22 Hornet loads and Lil Gun. 40 Blitzking, 40 hornady V-Max

[Dean]

Who says Hornets are not an accurate round. Have been playing with a bunch of different loads for the Hornet that I thought might be of interest

All are loaded in weighed and batched in .5 grain lots, Winchester brass with Federal Small Pistol Primers (the softer igniting pistol primers really assist in consistent velocity), no crimp and shot from a newer CZ 527 American, 1/16 twist.
Lee Collet neck sizing die and a Hornady universal .22 caliber seating die ( the long case/bullet guide really helps to seat the bullet straight in the thin walled Hornet case)

12.0 grains Lil'Gun, 50 grain Horn SPSX, 1 hole at 100 and under 1/2" at two hundred
12.3 Lil'Gun, 50 Grain Horn SPSX, 1.5" at 100
12.6 Lil'Gun, 50 grain Horn SPSX 1 hole at 100, just over .3" at 200.
12.0 and 12.6 of Lil'Gun shot the 40 grain Sierra Blitz King, the 36 grain Barnes Varmit Grenade and the 35 Grain V-Max into groups just as tight as the 50 grn SPSX, but they are quite a lot faster. (12.6 grains and a 40 grain V-Max or BlitzKing Chrono at 3073 FPS with less than 30 FPS max variation in velocity in 20 rounds)
The Sierra 52 grain HPBT and 12.6 of Lil'Gun shot one hole groups at 200 yards.
This CZ really isn't pciky as it shoots Winchester 46 grain HP, 45 grain Privi soft points and Hornady 35 Grain V-max factory ammo just about as good as the handloads, so for guys that don't load there is a wide choice af factory fodder. Since I can load 50 for $12 and they are $32-$49 for the factory ones, will stick to handloading.

Tried H-110, started at 11, 11.3 and 11.6 grains with the 35 Grain V-maxs and the 40 Grain Blitzkings. It did not group well  with any of the H-110 and showed signs of vertical stringing due to wide fluctuations in the velocity.
The 50 grain Varmint Grenade shot 6"+ groups, it is way too long and Barnes even warns you on the label to use a 1/10 twist. Thought I would try it anyway.
13.0 Grains of Lil'Gun shows as max load for a 55 grain bullet in my loading manual, and that is the most you can get in the little case anyhow, but as usual start low and work up carefully. Also remember, switching to Small rifle primers will boost pressures.

Biggest advantage to Lil'Gun is it devlops 200-300 FPS higher velocities but at way lower pressures so the brass lasts much longer, rarely needs to be trimed, and you can't accidentally make an overload becuase the case won't hold that much powder.

[epitome]

I'm using Nosler 50gr Ballistic tips in front of 10.7gr of AR2205 powder and Federal 205 small rifle primers in my K-Hornet.

I have been very happy with it so far.

Another load I've just started using involves the Nosler 40gr BT's in front of 12gr of AR2205 and the same primers.

I have a few boxes of Remington small pistol primers to try out at some stage.

I've been trying out the 50gr Sierra TNT's. But haven't liked them much. They are accurate enough, but can push too far into the case. I even had two jiggle their way into the case just driving the car.

[Dean]

I too have tried the TNTs because they are really inexpensive. In the 221 Fireball, the 223 and the 22 hornet none have been all that fond of them. They shoot just okay and not great.

For the 22 Hornet, due to the thin case at the neck, you need to seat them at 1.81 L.O.A. and then they won't shake into the case. Problem is this is too long for some magazine fed rifles, the CZ is okay, but the ruger won't accept rounds that long.

In addition, TNTs are just slightly undersize compared to most other 224 bullets, they are about .2237, rather than a full .224 if you mike them with a good caliper, and they get smaller quicker, so a tighter neck sizing and seating them longer solves the sliding into the case problem. Doesn't however make them group any better.

[epitome]

Aaaaahhh

That explains it. Those TNT's just don't seem to fit the neck as tightly as they should. If they are slightly under size, that would be why.

I load mine as long as I can, but am restricted by the capacity of the magazine of my Ruger. I do however load my shells 2.3mm longer than the standard length, as that is the limit of what my magazine can handle.

The standard 22 Hornet is 43mm long and my reloads are 45.3mm long. I could just squeeze it to 46mm, but that gets a little too tight in the magazine for my liking.

[Dean]

Gophers have been out for almost 2 months. Have had a chance to try many different Hornet loads on them. Prvi 45 grain factory soft points, kills well, accurate but not at all explosive. Winchester 46 grain HP factory, just about as accurrate, more destructive hits.

