Need 22 Hornet Contender loads...

Centerfires, rimfires, pistol cartridges and everything in between.
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Jason
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Need 22 Hornet Contender loads...

Post by Jason »

I finally bit the bullet and snagged a 10" bull barrel in 22 hornet for my Contender. Now I need some loads for it. I want them to have as little recoil as possible (not a problem for a Hornet load), knock the animals down well (only an issue for rams), and have no shot at doing target damage (an issue for Hornet). I will be doing different loads for CPT and rams. I currently have a ram load of 7.1gr of H110 pushing a 50-grain bullet that I use in my 22 mag rifle that works great. A load that gets me about the same momentum at 100m out of the 10" Contender barrel would be great.

Ok, let's hear your recipes for success with the Hornet. :)

Thanks!
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Tlee
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Post by Tlee »

Jason -

I use 4.5g of W231, any "non-magnum" pistol primer (usually Winchester or Remington, but I have used CCI as well), behind mil-surp 55g FMJBT bullets. This usually results in 1400FPS, low recoil loads that reliably take down anything it touchs, with no target damage. Anything faster than 1800FPS or so starts to damage the targets. I've seen factory Hornet ammo at 2300FPS deep penetrate/punch through mild steel targets.

However.... don't go buy a bunch of the 55g bullets until you test a batch first. I have found that some 22 Hornet barrels won't shoot anything heavier than a 50-52g bullet accurately. At one time, I've owned/tested 3 different 10inch barrels and found 2 would shoot the 55g bullet with one to one and a half inch groups at 100meters, while the 3rd would literally not put 6 of 10 shots on a paper plate at 50! Whereas they'd all shoot GREAT groups with 50-52g bullets. I've heard of similar experiences from other folks shooting the Contender Hornets, especially when using the newer 12" barrels.

my .02,

--Tim
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Jason
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Post by Jason »

I bought a box of the Hornady 52-grain HPBT match bullets to sight in with and use in this upcoming weekend's match. I also have five boxes of the 55-grain Hornady FMJBT bullets on the way from Midway. If they won't shoot in the Contender, I can always use them in my .223 rifles. For less than $6 per hundred, I can always use more .224" plinking bullets. :)

For now, I'm using 7.5gr of H110 with the 52-grain bullets because I had the H110 powder. My 22mag load for rams is a 50-grain bullet over 7.1 grains of H110 so the hornet load shouldn't have any trouble even with only having 10" of barrel. I would prefer to have different loads for rams than I have for CPT but use the same cheap 55-grain bullets for all the animals.
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Post by Jason »

Shot my first match with the Hornet barrel yesterday. I got 30/40, which is my best score with a pistol ever. Man, that was seriously fun. That 22 hornet is just perfect for silhouette. Those 55-grainers over 8.0gr of H110 flip the rams right off with nearly no recoil. I shot the 53-grainers over 7.5gr of H110 at the chickens (and possibly pigs, I forget) but the 55gr/8.0gr H110 load didn't do any target damage to the chickens when I tested them either. The best thing about the 55-grain bullets is they're very accurate, but a close second is that they're cheap. I got them for less than $6 per box of 100 from Midway. :)
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mordecai
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Post by mordecai »

Ok, So I dug around the powder-magazine to see what I may already have to work with (no H110 or W231 - could have sworn I had 231 in there) ...

Anyhow, I found an unopened can of Herc 2400 (stuff's probably older than I am. HAHA) which is probably about perfect since I don't know what else I'd use it for...

Looks a little zoomy though on paper, so I'm going to try the following in an attempt to keep the fps below 2000...

40GR 2400 7.0gr
45GR 2400 6.8gr
50GR 2400 6.5gr

My problem is all of my load data is for rifle-length barrels...

Here's an interesting snip-it I found for some Hornet loads I was reviewing...
"These same loads are also suitable for the single-shot pistols like the XP-100 and the Contenders. You can expect to lose as much as 300 to 400 fps when dropping down to a 12-inch barrel length (from a 24" barrel)."
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mordecai
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Post by mordecai »

I tried the (40GR Alli. 2400 7.0gr) and it worked very well - very little drop at 100yds, but I did notice the rams were quite lazy at falling over.

I think I'll be buying 50-55GR'ers on my next trip to the fun-store...
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