22 hornet load worked a treat

hi all i have a couple of elderly 22 hornets one is a savage 23d made in the mid 1930s and the other is a bsa hunter late 1950s i have had mixed results so far but i have found that 12.5 grains of little gun and a small pistol primer 40 grain sierra bullet has tightend up my groups from 25 mm to between 8-12 mm at 50 meters i am quietly happy with that load both have excellent bores although the bsa has a small stain 3 inchs from the muzzle im not keen to shortend as it shoots great i have had the crown freashened up awhile ago.

great to read that my good man...really pleased you have a load sorted.

12.5 is the magic no in my hornets as well. Ive got some 40gn bullets, as far as Ive been able to work out they are winchesters of some kind but man they shoot. 35 vmax goes well as well

Thats cool. When I was a lad I used to dream about shooting a deer with a hornet " 'cos "the cullers did" - I likely read an article in the old NZ Outdoors magazine about it. I used to work in Tisdalls after school (and during the school holidays) and I remember the pkts of 50 rounds of Hornet - Imperial brand I think from Canada. And the Savage rifles in Hornet with pressed steel magazines. Tisdalls were agents for Savage. I seem to remember that the clunky bolts on the Hornet were rear locking. Later in my late teens I got hooked on to the .222. Thought I was the bees knees with that Brno.

I remember when I was young in aussie loading up about 60 rounds with a lee loader at a mates place for a nights roo shooting Id use a brno hornet and he had a brno 222, we did it a lot back then..

i got the rifle as a convertion project rear locking lug ment it would be a contender for a 9mm but when i looked at the barrel it was near spotless feeds well to i do have a pile of hornady 40gn pills and a few 35gn yet to be tried cheers

Nice grouping. Always satisfying to get a good result out of a Hornet.

I've got 2 Savage Model 23 rifles. One in 22rf and one in 32/20. I just missed a 25/20 (23B) in an auction a few years back. I've long since given up trying to find a 23D in Hornet. It's supposedly the hardest one to find.
The Savage Model 23's are nice rifles.

I had no succes with Lil' Gun and gave up on it even with my modern Savage Model 40 Hornet. Lots of velocity achievable but not so great accuracy. I got up to 12.4gr in my final loads. My best results are with VVN110.

i have a 23 in 22 and a few spares also i do know of a couple 32/20s salted away for the 9mm project which most likely wont happen now

I use Lil’gun for my 218 Bee. Similar load as your Hornet, 12.5gn with a SP primer. I mainly use 40gn V-Max projectiles. Lil’gun is a bit fine and it can leak through the side of my Lee powder thrower leaving a small pile of talc like powder under it. I’ve read various U.S. forums stating that Lil’gun is the go-to powder for the Hornet & 218 Bee. Claims that it gets more velocity with less pressure. Works for me, and maximises case life.

Supposedly impossible to overload a Hornet with Lil' Gun.

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Originally Posted by zimmer

Supposedly impossible to overload a Hornet with Lil' Gun.

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dont know about that one...its very fine powder,like 296 h110 any of them will fit more in a case than a stick powder
lilgun sure works well in .410 too

12.5 is a full case for me that's using a drop tube as well probably slightly compressed as well

well buggame...thats a GOOD thing......I stand happily corrected.

i use my trusty lyman powder thrower to lazy to way every charge case is full alright case brands seem to vary a bit mabe brass thickness is why 22 hornet and 44/40 are my favourite cals

Great hornet powder. I use 13 gns with 40 gn Nosler shots. SR primers and a light crimp. Bug holes.

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Is that 100m

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Originally Posted by Micky Duck

dont know about that one...its very fine powder,like 296 h110 any of them will fit more in a case than a stick powder
lilgun sure works well in .410 too

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Lil' Gun was originally developed for the 410. In a Hornet it runs IIRC at about 2/3 the pressure of the other "Hornet" powders.

As far as Ive figured out from playing with the hornet for a very long time, its one of those rounds that responds well to high velocity loads.

hi no 50 meters the old bsa trigger is a bit still and creepy i dont play with triggers i may do better with a trigger job

I have a 23D also with a great bore. I bought a bunch of components from a guy who had sold his rifle. He had mostly used S&B brass and ran into pressure and chambering problems with Lil'gun with 40gn Vmax. Above 12.5gn, Lil'gun is a compressed load. S&B brass is lower capacity than most others. Capacity variations between brass brands in 22 Hornet are significant and somewhat notorious. Developing a load specific to a headstamp is probably a really good idea in this calibre. I went to R. P. Brass with a ladder test in 0.2gn increments from11.8gn (11.7 = Hdy10th Ed Handbook Starting charge) to the published Max of 13.2g. 12.6gn was my best group at 2759 average FPS, 12.8gn was also good in 2nd place at 2783FPS. 13.0gn and 13.2gn were acceptable groups at Averages of 2889 and 2829 respectively..yes, velocity dropped at max load. Had this happen in other calibres. Someone else might explain it, apparently not uncommon.

