.22 Hornet loads

tokguy

tokguy

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I've aquired a Lee turrent press Kit. Other than reloading couple hundred rounds of 9mmx19 , I havn't done much else with it.
I've got a 22 hornet that is nice to carry and shoot( Savage 219, break open, hammerless) but is way too expensive to feed.
I picked up the dies, but I'm still a week away from home( rigging in NW AB).
Any personal favorite loads that someone might steer me towards would be greatly appriecated. I havn't selected powder, bullets or primers as of yet.
It'll be a coyote gun, it's a break top, so bullet shape is wide open,( right ?) as it doesn't have to feed them from a magazine.
Thanks
 
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Use lil gun (hodgon) powder. It is the best powder for the 22 hornet/221 Fireball range calibers that I have found. It produces very high velocity with much lower pressures (it seems contradictory) which will conserve brass. I tried IMR 4227 as well but didn't meet with much luck (I still use it for 44 Mag) - any bullet is fine but depending on how old your rifle is you may have to use .223 bullets and not .224 bullets. I recommend you "slug" the bore and find out what bullets will match perfectly. If your rifle is less then 15 years old it isn't required it will likely be using a .224 barrel.

Cheers
 
I use lil gun powder with around 12g and 40 gr nosler baltips or barnes 53 tsx in mine and have good luck with it in both of mine.

Keith
 
I use Alliant 2400. I had problems with lil'gun. even at min load the cases would stick and i had to use a cleaning rod to get them out. Alliant fixed that. Another nice thing about alliant is it throws real nice out of my RCBS thrower. I also found that bullets designed with the ojive for hornett work the best.
 
Can't understand why T3 would have trouble with LilGun. It seems like Hogdon made it for the 22 Hornet.
I haven't been loading for the Hornet for very long. But one morning I found a vintage Brno waiting by my door to get in! I contacted a couple of the old reliable loaders on these posts. I was told LilGun was it, so that is my powder.
The old Brno's have a slow twist, so mine will shoot 40 grain bullets OK, but 45 grain won't to better than 2 to 3 inches at 100 metres.
I guess mine has the .223 barrel, but the .224 40 grain will go under an inch, with my vintage K6, Texas, Weaver scope. I haven't tried bullets of under 40 grains yet, but will soon be trying some .224 36 grain Barnes. One of the old time loaders on here, Eagleye, (an old shooting friend) told me that 35 grain are best in his old Brno, which is even a bit older than mine.
I use 13 grains of LilGun with the 40 grain and 12 with the 45s.
 
H4831 said:
Can't understand why T3 would have trouble with LilGun. It seems like Hogdon made it for the 22 Hornet.
I haven't been loading for the Hornet for very long. But one morning I found a vintage Brno waiting by my door to get in! I contacted a couple of the old reliable loaders on these posts. I was told LilGun was it, so that is my powder.
The old Brno's have a slow twist, so mine will shoot 40 grain bullets OK, but 45 grain won't to better than 2 to 3 inches at 100 metres.
I guess mine has the .223 barrel, but the .224 40 grain will go under an inch, with my vintage K6, Texas, Weaver scope. I haven't tried bullets of under 40 grains yet, but will soon be trying some .224 36 grain Barnes. One of the old time loaders on here, Eagleye, (an old shooting friend) told me that 35 grain are best in his old Brno, which is even a bit older than mine.
I use 13 grains of LilGun with the 40 grain and 12 with the 45s.
Click to expand...

I have not been loading for the hornet much either. I am loading for my grandfather’s old savage. I am not sure of the model number but I think most of the problems stem from the gun. The chamber is very weird. The outside of the chamber is tapered and is narrow towards the back where the bolt face meets the chamber. From there it then tapers out to the barrel O.D. in about the length of the cartridge. From the outside it looks normal. I have never seen anything like this before. I am also not a big fan of the bolt design.

I had done research on various threads and heard Lil’ gun was the best as well. It was not a great performer in the grandfather’s gun. I used the same bullets with 2400 and it works well. I also did learn that out of that old savage 36 gr varmint grenades tumble terribly. Speer 22 hornet TNT seem to work not to bad though. I have heard the hornet is easy to load for but I have had problems with my grandpas.
 
Yes, it sounds like your rifle has some problems.
For some reason, it seems like many Hornets have large chambers. I was told my Brno wold likely have a large chamber, and sure enough, it does. Ths first shot stretches the brass quite a bit. I am trying to neck size, but with a full length resizing die. The Hornet has such a shallow taper, that setting the die to only size most of the neck, still brings the wall of the case in a bit. If I had a neck sizing die, only, I would fire form the new brass, and go from that.
 
H4831 said:
Yes, it sounds like your rifle has some problems.
For some reason, it seems like many Hornets have large chambers. I was told my Brno wold likely have a large chamber, and sure enough, it does. Ths first shot stretches the brass quite a bit. I am trying to neck size, but with a full length resizing die. The Hornet has such a shallow taper, that setting the die to only size most of the neck, still brings the wall of the case in a bit. If I had a neck sizing die, only, I would fire form the new brass, and go from that.
Click to expand...

I wish I had a picture of the chamber end of the barrel to show you.

Tokguy, I just remembered something. When setting up your dies make sure your expander ball is very low in the die, so low that it almost touches the base of the shell inside the die. If the expander ball is too high it will still be inside the neck area of the die because the hornet case is so short. If you try to force the brass in the die you will have one hell of a time to remove it. The Lyman book warns about this happening quite frequently.
 
I tried IMR 4227 and 2400 and a winchester powder 2XX???? (Memory isn't working right now), and I ended up with lil gun. I had trouble with getting the groups I wanted with the others, but lil gun tightened it right up, 4 out of the 5 loads I tried were right at the 1 inch mark, vs 1.5+ for all the other powders. I was using 37gr calhoons.
 
Glock4ever said:
One more tip for all you hornet guys - it is recommended by Speer to use the Pistol primer vice the rifle primers. It gives more consistent pressure curve.
Click to expand...

NO WAY. I tried it.
As has been pinted out, Hornet loads with LilGun are low pressure, so I used pistol primers.
One or two out of five would leak, blacken around a portion of the primer. I had about twenty loaded. I fired them all, same results, about a quarter of them, at least, leaking.
I wouldn't have a clue why, because the pressure should have been well under the pressure of a 357. I have never had a leaking primer with a 357, except once on an overload.
I have since used the same brand of primer, but small rifle, and never had a leak with the Hornet.
 
H4831 - did you try increasing your charge to increase pressure? Speer recommends the the pistol primer because a sm rifle primer has enough priming compound to actually cause the bullet to jump from the neck into the rifling before the powder has burnt enough powder to build up pressure. While it isn't apparent to the shooter the bullet already being into the lands can sometimes cause inaccuracy. Regardless, this tip is only for individuals who are having difficulty trying to get the hornet to group tightly and if your loads work well with sm rifle then don't change it.

Cheers!
 
I've done some testing with my dad's BRNO... had good result with either 12.5gr or 13gr of Lil'gun, CCI pistol primer and Hornady 45gr Hornet bullets (.223) with light crimp... I can't seem to find my load data and test targets (must be at my dad's place)...

But velocity was at around 2800fps, and groups were under 1" at 100Y
 
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