Load Data/Suggestions .22 Hornet?

NewAZShooter · Post by **NewAZShooter** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 1:51 pm

Well, I found a deal on a barrel so I made the leap to a 12" .22 Hornet barrel for my T/C Contender so I can shoot in hunter's pistol in addition to SB hunter's pistol...

Anyone have suggested loads to start out with? I ordered some brass, and I have a variety of .224 dia bullets around like nosler BTips, FMJBT, PSP and Match HPBTs all in 55 grain weight. I bought the bullets for my 22-250, but my interest in silhouette shooting is keeping me from shooting the 22-250 since I cannot use it for any silhouette sport.

I also have some IMR 4895, Winchester 748 and Hodgdon BLC-2 on-hand. But I have not bought any of the Lil' Gun, 2400, N100, IMR4227 types that seem to be among the more popular Hornet loads.

Anyone out there shooting .22 Hornet at steel animals have suggestions for starting loads? Most of my data is for hotter loads, but I need to slow it down to around 1700-1800 fps at the muzzle.

Thanks, and good shooting!!

Tlee · Post by **Tlee** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 2:49 pm

There is a few here:

http://www.steelchickens.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=926

-Tim

Jason · Post by **Jason** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 4:26 pm

Yep. I started that thread when I first got my Hornet barrel for my Contender. I'm settled in now in 8.0gr of H110 and a 55gr FMBT bullet from Midway, that's really just a Hornady bulk bullet repacked into Midway 100-count boxes. The rams fall well if I can actually hit them and it's a soft-shooting load with no target damage. Not to mention I got the bullets for $6/100 and that combined with only using 8 grains of powder makes shooting very cheap, and the light load with neck sizing in a Contender makes brass last just short of forever.

NewAZShooter · Post by **NewAZShooter** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 10:39 pm

First, my thanks to Tim (Tlee) for the detailed info in the PM, and to all who posted on this thread and the older one.

I went ahead and tried out W 231 pistol powder with my various 55 gr. bullets I had on hand for the new hornet. A slight breeze and 65 degree weather made for a nice day at the range. I shot some 5-shot groups at the 100m rams. I started with loads of two powder charges, 4.5 and 5.0 grains. Best was 5.0 grains w231 behind a nosler ballistic tip 55gr. bullet at 1.073". All are averages of 3, 5-shot groups at 100m.

55gr. Nosler Ballistic Tips
4.5 grains = 1.768"
5.0 grains = 1.115"

55gr. Sierra HPBT
4.5 grains = 1.446"
5.0 grains = 1.243"

55gr. Hornady FB SP
4.5 grains = 1.796"
5.0 grains = 1.383"

55gr. Hornady FMJBT
4.5 grains = 1.680
(have not loaded any hotter yet)

Anyone seeing a trend here? My hornet likes the hotter loads better across the board. I split one case neck on some nickel plated stuff that was given to me and saw a bit of primer cratering on a few of the 5.0 grain loads, so I will need to back off a bit. None of the 4.5 grainers showed any excessive pressure signs.

These groups are small enough for me, and I don't think I'll need to look any further. I might try some powder charges in between 4.5 and 5.0, just because I like to tinker. Thanks again everyone. These first reloads I tried for the hornet and my first time out to the range with new barrel and I'm basically done. You made that load development for the .22 hornet almost too easy. Now I'm gonna have to buy a new barrel in 32.20 just to play with load development some more.

Good shooting!

Tlee · Post by **Tlee** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 10:59 am

JW -

All I can say is WOW! I know a couple local guys that'd LOVE to buy that 12" barrel from you cause they aren't getting anywhere near those groups out of their 12" Hornets (at least with the 55gr bullets). Actually, most of the guys I know shooting the 12" barrels say they've gone almost exclusively to the 50gr bullets and will on occasion move to a 52g/53g bullet for Rams. A couple of them say the 55g bullets are "barely on the paper" at 100y/100m, so those groups you're getting are quite impressive.

Also, most of them are seeing the primers flatten around 4.9 grains of W231/HP38 out of the 12". I didn't see pressure indications until about 5.0g or more out of the 10" barrels I have.

Just curious, what primer were you using for these groups? Most folks I know shooting the W231/HP38 loads in the Hornet are using small pistol standard (non-magnum) primers. I've used Remington, Winchester, and CCI and haven't noticed a difference.

-Tim

Tlee · Post by **Tlee** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 11:14 am

--duplicate post, sorry

NewAZShooter · Post by **NewAZShooter** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 1:22 pm

Tim,

I loaded those using Winchester WSR small rifle primers, the cheapest I could find. I didn't really flatten any primers like I've seen in the 22-250/30.06 but saw some cratering around the firing pin impact mark with a few of the 5.0 grain loads and split one case neck with the nickel brass and saw a small ring begin to form on the base of a few of the cases, which I discarded. Some of the cases were rem nickel plated given to me, but most were new Remington brass (not nickel plated) sorted to 1.396" case length and OAL varied for each bullet from 1.957" to 2.014", leaving a lot of the bullet sticking out of the case necks in an attempt to get them closer to the lands, which seem to be very far out in this barrel.

Also, the cases were weight-sorted and I only used the ones that weighed 45.0 grains exactly for this batch of reloads. Case necks were sized and chamferred and flash holes deburred, but I left the primer pockets alone and decided not to uniform since they looked pretty good.

