I like the 22 Hornet as well. The only problem with it is case neck splits. The K Hornet chamber pretty much stops this problem.
My hornet is on a heavy side wall Martini Cadet action, with a straight 1 inch barrel. It shoots very well. One thing though, if you've got a lot of ground hogs, it makes for a lot of reloading. At this stage of the game, even though I still enjoy it, loading up 1500 to 2000 rounds of 22 Hornet or K Hornet, starts to get tedious. As you can tell, I don't have a progressive press.
As much as I like the 22 Hornet, I have to say I also really like the 22WMR. It will easily kill a ground hog or rabbit, past 150 yards, if you know your rifle and ammuntion combination. I really need to find some 30 grain MAXI Mag TNT, by the brick. Doesn't seem to be available anymore. It has a muzzle velocity of 2240 fps out of my CZ452 and is very accurate. The charts say the bullet is still doing 1375 fps at 100 yards and has about an inch and a half of trajectory at 100 yards. The 22 Hornet is about 800 fps faster atthe muzzle but there is less 1/2 inch of trajectory difference between them.
Not that it's a big deal but the cost of aquiring brass, bullets, primers, powder, dies etc then factor in the time to reload and the Hornet is quite a bit more expensive to shoot. Now don't think for one second that I'm trying to put you off from your build, because I'm not, by all means do it. All I'm saying, IMHO, is that if you are into some serious gopher shooting as I was into last June, 1500 rounds didn't even make a dent in the gopher population, on the quarter section I was shooting on. There was no way to hand load and keep up the shooting pace from sun up to sun down. I only had 2 days to shoot.
As much as I like the 22 Hornet, and I like it very much, for shooting under such conditions as described above, on the little ground squirrels that permeated the ranch, of my cousin in Alberta, east of Cardston the 22lr wasn't quite enough but the 22WMR filled the bill very nicely on shots out past 150 yards. I didn't bother with anything further out because there wasn't a dry place to lay down on and I didn't feel like carrying a mat around with me as it's a pain to move while positioning. The mono cane rest worked very well on the longer shots.
Just one caveat, on such small cartridges, it's very easy to reach maximum powder levels in a hurry. 1/10 grain can easily be the difference between a "to hot" load and a perfect load.
My hornet is on a heavy side wall Martini Cadet action, with a straight 1 inch barrel. It shoots very well. One thing though, if you've got a lot of ground hogs, it makes for a lot of reloading. At this stage of the game, even though I still enjoy it, loading up 1500 to 2000 rounds of 22 Hornet or K Hornet, starts to get tedious. As you can tell, I don't have a progressive press.
As much as I like the 22 Hornet, I have to say I also really like the 22WMR. It will easily kill a ground hog or rabbit, past 150 yards, if you know your rifle and ammuntion combination. I really need to find some 30 grain MAXI Mag TNT, by the brick. Doesn't seem to be available anymore. It has a muzzle velocity of 2240 fps out of my CZ452 and is very accurate. The charts say the bullet is still doing 1375 fps at 100 yards and has about an inch and a half of trajectory at 100 yards. The 22 Hornet is about 800 fps faster atthe muzzle but there is less 1/2 inch of trajectory difference between them.
Not that it's a big deal but the cost of aquiring brass, bullets, primers, powder, dies etc then factor in the time to reload and the Hornet is quite a bit more expensive to shoot. Now don't think for one second that I'm trying to put you off from your build, because I'm not, by all means do it. All I'm saying, IMHO, is that if you are into some serious gopher shooting as I was into last June, 1500 rounds didn't even make a dent in the gopher population, on the quarter section I was shooting on. There was no way to hand load and keep up the shooting pace from sun up to sun down. I only had 2 days to shoot.
As much as I like the 22 Hornet, and I like it very much, for shooting under such conditions as described above, on the little ground squirrels that permeated the ranch, of my cousin in Alberta, east of Cardston the 22lr wasn't quite enough but the 22WMR filled the bill very nicely on shots out past 150 yards. I didn't bother with anything further out because there wasn't a dry place to lay down on and I didn't feel like carrying a mat around with me as it's a pain to move while positioning. The mono cane rest worked very well on the longer shots.
Just one caveat, on such small cartridges, it's very easy to reach maximum powder levels in a hurry. 1/10 grain can easily be the difference between a "to hot" load and a perfect load.
