22 Hornet

[wch]

OK, a several part question:
Have you a favorite cast Boolit mold for the Hornet?
If so, what grain bullet does it cast?
Do you use gas checked boolits in the Hornet?
Have you bought precast boolits from any source? Would you reccomend them?
Do you have any advice as to powder and charge weight or accurate loads you'd share?
As you can probably tell, I'm starting on the road to casting and loading for my very first Hornet!
Thank you for any and all replies.

[HATCH]

I have a group buy mold. 37.5 grain
Its a 5 cav NOE mold
I bought it here -> http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=100208
Its a Gas Checked mold.
Glad I looked it up as I thought it was PB.. LOL

I have about 200 cast but I haven't started loading any yet.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

surprizingly, I've had good luck with Lee's rendition of the Bator. gaschecked and it weighs around 51 gr. (ww alloy) when checked and lubed. Backed with 7.2 gr. of Lilgun, it's quite accurate in my Ruger #3
The only place, I know of, that sells this mold is http://www.midsouthshooterssupply.com/item.asp?sku=0000622BATOR

I've also played with the Lyman 225438, a round nose, also gaschecked, it's about 40 gr.
I can't find my records on accuracy and loading data ?
I'd have sold the mold if my gun didn't like it though.

I also have a ranchdog plain base mold RD 225-50 PB
I have only tried these in downloaded 223 rem. in a CZ-527 bolt action.
They did "OK" with low doses of red dot (around 4 gr. IIRC).
Jon

[HORNET]

Favorite mold probably the Lyman 225438, ~45 grain RNGC. It works well with about 3.5 gr of Unique for squirrel swatting and a compressed load of 11.5 gr 4227 (either flavor) for absolute full throttle. The 4227 load may be a bit much for some of the rimfire-actioned Hornets, but matches the j-bullet loads in older manuals before SAAMI reduced the pressure limits for those actions. My old #3 Ruger likes a SP primer with Unique, Rem.7-1/2 with 4227, no idea why.

[7br]

There is quite a bit of information on the hornet on this forum. I use the RCBS 22-55 with Rem 7 1/2 primers and a little north of 4gr of ww231 in a 10" contender. I love the hornet.

[.22-10-45]

Hello, wch. Your in for some fun with that Hornet! When the Hornet was finally completed..I tried every jacketed bullet I could find..even some pricy match grade customs..this was to establish a bench mark for accuracy.
Then I started in on what I had always wanted to do..cast bullet shooting in a Hornet. I must have tried just about every commercial mould out there. While I would get good accuracy..it wasn't consistant.
I collect vintage Ideal/Lyman moulds. I have an old Ideal integeral handled mould for the .22636..this is a long 60gr. bullet for the old .22-15-60 Stevens.
Now I don't have a rifle in that caliber..but I got to thinking..I cast up some in Lyman #2, chucked them up in a bench lathe collet..and faced them off to 50grs.
On some, I turned a gas-check shank.
These prooved to be some of the most accurate bullets fired to date. I promply shipped samples of each to Fred Leeth at Pioneer Products. He made a couple of nose-pour moulds..P.B. & G.C. version.
The other accuracy improver came when I had a grinder friend I.D. grind the leade angle of my rifle into a sizing die I made up..fits Lyman lubesizer..no lube holes, but has ejector punch.
I can custom size first bullet band to leade angle..and vary dia. by adjusting stop. This step more than any other improved consistancy.
I seat bullet so 1st. band is fully engraved by rifling as breech block is closed.

Back in the 70's, I was trying to get a Rem. 700 .222Rem to shoot cast..I was really just learning to handload then..let alone shoot cast bullets..so results weren't too good. I had bought a Lyman 225415 double cavity..but never could get any accuracy with it. I had nearly forgotten about it..until a few days ago, I decided to give it another try.
Cast from Lyman #2 with 7.0grs. of H4227 (this is my accuracy load with the Leeth bullet)..I got a nice 1/2" 100yd. group. I guess I'll have to play with this thing more often. There is an older version of this bullet..same number but weighing 49grs..this little bullet also shoots well.
My std. alloy for the Leeth bullets is a diluted mix of Steriotype metal & soft lead..a bit harder than Lyman #2..but nowheres near as hard as Lino.

I did a little test few years back..comparing the Leeth G.C. to plain base bullet...both weigh in at 53grs. For pure accuracy..not velocity..there was only
.3 gr. difference..the G.C. version needing the extra powder.

[JeffinNZ]

The old style 48gr version on the Lyman 225415 worked well for me at 1900fps.

Our member 'Euan' shoots literally thousands of the 37gr NOE "Hatch" mentioned above. The rifle is a K Hornet and he uses a charge of Lil Gun around 8gr IIRC for 2300fps.

[No_1]

Hey Charles,

I will trade you some gas checks for some boolits.


I have a group buy mold. 37.5 grain
Its a 5 cav NOE mold
I bought it here -> http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=100208
Its a Gas Checked mold.
Glad I looked it up as I thought it was PB.. LOL

I have about 200 cast but I haven't started loading any yet.