These were all fire-forming loads neck sized and first-time fired in this barrel. Hope this helps. I am curious about why the folks you mention don't just shoot the 50 gr. bullets in their hornet, if they shoot better groups than the 55's? I mean I just had a bunch of 55s around, so I tried them. But if the 50's still knock the rams down without target damage, I wouldn't hesitate to use them. I purposely hit a few rams in the belly and front and back legs and they all went down with the 55s no matter where they were hit, and these are the resettable hunters pistol targets.

Oh yeah, I also fired 5 of each load at the swingers and saw no target damage at all. It blew the paint off and left a small grey mark, but did not dent them at all with any of the loads. And the groups were shot with a Bushnell 4-12x 40 A.O. scope using a front rifle rest bag off the bench. Sorry I don't have a chrony, so can't say the velocity and ES.

I am at least the third owner of this barrel at my pistol club, and I don't know if any of the previous owners did anything to it like bore paste, or whatever. It is not blued, but some sort of light grey like unpolished stainless steel or something and is stamped "Thompson / Center Arms Rochester New Hampshire 22 Hornet." I can't take any credit for the way it shoots, but I will ask the guy I bought it from and see if anything is unique about this barrel. Sorry I can't help more, but if I find anything out I'll post the info here.

Tlee · Post by **Tlee** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 3:47 pm

JW -

All but one that I know of are using the 50g bullet exclusively in the 12". That one guy only uses the larger bullets in State & National matches. I believe the feeling is that the Rams fall a little slowly using the 50g and that the 53g/55g bullets have just the little more energy to take them down reliably.

-Tim

NewAZShooter · Post by **NewAZShooter** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 4:14 pm

I asked a few people at today's match about that barrel. They tell me that this is a fairly new barrel originally manufactured within the last 12 months. It's a 12" T/C brand barrel in brushed stainless steel, has a 1 in 12" twist, and is otherwise bone stock as far as we know.

The only other thing I know about it is the lands are farther out in it than most of the other barrels people had at the range today. I checked out a bunch of guy's hornet reloads and none of them have the bullet seated so far out in the case neck as mine, even tho theirs are just off the lands and mine are not very close to the lands even as far out as they are.

Sorry, but that's all I could find out about it.

Tlee · Post by **Tlee** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 1:06 pm

JW-

Thanks for the info. At yesterday's match I didn't get a chance to speak with anyone using a factory 12" barrel to see if anything had changed with them being able to use anything heavier than the 50g.

I'd loaned my 1-9 twist 12" barrel that I had built to a gentleman to test some 60g bullets he'd cast and he did well with it (especially considering it was his 1st match to shoot a Hornet) with a 31/40. He said it was grouping about 3" at 100m with his cast load.

I did decide, since I was unclassified in PCOS, to install a peep and shoot my 2nd 10" Hornet barrel. I did find it's throat depth to be completely different than the barrel I've been shooting for a couple years in PC scoped category. I have to seat the bullets almost 1/16" deeper for the OS barrel than in the Scoped barrel (my scoped barrel is an older one with the soldered on front sight). I was pretty happy with how it shot though, 24/40... Which, to my surprise, put me directly/barely into AAA (higher than any other category that I'm classified.... guess I'm not as blind as I thought!). I used 50g SP bullets w/4.6g HP38 and did leave a turkey that spun with a "egg layer edge hit on the tail side" about 1" off the leg. The guy next to me in the same relay did the same exact thing with a 45LC out of his Lever gun, so I don't think that one was related to the bullet used, LOL!

-Tim

NewAZShooter · Post by **NewAZShooter** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 10:17 pm

Just a quick update on the hornet loads. On the advice of a few local shooters I tried 5.6 to 5.9 grains of blue dot behind 4 different 50 grain bullets with small pistol primers. They all averaged pretty decent, but not as good as the 55s with 4.5 grains of W231.

They also told me that since everything is scaled down in size and weight for the .22 hornet, small differences in components translate to greater effects on accuracy with hornet loads. So after the brass was fire-formed, I weight-sorted the bullets and brass into groups weighing the same to the tenth of a grain for this latest batch of loads.

Those 4.5 grains of W231 loads shot even better than before. I took the hornet out today and shot my first ~1/2 inch groups at 100 meters ever. It appears to like the 55 grain bullets better than the 50s. I shot 6 more 5 shot groups at 100m with the best performing 50gr and 55 gr bullets.

6 groups averaged together with the 50g bullets = 1.745"
smallest was 1.195, largest 2.164

6 groups averaged with the 55gr bullets = .759"
smallest was .502, largest 1.136

I can't believe a 12 inch barrel shoots better than my rifles, but it does. Thanks again for the load data. W231 works great in my new hornet.

P.S. The bullet that punched the smallest groups in both 50 and 55gr were those with the longest bearing surface on the bullet in contact with the lands on the way down the barrel. I measured this by putting the bullet nose first into a .22 cal "comparator" on the dial caliper and measuring the length from ogive to the base. The flat based spitzers had the longest bearing surface. But in the wind, the ballistic tips shoot 1/2 the group size the FB bullets do. So I will be keeping a loaded box of FB SPT and B-tips ready so I can shoot the best load for the conditions I encounter at the next match.