Glad to know you like the 22 Hornet as this is the caliber I plan using on the smaller cats and critters up to badger and jackal.
FYI my results of range days 1 & 2 with factory ammo.
I am working on load development for my 22 Hornet. Regrettably I didn’t take photo's or do ballistics of my first range day with it shooting factory ammo, 45 grain soft points.
The end result was putting 2 plastic gallon jugs filled with water on the ground one behind the other a few inches and right of the 25 yard target, (NRA Silhouette B-27 with a Shoot-N-See 8 inch target covering the silhouette's center mass), the first shot into the jugs was under a inch of high and left of center mass. Both water jugs exploded as if I used a handgrenade, sending roughly a 1 inch x 3 inch chunk of plastic into the center mass of the 8 inch S-N-S target roughly at a high angle 30 inches left and 40 inches high to the jugs location. Another second smaller chunk of plastic 1/2 +/- wide and 2 +/- inches long was lodged 6 o'clock low center in the black outline of the silhouette. Other much smaller shards of plastic littered the ground as far as -4 feet away from the water jugs location.
Apples and Oranges per se
My second range day I used Hornady 35 grain V-MAX factory loads; when I purchased all three boxes of ammo I thought both brands were the same bullet weight. I shot 5 rounds through my chronograph to get an average MV of 3000 fps.
On paper target at 50 yards, with 50 yard zero from range day 1 using 45 grain bullets, the Hornady 35 grain V-MAX were clustered with lowest bullet hole 1 1/2 inches high and the highest bullet hole 2 1/8 inches high over the "X" ring.
Reloaded: For future testing: Sierra 45 grain soft points and unknown brand 45 grain FMJ HP bullets down loaded, according to the reloading manuals, to MV 2600 to 2700 fps.
Questions:
1. What type and weight bullets do you recommend?
2. At what velocity(ies) do you recommend?
