22 hornet-model 40

m1978

m1978

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recently acquired a savage model 40. anybody else have one of these and any good reloads to share?

thanks
 
I have no experience with the Savage but I used to have a BRNO that loved IMR 4198.
 
Have a friend that has one, he has worked up an accurate load for it. I know he likes to use Lil gun powder for his other 22 Hornet, will chec for you, next time I see him..

BD..
 
I find lil gun to be a good powder in the Hornet, but that's in my 22/77.

Depends what level of accuracy you're expecting, I suppose. 1"-1 1/2" is easy to get, pretty much any load published anywhere should be in this ballpark, and is adequate for gophers within the Hornet's range. Maybe 200yds.
 
i have some lil gun, as i liked its low pressure. the fellow who sold it to me claimed he was getting .5" groups with nosler ballistic tips and almost as good with 40 gr vmaxs. time to experiment!
 
Will, 13.1gr of lil gun in my 77/22 is putting me at about 1/2" with the 35gr VMax's at a little over 3100fps, but that's only on a calm day with no wind whatsoever.

In realistic gopher-shooting conditions, it's merely sub-MOA.

But the 35 grainers really do their job on gophers. It's hard to tell the difference between a 223-hit gopher and a Hornet-hit one. It's a lot more spectacular than any rimfire at any range.
 
back to prosper, did you try any more than 13.1 gr with the 35 gr V-Max's? I know that the case is getting pretty full at that point, but I have no Lilgun data for the 35 gr bullets and fifty of them just BEGGING to be loaded. I was thinking of starting at a figure north of 13.1, based on what I use for 40 gr bullets....

Doug
 
Tried 13.3, but accuracy started to drop, and I was starting to get some pressure signs on the primer. Granted, I was using small pistol primers, they probably start showing signs earlier.

I expect I could fit ~14.0 in a fire-formed case (neck-only sized), using a drop tube and light compression
 
My Ruger M77/22 Hornet likes 13 grs of LilGun under the 40 gr VMax for 2950-3000fps and 5 shot groups at 100 meters that have been as small as .714"..but average about an inch.....the 6-24X Elite 4200 helps here:D ...I load them to 1.910" OAL and use it as a single shot...great gopher load...a friend shoots the same load in a #1 Hornet and we smack them out to about 150 yards regularly...:)
 
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