22 lr Remongton bullets through a 22 hornet?

[Toddlo]

Greetings,

First off, I'm new to reloading and to this site and I'm wondering if anyone has ever used 22lr lead bullets in a 22 hornet load. I thought if I could get them to work, it'd make a nice cheap squirrel and bunny load.

It's a little time consuming, but I've figured out a way to get 40 grain Remington 22's out of the casings pretty much unscathed and was going to load them over 3.5 grains of unique to start. I checked my .22 lr bullets and found them to be .224 so I figured why not try. I have 1 in 16 twist Win model 43.

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

[HangFireW8]

Thoughts... 22LR is a heeled boolit that is chamber diameter. Were you planning on crimping on the heel or the shaft? If the heel, you may experience significant boolit jam... or not... depending on your chamber and leade. Create some dummies and find out.

If you crimp on the shaft, remember the 22LR is designed to lightly jam on chambering, it may not tolerate a lot of jump into the leade. Or it might. You'll have to experiment to find out.

[dakotashooter2]

The current price of .22 cartridges is probably about the same as the cost of a .22 cal. bullet. Also the.22LR bullets are heeled. They will work but you will probably get some gas leakage around the bullet base which may cause leading. A better option would be to find a .22 cal mold and cast your own....................

[Toddlo]

Ahh, I wasn't even thinking about crimping them, shows how little I know about this stuff. Maybe I ought to get some more standard rounds through my gun first and then start with my own cast boolits.

Many Thanks.

[Toddlo]

I wondered about gas leakage, I didn't know it could cause leading. Sounds like it's not worth the risks.

Thanks very much.

[MT Gianni]

You can buy a chamber adaptor to shoot 22 lr in a hornet bbl. Extraction is not quick but I would do that before I broke down 22 lr shells.

[MtGun44]

MTG and I are on the same wavelength. Get a chamber adapter and shoot .22 LRs when you want
that power.

Bill

[runfiverun]

you would have better luck with 22 pellets than slightly mangled 22lr bullets.
a grain or two of powder would match 22 lr velocity's pretty easily.

[country gent]

Slug your barrel before loading for it early 22 hornets were .222 dia not .224 dia. The some manufacturers actually used thier 22 long rifle barrel blanks for the hornet ( also 218 Bee) I have also seen several hornets and bees that used rimfire barrels for the conversion, Normally on martini cadet actions. Your Model 43 is a fine old winchester take care of it its had a long life already. These old timers are a ball to play with and can be very accurate. A cast bullet of around 40-45 grns would be just about right. The Hornet is a quiet mild mannered round that juat beggs to go to the range or hunting. A 45 grn cast bullet cast of wheel wieghts at around 1300 fps would make a great squirrel,rabbit load and a 40 grn jcketed bullet around 2400-2500 fpr is great for woodchucks and varmints. I dug out my Hornet last summer when the long rifle wasnt giving solid kills on woodchucks in the back yard. The hornet did the job wonderfully. Lil Gun powder win cases 40 grn hornady V Max bullet rem 7 1/2 primer. With the 22 lr the firs few woodchucks traveled 20-50 ft, with this load in the hornet the rest just dropped where they were. A primer and 22 cal pellet make a great substitute for a pellet gun also.

[LtFrankDrebbin]

I use to buy 40gn winchester bulk 22magnum projectiles when I was loading hornet.
They worked a treat and cheap!

[Bwana]

Lead shot inside a spent LR/LP primer (anvil removed) and compressed will get you a nice small wadcutter. Might even be able to get two into a Hornet neck.

[303Guy]

The .222 bore hornets were the originals built on 22lr barrels and possibly actions? But .223 was the 'standard' bore diameter and bullets of .223 were and still are made for them. Modern hornets are .224. Mine is .223 but I shoot .224 bullets in it. I'm thinking of trying cast in it again (after the initial failure) and will try the .224's again. But I'm going for 55gr and maybe more.

The 22 cal pellet is something I've tried and they can be driven quite fast. So fast as to be more powerful than a 22lr. Accuracy does suffer at higher velocity.

[JeffinNZ]

I use to buy 40gn winchester bulk 22magnum projectiles when I was loading hornet.
They worked a treat and cheap!

I still have some. They are great over 6.5gr of Green Dot in my .223 for 2000fps.

A member of my club scored a case of .22RF projectiles when a NZ factory closed its doors. He used to put a GC on the heel and shoot them in a Hornet.

[victor3ranger]

How in the world do you put a 22 cal pellet into the case??

This sounds interesting to me.

I also have a Hornet but have not reloaded for it yet. I have however gathered all the parts to do so. The bullets I am going to use are the Sierra 45g psp that I think were made for the Hornet.

[NVScouter]

I pulled about 15 22LR bullets and loaded them in my 22Hornet over Trailboss. They shot pretty well but are simply too much of a pain to pull reliably. I loast about 1 in 5 to the case cutting into the "ball" in the swaged bullet, they are super soft.

[NVScouter]

I've used about every bullet for my 22Hornet and the Sierra and Winchester Hornet bullets are the best. Dont waste your $$ on the 35g V-Max but the 34g Varmint Nightmare's work pretty good.

[Toddlo]

I'm getting .5" groups at 100 yds with 10.3 grains of H110, 45 grain Sierra SP , Rem 61/2 primers just starting out. I was thinking about trying some 40 grain Sierra SP's next.

[303Guy]

Air rifle pellets simply get fitted by hand into an unsized case neck. The pellet tail rim is large enough to hold itself in place.

[Finarfin]

I'm getting .5" groups at 100 yds with 10.3 grains of H110, 45 grain Sierra SP , Rem 61/2 primers just starting out. I was thinking about trying some 40 grain Sierra SP's next.

I would stop right there.

[williamwaco]

50 years ago, it was possible to buy commercially swaged and lubed 40 grain .22 LR bullets.

These were exactly like the bullets you pulled but they had never been loaded.

They were significantly less expensive than jacketed Hornet bullets so I bought 100 and tried them.

I no longer have the records of that experiment but the results were so bad they could not hit a rabbit reliably at 25 yards.

.

Please let us know how your experiments turn out.



.

[bobthenailer]

Try this ! 22 cal jacketed bullet any weight . ive used 50 & 55 gr bullets only, 4.1gr 231 @1600fps or 4.8gr 231 @1800 fps ,with a small pistol primer from a contender 22-H pistol .with a 10" and 14" barrel,.
Either load will group well under a inch at 50 yards from either barrel.

[I'll Make Mine]

50 years ago, it was possible to buy commercially swaged and lubed 40 grain .22 LR bullets.

These were exactly like the bullets you pulled but they had never been loaded.

Cabela's still lists bullets like this, apparently supplied by North American Arms for the cap and ball version of their .22 mini revolvers. Not really cheap any more, but they're heeled .22 swaged bullets that have never been loaded...

[kir_kenix]

I still have some. They are great over 6.5gr of Green Dot in my .223 for 2000fps.

A member of my club scored a case of .22RF projectiles when a NZ factory closed its doors. He used to put a GC on the heel and shoot them in a Hornet.
I do the same. Got a very, very large supply of heeled .22lr projectiles from an auction. Was going to melt them down but fire them in the hornet instead. I make GC from fired LR primers with the anvil removed. SP primers work the best for me in the Hornet. Fired under 1300 fps they work great on bunnies and tree rats. Probably a 2 MOA load over a light load of unique.