Shot my first sideways boolits today !!!

[twotrees]

22 Hornet, handie rifle 255450 boolit speed green lube GC. Starting load at 2 gr of Red Dot.

At 3 gr they seem to settle down and start flying right. Max listed for Red Dot is 3.7 gr and 1650 FPS. Pressure for that load is at 22K CUP. Why can't I go higher that that, with a careful eye?

Started out low as I was trying to get a quiet load for the Hornet. But this boolet wants to go faster than low vel, it seems.

Thanks,

[rbuck351]

You probably can go higher than that BUT, fast powders like red dot gain pressure in a hurry so be real careful. Also you didn't say whether your handi is a SB1 or SB2. There is a lot of difference in how much pressure each will take.

[NHlever]

I got good accuracy out of my Hornet using 3-4 grains of Unique. It only gives about 22lr velocity though I think. It seemed pretty quiet, and stabilized my 50 gr 22596 boolits well. I didn't go lower than that on the powder charge so I can't speak to that. With my gun, 3.5 grains seemed to be a sweet spot. My BIL also uses that load with the 225438 in his Contender with good results.

[Down South]

Handie rifles are known to sometimes have an oversize bore. I was wondering if you slugged the bore and you are sizing your boolits for fit. It could be your boolit is undersized and your lower powder charge is not causing the boolit to obturate to the bore but the higher charge is. Are you having a problem with leading?