Now for the Handloads, 35 grain Horn V-Max on 12.6 of Lil'gun and a small pistol primer, very accurate, much flatter shooting and VERY destructive. Same is true of the 40 grain V-max, exact same load, but they are much better in the wind and retain velocity much better past 150 yards than the 35 grain ones do. Much more destructive than the 35s at distances over 200. Next time out will try the 40 grain BlitzKings, same loading.

Prvi and Winchesters shoot almost same POI, the 35 and 40 V-maxs and the 40 Blitzkings also shoot to almost the same POI too but their POI is 3.5" high and 1.5" right of where the two factory loads hit so resighting when using the faster loads helps lots. The extra 500 feet a second sure flattens the rajectory and the 40% lower pressure of the Lil'Gun means I have some casees with more than a dozen loads and none have been even trimmed yet, let alone seperated. I had originally planned to K this one, but with the accurracy, speed and case life I am getting I have decided to just leave it stock.

How goes it with you?

[epitome]

I now have a couple of hundred cases in K and have reloaded the early ones 4 times so far.

I've only had one case rupture at this point and it split vertically from just below the neck about 2-2.5mm.

Beyond that the Ruger is shooting fantastically and the 50gr and 40gr Ballistic Tips perform exceptionally well.

I bought a box of Nosler "Shots" last weekend. They're a 50gr .224 pointed soft point bullet, that cost a quarter of the price of the BT's. They have a flat base instead of the boat tail base of the BT's. Apparently they are very popular with the pro roo shooters for their .223's. Mainly because they perform well on roos and are very cheap.

[fhlawson]

http://
new to this do you crimp your 22 hornets??

[Dean]

Lots of guys do and claim it improves accuraccy. There are no cannelures on any of the bullets I load so I have never ttried crimping mine. I have Lil"gun and 40 grain Blitzking loads that shoot well under an inch at 200 yards so in my case I don't believe a crimp will improve it. If I was having trouble getting the good groups it is something I would definitely try given how many guys have said it has worked well for them. Just would keep it as a last resort, and would play with neck tension first, particularly on bullets with no cannelure (crimp ring).

[epitome]

No. I don't crimp my loads. As Dean said, the bullets don't have crimping grooves on them.

[epitome]

I shot a group a while back of the 50gr BT's with 10 grains of AR2205 powder and got a group that measured a neat 1" from outside to outside. My main hunting load using 10.7 grains of AR2205 works great, but I haven't tried shooting a group with that load.

I tried a full 11 grain load this last weekend. It shot well enough, but was a compressed load. So I won't be using it again, since I prefer to steer clear of compressed loads. At least not with the 50gr BT's. It (the 11gr load) was fine with the shorter 50gr SHOTS bullets though.

I also measured some of the Sierra TNT's and they came out at .2235" to .2237". So as you said Dean, they are slightly undersized and the thin neck of the Hornet case just won't hold them tight enough.

Some of my brass has been reloaded 7 or 8 times now and is still going. I have had another couple of cases split just below the neck, but that is all. Although I used a bunch of cartridges this last weekend, which I had reloaded with Remington No 7 1/2 Small Rifle Bench Rest Primers. In the 30 or 40 shots I fired, I had 2 bad primers, that failed to ignite. I've never had this occur with the Federal 205 SRP's and I've used hundreds of them.

I've got a few packets of the Remy primers, so once they are used up I won't be guying them again. I did have a few packets of their small pistol primers. I tried them, but had inconsistent results from them and sold the remaining primers to a mate of mine to use in his standard 22 Hornet. He has had good results from them.

[epitome]

Further to the above, I have been reading around and found that all of Hodgdon's extruded powders are in fact made in Australia by Thales at their ADI plant.

The new IMR 8208 XBR powder for the benchrest crowd is an example. I believe it may well be the powder we know as AR2219. H4198 is AR2207, Benchmark is BM2, H4895 is AR2206H, H4350 is AR2209, H4831 is AR2213SC and IMR 4227/H4227 is the powder I use, called AR2205. There might be other, but I don't know which of the other Hodgdon/IMR powders are extruded powders.

Trail Boss is made by ADI also. They developed it for Hodgdon and it went onto the US market first. It has now been released onto the Aussie market. I have been wondering about using it for a light low noise, reduced velocity load for my Hornet. I reckon I could get 22WMR equaling loads using cheap lead bullets for close up shooting and plinking.

One other thing. I loaded up a heap of ammo for my weekend trip the other week (see the pics in the "Other Pics" section). I used a packet of Remington Small Rifle Benchrest Primers, I picked up not long ago, when my usual Federal 205 SRP's were not in stock. Out of 35-40 shots that weekend, I had 2 shots fail to fire. Both of which had dud primers. I have never had this occur before. So if that is the quality I can expect from Remington, I wont be using Remington primers again.