[dagger dog]

My Lyman 225415 drops 53grs wheel weight add the gas check and lube comes out to 55 grs shoot it with Unique 4.5 -5 grs CCI SRBR primed, out of a 1-14 Savage 40 Varmint Hunter about 2" at 100 yds is as good as I can get it to shoot.

[Franklin Zeman]

Current best in a Ruger #3 Hornet is 3.7 Red Dot with 225415 ACWW and BAC lube sized to .2255. This is an OLD batch of RD. Price shows $6.75/3 lbs.
The RCBS 55 FN is not quite a good, but I am still working on it. So far the RCBS best load is 9.2 H4227, Rem 6 1/2, Alox. Both of the above loads are longer then the book recommends so they resist as the block closes on each.
In a .221 FIreball, 225415 sized .2245 with 2.5 Bullseye, OAL 1.648. 1/2 inch at 25 yards.
In my Ruger 1V 22-250, 21.5 4320 in WW cases, Rem 9 1/2, Javelina, 1/2"@50yds.
The .221 and 22-250 loads were cast from Linotype.
All gas checks were Hornady

[JeffinNZ]

Beware the difference between the old 415 boolit and the new version. The old one is nominal 48gr, the new is nominal 55gr.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v505/JeffinNZ/Shooting%20stuff/224variations.jpg

New version is far left, old version 2nd from left. The other boolits are the old and new 225462.

[Dale53]

I've had excellent results with the Lyman 225415 in both the Hornet and the .221 Fireball. I never tried to run them fast. I was interested in a very good squirrel load.

In the Hornet I used 3.0 grs of Unique. In the .221 I used 4.0 grs of Unique. Both would shoot 1/2" groups at fifty yards. They did a FINE job on squirrels, too.

Dale53

[NoZombies]

I'm probably the only one, but each of the hornets I've owned has loved the 225450. This is frustrating to me as it is the only single cavity .22 mold I own, and I have never had the good fortune of finding a multi-cavity version at the same time I had the money to buy it.

That said, the NOE version of the 225107 has been promising, but I haven't shot it enough to be 100% certain.

[clintsfolly]

Just cast about 500 225107 to use in my any my brothers Hornets! Boy a lbs of lyman#2 go a long way with this mold!!!Clint

[JeffinNZ]

A pound of anything goes a long way in the Hornet.

[Franklin Zeman]

I notice, when seating boolits, about 20% have a different feel. The "funny" ones seem to be harder to seat. I don't see any shaving. Is this a case difference or case hardness or ?????????? I use only one brand of cases and are now using a case expander that has a funnel taper section about the neck sizer portion. I can put a ready to go boolit in the case about a 1/8 inch or less by hand. I suspect it is opening my groups. Comments???

[JeffinNZ]

Anneal the case necks. Just a 2-3 second touch with a butane flame will do the trick. Yes, it will cause your groups to open up.

[.22-10-45]

1++ on what Jeff said. I neck size with a Redding bushing type sizer...I started using RWS Hornet brass in 99'...This stuff is very soft. After a few years, I had to go to a .001" smaller size. Then recently, I started getting lead scraped when seating..the M die hadn't been moved. I kept putting it off..but it was time for annealing. As Jeff said..a butane torch for a few sec. does it with those thin necks..in fact, I held case head in fingers..after doing 100..fingers kind of sore!

[Franklin Zeman]

I guess that the thin case walls on Hornet brass fooled my mind that they could be so tough from hardening. It does make sense. I will certainly do the annealing. Thanks for the info.

[Franklin Zeman]

I did the annnealing, but there is still a difference on many cases. I miked the ones that felt different and they mike the same as "normal" cases. I have them segregated, so I will determine if there is a difference on the target. The mike was on the neck of a seated boolit.
The current best load with the RCBS 55 FN GC is 7.3 grains of 4759 with the CCI small rifle primer. That load is close to the bottom of a seated boolit. It Chrono's a bit over 1800 fps. This is in the 22 Hornet and Ruger #3 Rifle.

[mainiac]

225438 boolit,,9 grs of h4227 cci500 primer,,,2200 f.p.s.

This is the most accurate load in my hornet.

[Hal]

RCBS 55 GR cast... out of WW .... with a case full of AA1680 was the only real accuracy out of a 10" T/C

[rollmyown]

I have a Sportco single shot based on a 310 cadet. I havent started loading for it yet, i'll be sticking to jacketed for now. Where do cases mostly fail ahead of the web area or neck/ shoulder splits?

[mainiac]

I have a Sportco single shot based on a 310 cadet. I havent started loading for it yet, i'll be sticking to jacketed for now. Where do cases mostly fail ahead of the web area or neck/ shoulder splits?

I dont hot-rod my hornet,and i anneal the necks about every 3 reloadings,,and my cases just dont fail,,ive reloaded them so many times,they just go on and on.

If you hot-rod the hornet,i think the primer pocket will give out on ya first,,it will expand,and not hold primers no more.