22 hornet, educate me please!

[Member 34319]

I've been eyeballing a Ruger 77/22 in this caliber.

I think it will be a great paper hitter for the range and reloading rifle. Bullets are cheap and plentiful, well usually, usually the lower grain 22 cal bullets sit on shelves. Powder charges must be little to none. Powder choices might be an issue, but I would think there are plenty for it.

Let me know your thoughts on 22 hornet. Easy to load? Good to challenge oneself on paper to 100-200? Quirks?

Thanks!

Reno

Ruger in question.

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[RVTECH]

I like 'unusual' guns so I say go for it!

Ditto on the reloading, minimal powder charges and lighter bullets should be easier to find as you said.

200 yards is going to be about it. I was looking at some data on the round and it starts to 'run out of gas' around that range but not a factor.

 

[kmk1012]

I really like this cartridge, at least reading about it. So much so that I bought a bunch of bullets for it before buying a gun, still don't have the gun, lol. If you pick up your rifle, hit me up as I have close to 500 premium bullets in the 40gr weight I could make you a deal on.

 

[Andy54Hawken]

I can't say anything on the re-loading but...

I did own a Ruger 77/22 in .22Hornet , with a Leupold Vari x II 3x9 scope at one time.
It shot well...and worked great on small critters out to about 200 yards.
Not much to say other than for a small game or varmint rifle...it was excellent combo.
Andy

 

[gmerkt]

This is one that I managed to give a miss over the years. I'd always heard it was a bit tricky to load and sometimes tricky to get it to shoot well. Link to Handloader magazine article:

.22 Hornet | Handloader Magazine

www.handloadermagazine.com

I did have a go at the .25-20 (.25 WCF), which is similar. I'd wanted a 25-20 for many years, decades, in fact. Finally I got a modern Marlin 1894 in .25-20. I tried many powder and bullet combinations, I never could get more than ho-hum accuracy out of it.

 

[No_Regerts]

Brass life can suck on Hornets. If I wanted more velocity than a 22 magnum, but I didn't want to go as fast as a 223, I might look at a 221 fireball.

I also don't care for how square that rifle around the magazine well.

 

[thorborg]

Over fifty years I have wanted a 22 hornet after shooting a revolver chambered for such. Never seemed to cross paths, now the idea has rather withered though not yet to the point I'm not just a bit jealous of your plans.

 

[Mike7b]

I like the 22 hornet, I have a Taurus raging hornet, it's a lot of fun, definitely a range toy, although with a red dot, it's almost a tack driver at 75 yards. Really want to find a raging bee, I need a 218 bee in the safe. Reloading is definitely a single stage affair, a little care and you don't crush the brass. M d smith had a reload page with lots of good loads, I couldn't find it to link to it, I hope I have it saved on another computer. Finding load data shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Member 34319]

Brass life can suck on Hornets. If I wanted more velocity than a 22 magnum, but I didn't want to go as fast as a 223, I might look at a 221 fireball.

I'll look into 221 as well. I'm intrigued by a small centerfire cartridge. That I can spend a good amount of time tinkering with between reloading and challenging myself at typical range distances.

 

[No_Regerts]

I'll look into 221 as well. I'm intrigued by a small centerfire cartridge. That I can spend a good amount of time tinkering with between reloading and challenging myself at typical range distances.

The 221 Fireball is rimless and has a shoulder for headspace. You can have a Hornet chamber reamed to K-Hornet which gives you a more pronounced shoulder.

 

[Member 34319]

The 221 Fireball is rimless and has a shoulder for headspace. You can have a Hornet chamber reamed to K-Hornet which gives you a more pronounced shoulder.

221 looks ideal, like a mini 223. Rifle availability looks scarce though. Shame, looks like a better choice over the Hornet. Hornet seems to have better availability.

 

[Greenbug]

The 221 Fireball is excellent in accuracy and ease of reloading!
I can't say the same for the Hornet, it kinda sucks in both aspects in my opinion.
If you can find a Fireball that isn't priced beyond the stars, go for it, you won't be disappointed!

