Slightly off black powder, 22 hornet brass

[Gussy]

Kurt, an absolutely fun and extremely accurate gun to shoot is a 17hmr. I have a Ruger precision that will shoot near 1" groups at 200 yds (no wind!). I bought this from an estate. I also have a Ruger 77-17 (17hmr) and could drive tacks too.

Both the Hornet and 17 are going squirrel shooting this spring.

[JKR]

Gussy,
I don’t think you need to anneal that brass but on the other hand, it won’t hurt to give it a try.
Kurt,
I went to an informal rifle, match a couple years ago. Took my old match rifle and some ammo that I loaded ten years before. I never thought to break the bullets loose. When the first primer blew, I knew exactly what the problem was!
Don,
I mounted a scope and sighted in one of those CZ’s for my neighbor. Sweet little rifle! I’d like to have one too.
We used to have a neighbor who kept his family fed with an old break open Savage single shot, Hornet. That wasn’t just squirrels either.
JKR

[beltfed]

For my Ruger No 3, 22 Hornet, i was loading 11.2 gr WW296, usually under 45 grain Hornady or Sierra bullets. Seated out to just short of the leade.
I neck sized both WW and R-P brass about 3/16" of neck with a 22 K Hornet FLS die I happened to obtain.
Several loadings and no problem with case neck cracking. Just do not Hot Rod it which can easily expand primer pockets ruining even new brass

I had at one point thought about rechambering to K Hornet as a friend had done with hi No 3. But never got to it.
Glad i left it std Hornet. It is in 99% plus condition and is a "200th Year of Liberty" marked rifle.
Shoots very well. About 500rds of Brass has lasted thru several PD trips to South Dakota. Last one was 2009.

Made a good Light midrange "walking" gun with a 3.5-10 Leopold Tactical mounted and with a chair pack to carry a couple hundred rounds along.
Now, with all that, I am now tempted, as Kurt said, to take it out and shoot up some of my loads that have been living in an ammo can for the last 13 years
Good idea about cracking the bullets loose. I have done that recently with some 1990 308 match loads which I shot in my M1A match rifle for first time in maybe 2005
beltfed/arnie

[Kurt]

A hornet was my second centerfire rifle back in the 50's the first was a roller in the .43 Spanish. The .22 Hornet felt better
The Hornet was a 342 Savage. It was a fine shooter and I collected a lot of red and gray fox pelts with it. It had a side mounted peep sight.
The little hornet is a fine shell.
It also held a record in the bench matches for a long time.

[beltfed]

My first Hornet was a Savage 23D. It shot well, but it went away.
Then I picked up the Ruger No 3 about 20 yes ago
I do like the Ruger
Arnie

[Distant Thunder]

My Hornet is a Ruger 77/22 Hornet All WEATHER (stainless steel) that I picked up used many years ago.

It took a lot of time and effort to get it to shoot well, but it is capable of 1 moa groups out to 200 meters now. It remains my favorite varmint rifle/cartridge and is very effective to 250 yards as long as the wind isn't too bad.

I have used mostly the Hornady 35 grain V-Max over a case full of LIL'GUN. I took it to Wyoming a on a mule deer hunt many years ago and I spent a couple very enjoyable afternoons picking off prairie dogs, poor little buggers. The V-Max disassembled things very well out as far as I could hit 'em. If I remember right, that little bullet was leaving the muzzle at over 3000 fps! That gives the some real STING to the little Hornet!

I also loaded a Lyman gas checked cast bullet that was a 45 grain RN for small game. Very effective and fun as hell.

In my Ruger just about any short ogive bullet between 35 & 50 grains shot very well. There is a longish freebore in my rifle and pointed bullets had to jump too far to reach the rifling and didn't shoot worth dog poop as a result.

The .22 Hornet is one of my top 10 all time favorites, no doubt.

[JKR]

The little Hornet has some military history as well.
During my Air Force hitch in the early seventies, I worked with survival equipment.
Packed in mountain survival kits was a folding over and under combination gun with ammo storage in the stock. Chambering was 22 Hornet over 410.
Earlier kits contained a bolt action, magazine fed, Hornet. It had a collapsible wire stock.
These kits were taken out of service with the focus change to SE Asia and sea survival. I hate to think what happened to all those short barreled survival rifles.
JKR

[Gussy]

Here's my 2 Hornets. Ruger 77-22H, all weather SS, 24" barrel. Browning 1885 low wall. Both have 4.5-14 X 40 AO Burris scopes

Adding the next test loads.

[Distant Thunder]

Gussy,

Yep, that the same rifle I have only mine is topped with the Nikon 3-9X it had on it when I bought it many years ago. I had been looking for bolt gun in .22H and I walked into one of the local gun shops and it just about jumped off the used gun rack and into my hands. I couldn't put it down and bought right then.

I did a lot of little things to improve the accuracy and they all helped, but when I pillar bedded it that made a huge difference. It was a 2 MOA rifle when I bought it and now it's pretty close a 1/2 MOA rifle!

Here are 5 groups shot at 100 yards and 1 shot at 220 yards. Each of the 5 targets at 100 yards was shot with a different bullet, but all were loaded with LIL'GUN. The target at 220 yards used H4198 and is only 2150 fps.

The LIL'GUN load with any 40 grain bullet is over 3000 fps and with a 45 grain bullet is 2980 fps. Pretty cool for an old cartridge that started with BP!

I load a Speer 40 grain spire point to 3100 fps and sighted dead on at 200 yards it's only 2.2 inches high at 125 yards and 4.4 inches low at 250! Those light bullets give up a lot of fps past 200, but out to 200 it's just aim and fire.

These are all actual chronograph reading, not just book numbers. Before I started using LIL'GUN I lost a lot of cases to loose primer pockets, but with LIL'GUN you almost can't put enough powder in the case with a 40 to 45 grain bullet to blow a primer pocket out.

You should of course consult a good reloading manual before attempting to duplicate any of my results.

My other .22 Hornet rifle is a Contender Carbine, not quite the looker your Browning is but a very light little rifle I've had a lot of fun with.

If I ever get caught up, I'll have to get my Ruger out and do a little varmint hunting like I used to do 40 years ago! That was a lot of fun and I miss those days. I mostly used a .223 or .17 Remington back then, but the Hornet would be my choice today.

[Distant Thunder]

Of course, I can only attach 5 pictures to a post so here is the 220 yard group.