22 Hornet bullet experiments, advice, experience for Tiny Ten

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

My Hornet is a K95 and I'm not sure how long I can load in that...similar to the #1?

@Green Chile
Mines a K Hornet on a 1885 lowall and I can load the 40gn VMax out to 1.9" but unfortunately it's a slow twist barrel and won't stabilise the fifty grainers.
Bob

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

Did you use Hornady cases? In my experience the Hornady 22 Hornet brass is terrible. The case heads are soft and the brass is very thin. I only got maybe 3 or 4 loads and had incipient head separation. By contrast the Nosler and PPU brass is much thicker at the base and harder, as some of them have 8 to 10 reloads on them, stuffed full of Lil'Gun every time. I only use LilGun now because you can't even approach max pressure with 50 gr bullets or less. With 55 gr bullets and compressed load you can stress the cases some, but I have yet to have a Nosler or PPU case failure. I'm using a Lee collet die for necks and occasionally a Redding body die.

@Rimshot
I use only Remington cases and get great life out of them
Bob

 

[Rimshot]

@Green Chile
Mines a K Hornet on a 1885 lowall and I can load the 40gn VMax out to 1.9" but unfortunately it's a slow twist barrel and won't stabilise the fifty grainers.
Bob

Have you tried the old fashioned lead nose bullets? A lot of the flat base 50 grain SP bullets are shorter than the 40 Vmax and 'should' stabilize. If you can get them to shoot it gives you a lot of versatility on larger critters since they mushroom and penetrate, instead of exploding like the plastic tipped bullets.

 

[Longwalker]

My .22 Hornet rifles are both made by Anschutz, built on the match 54 actions. Very accurate, but with slow twist barrels and short magazine length. I use only traditional Hornet bullets in mine out of necessity, no long sleek plastic points unfortunately. I've never used them for tiny ten antelope in Africa, but have used them on similar sized coyotes and beavers quite a lot. I have never blown a big hole in any coyote or beaver when shot in the chest with a 45 gr. Winchester, Remington, RWS, S&B, PPU, or Hornady soft point. They all worked just fine.