 

[No_Regerts]

221 looks ideal, like a mini 223. Rifle availability looks scarce though. Shame, looks like a better choice over the Hornet. Hornet seems to have better availability.

If I were doing a fireball, I'd probably rebarrel a Remington Model Seven or something similar. Then you're looking at a $1300+ plinker. The issue with the hornet, for me, is the shape of the brass. The brass is thin to begin with, but it stretches and gets thinner very quickly. It's also easy to screw up brass when seating bullets. The K-Hornet chamber alleviates a lot of that.

 

[oremike]

The air force had a survival in 22 Hornet/ 410.

M6 Aircrew Survival Weapon - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Alderman]

I load 22 Hornet for a Thompson Contender. Seems to be pretty straight forward as far as the loading process but the brass is a little delicate.

 

[40Garand]

Who even has one in stock?

 

[aasbra]

I've had two CZ 527 rifles in 22 Hornet. Still have one of them with a 20" barrel and full length mannlicher stock. After shooting a box of factory ammo in my first Hornet, its been handloading from there. I haven't experimented with different loads, as the one I started with seems to work well in both of the rifles I have owned. 35 grain Hornady V-max, Remington 6 1/2 primer, and a pretty full case of Lil gun powder (I think that I have tried between 11.5 to 13 grains IIRC, definitely check load data and do not rely on my memory). When researching loads for the Hornet, more than a few sources said this was a good starting point, and it works well in my rifles. I do want to try some different bullets and powder at some point, but I haven't ventured from my starting load yet.

I enjoy shooting the Hornet. More punch than a 22 magnum, and definitely less boom than a 222 or 223. It's been a nice intermediate range cartridge for me, and lots of fun to shoot. I did have a few RP nickel cases that split, but they were used brass that I got with some reloading stuff I acquired and I don't know how many times they were fired prior to coming to me. The neck of the brass is thin, and I have crushed one or two cases when I was moving a bit quick trying to seat bullets, but it generally hasn't been a problem for me.

 

[Stomper]

I'll bet the 22 Hornet floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee.

 

[whiskeybill]

I have had a Hornet for about 30 years, a Ruger #1. If you take care with loading practices and not try to hot rod the loads, brass will last a good long time. AA 1680, IMR 4227 and Hodgdon Lil' Gun are the go to powders. I'm still playing with W 296. The 35 Gr V-Max is a good choice for a bullet, it shoots well out of my rifle.

 

[ORhutner]

22 Hornet loaded with a 35gr Vmax is a perfect match under 200 yards. Many a sage rat has been vaporized with that combo out of my CZ527 which would be my recommended platform. The only upside I see to the Ruger is the ease of re-barreling if you want to try out one of the other Hornet variants. If it had been out when I bought mine, I likely would have gone with the 17 hornet.

Sure there are better small cartridges out there but how many of them only sip powder at 11gr - 12gr? If you aren't pushing your reloads to the limit, I have found brass life to be great and the cartridge easy to reload for. I am running Winchester Brass, 35gr Vmax's and Lil-gun powder which has remained reasonable in price and available on the shelf compared to a lot of other powders.

This is the gun I take to introduce someone to center fire shooting as there is no recoil and the report/concussion is about as minimal as you get for a center fire. The smile on a new shooters face as they are blowing up pudding cups ($.99 a six pack at the dollar store and an awesome reactive target) is awesome. They are usually ready after a couple mags to then try something larger also after this gateway drug.

I also have a 20 VarTarg (221 Fireball necked down to 20 Cal) which is an awesome cartridge. I plan to build a 221 fireball since I am already setup with the brass and dies. If you go in knowing and planning to only re-load for the Fireball I think you would love it. It will be harder to come across an already chambered rifle in this cartridge. If you go this route I would recommend a build but do your research as a lot of normal donor actions have issues with FTF and FTE with FTE being the most common issue.

In conclusion, the 22 hornet is just fun. Plain, simple, fun so go get one!!!