Thread: 22 Hornet - Over Length Fired Once Cases?

Just a thought, seeing as the hornet is so painfully twiggy like, perhaps a boatail might be easier on the necks. I have a packet of 40 gr vmax coming just for that reason, see how we go.

Yeah agreed, boat tail would be easier to load.

Hugh, what are you culling with the Hornet?

Originally Posted by JohnDuxbury

Hugh, what are you culling with the Hornet?

Hello John, I have to confess that I had no Idea where Waikouaiti is! Sorry, northislander! You live in an amazingly beautiful part of the country!

I've been commercially culling since October 2020. I'm using the Hornet for long range 150 - 200m shooting rabbits, hare, Canada Goose, possum, goats and have set myself the objective this year of shooting a red deer or fallow, or both. That will be at close range, with careful bullet placement.

The Hornet is setup with both daylight scope and thermal imaging scope for long range night shooting.

No wallabies in this part of the north island.

Originally Posted by sneeze

You might find this interesting https://www.ampannealing.com/article...he-microscope/

Do people actually read all that?

Those projectiles were made by Winchester for the .22 Rimfire Magnum and were available in bulk packs for a short period in the 1980's.
Most were purchased for loading .22 Hornet but people also experimented with them (unsuccessfully) in .222 and .223's. They are quite thin in the jacket and break up easily at high velocity.

Originally Posted by gundoc

Those projectiles were made by Winchester for the .22 Rimfire Magnum and were available in bulk packs for a short period in the 1980's.
Most were purchased for loading .22 Hornet but people also experimented with them (unsuccessfully) in .222 and .223's. They are quite thin in the jacket and break up easily at high velocity.

@gundoc, you are exactly the person who I was waiting a response from. I knew a fella who has been around as long as you, would know the answer. Thanks and best wishes for 2024! Hugh

Shot a lot of them at goats out of my 223. Very effective at shorter ranges.

You could buy these by the kg back in the day

Originally Posted by sportco62

Shot a lot of them at goats out of my 223. Very effective at shorter ranges.

You could buy these by the kg back in the day

Thanks sportco62. Yes, back in the day, but cant get them no more apparently. Back at that time I only had the Hornet and 30-06 and 22LR. I did shoot quite a few goats with the Hornet the hornet, but as you say, at shorter ranges. Cheers, Hugh

love to be able to get more

Re trimming, you can get an attachment to connect a battery drill to the RCBS trimmer, I will see if I can find mine tomorrow. From memory I didn't find it that great. It might be better if doing bulk amounts of brass.
I will have another go with it and decide whether to lend it to you or give it to you should you be interested in using it.

Well my 40 gr vmax arrived, I loaded three, now to get them to feed into the mag I ended up pushing the projectile down enough to just touch the end, not satisfactory but they did feed beautifully. I did fire them and I must have fired at the wrong spot, I had old spots all over. Anyway get back home and had a brainwave, out with the little pliers and ripped off the red plastic bits,easy peasy, back down to the range and very pleased to get a tight group, but slightly high and 1 1/2 inches to right. Back again to load three more and now with no nose to worry about I seated them longer, back to range and no problem feeding into the chamber, had lots of problems with normal hornet ammo but these babies fed marvellous. Now the longer seating gave me a bigger group but now slightly left of target. Have three more ready to go in the morning.
Shall play with the seating but the feeding is out of this world for a hornet.
In case anyone wants to comment on firing the vmax without a plastic tip I shall tell a little story.
Had a 6.5 in 204 case and got some cheap 85 gr speers, these were damn effective, on wallaby's I shot one in the head at 328 yrs as that's all that was poking out of the gorse, micky ducks fav spot, so I'm not too worried on performance. More tomorrow.

What hornet do you have? Never had feeding problems with any of mine

Originally Posted by blip

What hornet do you have? Never had feeding problems with any of mine

I have two 465s.
Three more this morning. By seating a little deeper I got an xtra 15 fps. Up from a pedestrian 2135 to a screaming 2150 average.
I tried feeding from the side as in rifle lying down and then slowly and these vmaxs less the red knob feed flawlessly. Happy chappy.
Now to sight in at a ton and look out rabbits and others.

Originally Posted by SmokeyJason

I have two 465s.
Three more this morning. By seating a little deeper I got an xtra 15 fps. Up from a pedestrian 2135 to a screaming 2150 average.
I tried feeding from the side as in rifle lying down and then slowly and these vmaxs less the red knob feed flawlessly. Happy chappy.
Now to sight in at a ton and look out rabbits and others.

Interesting. I have been avoiding pointy projectiles, like VMax, because my understanding is the Hornet was developed (or be it 100 years ago).to shoot round nosed bullets. I've been loading the 40grn Winchester HP W/C on the right of photo. Just now the courier has delivered Speer #1023 45grn Sptzer SP BC 0.143, which I like the look of for smooth feeding. Got 8 projectiles now for comparison. Going to load ten of each with same powder charge, 10 or 11 guns AR2207 and see which feeds and groups best. Might milk bottles test them too.

It is fairly academic because any of these projectiles will kill well, but good to know in terms of what is available in times of shortages.