I also tested WC296 (Belmont Magnum Pistol Powder) with 40gn Vmax and got an excellent group at the Hdy10th Ed published max of 11.40gn. Average of 2822.5fps. I've stuck with 296 as I have more of it and it performs well.

All tests shot at 50m..barrel was 24in since been cut to 21in, threaded and suppressed. I also have switched projectile to a 40gn Hdy SP flatbase because I have plenty of them. They don't group quite as tight but I have no problem knocking over a hare at 150m off sticks. Turkeys don't like them much either.

I also have a Savage 23C in 32-20. Its a bit rough in the bore for cast but groups well with 100gn Hdy XTP HP. Love these old rifles.

I found quite a while back that the s&b brass i had didnt have the flashholes in the center of the primer pocket and went through a few decapping pins before I figured it out.

S&B Hornet cases have a smaller flash hole than WW or RP. That is the problem. Standard Hornet dies de-capping pins jam in the S&B flash holes. I found that some de-capped OK, just, whilst others the de-capping pin jammed in the flash hole. It was a piss off as I bought quite a bit of S&B to get reloadable brass. Of course, there may be some advantage having the smaller flash hole in a Hornet case but overall, I found the S&B to be of poorer quality compared to the WW.

Here's a chart of measurements I confirmed for different brands and calibres of brass.

Attachment 233189

On the subject of brass, I have Kynock, SAKO, RP, Remington, WW Super X, WW.
I settled on WW SX which was the most consistent weight wise and had good capacity compared to the others. They also held together better than RP which I also had a good quantity of.

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Originally Posted by Jhon

I also have a Savage 23C in 32-20. Its a bit rough in the bore for cast but groups well with 100gn Hdy XTP HP. Love these old rifles.

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My Savage 32/20 wouldn't perform with cast boolits. I tried several weights and several brands including factory Starline. Barrel is VG+.
Swapped to 100gr Hdy XTP HP and got excellent results at 50 yards (struggles at 100) and never went back to cast. I was also smart enough to stock up on the Hornadys at the time.

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Originally Posted by zimmer

My Savage 32/20 wouldn't perform with cast boolits. I tried several weights and several brands including factory Starline. Barrel is VG+.
Swapped to 100gr Hdy XTP HP and got excellent results at 50 yards (struggles at 100) and never went back to cast. I was also smart enough to stock up on the Hornadys at the time.

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Just having that problem myself. Just got some Hdy 100gn XTP

Quote:

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Originally Posted by zimmer

S&B Hornet cases have a smaller flash hole than WW or RP. That is the problem. Standard Hornet dies de-capping pins jam in the S&B flash holes. I found that some de-capped OK, just, whilst others the de-capping pin jammed in the flash hole. It was a piss off as I bought quite a bit of S&B to get reloadable brass. Of course, there may be some advantage having the smaller flash hole in a Hornet case but overall, I found the S&B to be of poorer quality compared to the WW.

Here's a chart of measurements I confirmed for different brands and calibres of brass.

Attachment 233189

On the subject of brass, I have Kynock, SAKO, RP, Remington, WW Super X, WW.
I settled on WW SX which was the most consistent weight wise and had good capacity compared to the others. They also held together better than RP which I also had a good quantity of.

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you can buy a 2mm drill bit you know............

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Originally Posted by zimmer

My Savage 32/20 wouldn't perform with cast boolits. I tried several weights and several brands including factory Starline. Barrel is VG+.
Swapped to 100gr Hdy XTP HP and got excellent results at 50 yards (struggles at 100) and never went back to cast. I was also smart enough to stock up on the Hornadys at the time.

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hi i was cast loading for my hornet i thought i had it down pat but i was still getting the odd flyer which was pissing me right of so i got the shits with the fiddly little buggers only to learn the problem was my own fault i was not trimming my cases to standard length regularly so my loads wernt consitant

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Originally Posted by Micky Duck

you can buy a 2mm drill bit you know............

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I think the smaller flash hole is a plus but the S&B just weren't as good as the WW SX plus I have a lot of the Win cases.

I was meaning it would ensure you didnt root another depriming pin.... Ive actually got a fancypants primer pocket uniformer and another to uniform that flash hole........so its not anunknown/not done thing.

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