New to me 22 Hornet

I like your Annie 22 hornet your one lucky guy, please let us know how it shoots,
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The target in the picture has a five shot .465" group on it.I am going to try Remington 6-1/2 primers,and some small pistol primers though,just to see the results.
 
Boomer said:
Hornets have to be one of the most finicky cartridges to load for accuracy; perhaps thats their charm. Last week I loaded 10 grs of 2400 with a small pistol primer behind a Hornady 45 gr bullet and it blew the primer out of the case and appears have to have enlarged the primer pocket. Go figure, it is supposed to be a factory equivalent load, and this was in new Winchester brass. Despite that I got minute of fox accuracy with 10 grs of 4227 and 9.5 grs of H-110 using the Hornady 45 gr .224" Hornet bullet. I tried Sierras, and expected them to be better due to their shorter ogive but the results were worse than dismal out of this old Savage 340. I saw a BSA Martini in .22 Hornet for sale in the Access, now that's tempting as are Clay's Mannlicher stocked CZz.!
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I wonder if you are using .224" diameter bullets. That is what I have been using. The 45 grain Speer won't stablaize, nor would the 36 grain Barnes hollow point Varmit Grenade. They were longer than standard 45 grain. 13 grains of LilGun with a 40 grain bullet is shown as maximum on the Hodgdon site, but with only a pressure of 28,400 CUP. When using pistol primers, some of them leaked pressure. The rifle primers look like a whale of a lot more pressure than what is shown.
I can't imagine .001" in diameter size having a noticeable difference in pressure, but maybe it has.
Have you, or anyone else, tried both diameters?
 
Boomer: Did you confirm the length of the brass? I bought 2 bags of Win Brass and I had 3 spare cases (203 cases) - 1 of them was really long. So long that when I fired it the primer pocket stretched and the case had to be turfed. I learned my lesson, now I trim all my new brass...
 
H4831 said:
I wonder if you are using .224" diameter bullets. That is what I have been using. The 45 grain Speer won't stablaize, nor would the 36 grain Barnes hollow point Varmit Grenade. They were longer than standard 45 grain. 13 grains of LilGun with a 40 grain bullet is shown as maximum on the Hodgdon site, but with only a pressure of 28,400 CUP. When using pistol primers, some of them leaked pressure. The rifle primers look like a whale of a lot more pressure than what is shown.
I can't imagine .001" in diameter size having a noticeable difference in pressure, but maybe it has.
Have you, or anyone else, tried both diameters?
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My understanding is that there haven't been any .223 Hornet barrels made since WW-2, so I haven't tried them. Ken Waters stated in Pet Loads that he couldn't detect an accuracy advantage in his .224 barrel between either diamter, although he does list data for both diameters. Still, comparing the two side by side might prove interesting.

Glock4ever said:
Boomer: Did you confirm the length of the brass? I bought 2 bags of Win Brass and I had 3 spare cases (203 cases) - 1 of them was really long. So long that when I fired it the primer pocket stretched and the case had to be turfed. I learned my lesson, now I trim all my new brass...
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I measured a few out of the bag, then measured them again after I trued them up, and those ones were within spec. But I admit I didn't measure all of them, so that certainly could have accounted for the high pressure, at least to the extent that I can't discount the possibility. I bought 500, so I might need to get a Hornet shell holder for my Giraud.
 
Boomer: Almost all of the brass I got new were GTG but I definitely was scratching my head when I saw that casing - the neck was all ragged, it looked like it was ripped almost and the primer pretty much fell out of the pocket. It didn't even look like there was over pressure (i.e. flattened primer) it just dropped out before I could even re-size. Definitely something to watch for.
 
My SAKO had a .223 barrel and that ##### was as inconsistent as a woman. It was free floated and would shoot 1/2" one day and all over the paper the next.Finally sold it out of frustration...........................Harold
 
I have an Annie 1533 fullstock, double set trigger. It is a keeper, but tempermental as heck! I've had fun experimenting, but so far the Sierra 45 gr. hornet seems like the best bullets, as well as the Remington 45 HP. I like lil' gun powder in this rifle too.
 
I've also had small pistol primers leak in 22 hornet reloads.
I only tried one load in my Browning and it shoots great.
40gr vmax loaded as long as possible,12.5 gr of lil'gun and a cci br primer.
it's good to be lucky.
 
mbogo3 said:
My SAKO had a .223 barrel and that ##### was as inconsistent as a woman. It was free floated and would shoot 1/2" one day and all over the paper the next.Finally sold it out of frustration...........................Harold
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Harold,

Same here. Myself and River Rat on board here each bought brand new Model 78 SAKOs back in the early 80s. They were nothing but frustrating to try to keep shooting accurately.

After three years of trying, I finally traded mine for an extra large Yukon lynx hide.........which a few years later was worth the trade. :D

Ted
 
Boomer said:
My understanding is that there haven't been any .223 Hornet barrels made since WW-2, so I haven't tried them.
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According to James Calhoon, the take-off barrels he has for sale on his site from time to time are .223 bore, Hornet barrels, off new CZ rifles. Shown on the bottom of his "informative articles" page.

Apparently still in pretty common use in the Euro market.

I've read in a couple different places that the difference in pressures is not substantial between the two bore sizes when shooting .224" bullets. That would go a ways to explaining why we do not see the ammo companies (lawyer driven decisions there!) loading different ammo specifically for the .223' tubes. Makes me wonder if they load all the factory hornet down a bit , for that , though.

Cheers
Trev
 
Why not? said:
Harold,

Same here. Myself and River Rat on board here each bought brand new Model 78 SAKOs back in the early 80s. They were nothing but frustrating to try to keep shooting accurately.

After three years of trying, I finally traded mine for an extra large Yukon lynx hide.........which a few years later was worth the trade. :D

Ted
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Ted, what did you find with shooting either .224 bullets, or .223, in a .223 barrel?
I'm also sending yu an email, on a different subject.
Bruce
 
bought a Anschutz 1730-22H last summer with the lighter barrel came with a target,
100M that is .625" group
powder lil gun 13.0 gr.
case win.
primer fed.sm. pistol
bullet 40gr. sierra hornet
oal. 1.750"
the gun is a 2002 year of mfg. I will mount a scope this winter and try it out next year previous owner shot it very little sold to me for $1500
 
Those are amazingly accurate rifles, very capable of small groups, I believe that the Hornet and the Bee are not inherently accurate rounds with there long sloping shoulder and rimmed design. I believe that was the original reason behind the K-Hornet and Mashburn Bee, some added powder capacity seals the deal.
 
I loaded up some more test loads using the 40gr v-max,and Lil Gun,but this time I used Remington 6-1/2 primers and tried both 12.5gr and 13 gr of powder.It was breezy and zero,but I managed a best five shoot group of .450", and ten shots were right around 3/4".That's good enough for me for now.Come next spring,I will retest in better weather,and finalize the powder charge.For now,I will load up a few rounds for use on coyotes this winter.
 
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