loads shoot freaking awesome. I just used 55gr bullets as that's what I had, but it'd work just the same with some 40's I'm sure.

I was running 14gr of IMR4198 behind the 55gr in 223 rem which gave 2200 fps and tiny little groups.

Greetings @GWH and all,
I made up some reduced loads, years ago, for my .223 which my son used for shooting Hares. I don't have my load notes for the now gone rifle but I pulled some apart yesterday to find what is probably 15 grains of IMR4198 behind the 45 grain projectile. I can't find where I got the load from. Your load of 14 grains with the 55 grain looks so similar so I wonder if you remember where it came from as I have come up empty from my data scources.
Regards Grandpamac.

Originally Posted by GWH

If you have a 223 you could just down load it to 22 hornet velocities, and not need to buy another rifle and scope.

My reduced 223 loads shoot freaking awesome. I just used 55gr bullets as that's what I had, but it'd work just the same with some 40's I'm sure.

I was running 14gr of IMR4198 behind the 55gr in 223 rem which gave 2200 fps and tiny little groups.

I've just looked at my notes, I chronoed 2850 average of 5 shots, 40gn Jacketed HP FB over 11.0gn of WC296 = Belmont Mag Pistol powder

Originally Posted by grandpamac

Greetings @GWH and all,
I made up some reduced loads, years ago, for my .223 which my son used for shooting Hares. I don't have my load notes for the now gone rifle but I pulled some apart yesterday to find what is probably 15 grains of IMR4198 behind the 45 grain projectile. I can't find where I got the load from. Your load of 14 grains with the 55 grain looks so similar so I wonder if you remember where it came from as I have come up empty from my data scources.
Regards Grandpamac.

I have got all of my IMR4198 reduced load info from a chap in the US, that has done extensive work with reduced loads in many cartridges from 223 up thru to 3006, using IMR4198, RE7 and a few other powders of similar burn rates. I have personally used his recommendations with 4198 in 223, 243, 6.5CM 7mm08. The IMR 4198 and Re7 is the perfect powder for this job.

If you search for "seafire reduced loads" and the cartridge you are interested in, and look for any posts from a member called 'seafire' on the 24hourcampfire forum.

With 223, he says 14gr of imr4198 behind any projectile weight that is suitable for your barrel twist will work fine, I tried 14gr upto 16gr from memory and the 14gr shot tiny groups, the other charges were well acceptable, but its hard to argue when a load shoots groups in the .2's at 100 yds.

I must try it with 40gr bullets.