Handloading The .22 Hornet

Guns Magazine, Dec, 2000 by Dan Johnson

AFTER 70 YEARS, THIS PLEASANT LITTLE VARMINT CARTRIDGE STILL FEATURES A GREAT DEAL of STYLE AND VERSATILITY.

Varmint hunters and plinkers alike have put the .22 Hornet to good use over the past 70 years, but with its origins in the days of black-powder, the mild little cartridge has been feeling its age. Now, two new products have emerged to breathe a bit of new life into the old cartridge. The first is a new 35 gr. V-Max bullet from Hornady; the second is a well-mannered powder from Hodgdon called, appropriately, Lil' Gun.

When Winchester introduced the .22 Hornet in 1930 it featured a 45 gr. bullet at 2,650 fps. It was the first factory cartridge designed specifically for varmint hunting and was welcomed enthusiastically by the shooting public. Soon, however, hotter cartridges, most notably the .220 Swift, appeared on the scene to steal the Hornet's limelight.

Still, the mild little round held on pretty well into the '60s due to its mild report, a trait which made it popular in the more settled areas. It was pretty common, when I was growing up in the South, for serious crow hunters to have both a Swift and a Hornet in the back seat of their car as they prowled the back roads in search of the black marauders. The .22 Hornet could dump a crow out of a pecan tree near a farmhouse without disturbing anybody's supper, and the .220 Swift was reserved for those long stretches across the red clay of some remote field.

As powders such as H110 and W296 appeared on the market, handloaders wanting more range from the Hornet found they could push the 45 gr. bullet to near 2,900 fps using data published in various loading manuals, but there was a price to pay for this increased performance. Case life was very short and head separation was common when caution was not exercised.

Light And Loan Stingers

In recent years, just as the Hornet was once again gaining in popularity, SAAMI reduced the maximum safe pressure for the cartridge from 47,000 down to 43,000 CUP. This may have been in deference to some of the older rifles floating around, particularly those with .223 bores, but for whatever reason it was a sensible decision.

The long neck and gentle shoulder of the .22 Hornet hark back to blackpowder days. This, coupled with the thin brass, does not make for a high intensity cartridge. At 43,000 CUP, we were back to the ballistics of the original factory load, but case life was good and many of the problems of reloading the cartridge were eliminated. Now, thanks to a couple new products, we can get a little more zip from the venerable round and yet stay within the newer SAAMI specification.

Hornady recently introduced a 35 gr. .22 caliber bullet into their V-Max lineup. It has features common to other V-Max bullets -- a polymer tip and thin explosive jacket construction -- but has a flat base rather than a boat-tail. This lighter-than-usual projectile was designed for rapid upset at lower velocities and the rather stubby profile works well in the Hornet. The 40 gr. polymer-tipped bullets can improve the cartridge's ballistics also, but their long profile increases overall cartridge length to a point where the loaded rounds will not fit into Hornet magazines.

With 12.3 grs. of H110 powder, my little BRNO 527 rifle clocked an average velocity of 3,079 fps. According to Hodgdon, this load produces 41,400 CUP. Due to a low ballistic coefficient the 35 gr. V-Max sheds this velocity rather quickly but still shoots flatter over normal Hornet ranges than any of the 45 gr. factory loads.

The midrange trajectory for a 200-yard zero with the little 35 gr. pill at 3,100 fps is 2.7" high as compared to 3.2" for the standard 45 gr./2,650 fps load. Not a big difference but the Hornet is really a 150-yard cartridge and out to this distance the V-Max maintains a usable ballistic advantage.

Upgrading The Hornet

The second new product available to Hornet fans is a new powder called Lil' Gun from Hodgdon. Lil' Gun was developed for .410 shotgun loads but develops good velocities in small rifle cases at very low pressures. In fact, Hornet loads with this powder are so mild they are only limited by how much of the propellant will fit in the case.

Hodgdon lists 13.0 grs. of Lil' Gun with a 45 gr. bullet as giving 2,787 fps with a low 31,600 CUP. We managed to comfortably seat 13.3 grs. of the powder into a Winchester case and pushed a 45 gr. Nosier to 2,810 fps with very mild pressure signs. Case life with this load has been exceptional. If you really want to stretch case life, try Hodgdon's load of 13.0 grs. of Lil' Gun with the 35 gr. V-Max for 2,842 fps and an exceptionally mild 24,000 CUP.

We used the 35 gr. bullet on prairie dogs and jackrabbits with impressive results, especially under 100 yards. It works especially well for jump shooting jacks. The bullet does shed velocity quickly, so the hunter wishing to stretch the Hornet's range would be better served with a 45 gr. bullet and Lil' Gun powder.

The .22 Hornet is a mild, fun-to-shoot round that is chambered in some of the slickest little light weight rifles you'd ever want to carry afield. It is not and never will be an explosive long-range cartridge, but anytime you can get some extra power out of a rifle while maintaining (and maybe even reducing) safe pressures, it's certainly worth looking into.