22 Hornet

[JSH]

Twenty some years ago I swore I would never cast for anything smaller than a 30 caliber. Well, have to eat my words.
Got PO'd when the rimfire ammo mess came up. Sold all but a few of my Winchesters after collecting them for 30 years. Moved forward and went to a 22 Hornet. Found a beautiful little Savage Model 40. I never crowded it as I only wanted to equal a 22RF. It shot over and above my expectations. I doubt I would have harmed it, but some of the issues they had spooked me. I swapped it for a CZ527. The 527 has a 1-16 twist. Think the savage was a 12?
I had some of my 225415 loaded for the savage and ran them through the 527. Horrible is putting it mildly. Ever see key holes group? At 100 yards there were five stacked about 1" apart about like =.

I had these running at 1050-1060 fps.

I know speed can over come lack in twist. Do those in the know think running faster will over come that. Or do I need a new mold?

Kind of wishing I had the savage back. What spooked me the most was a buddy had one just like mine. He had not crowded it on pressures, but had shot it a LOT more than I had mine. His bolt came apart. No parts to be found. He is in the process of building a new one. Last I spoke to him he was wishing he had never started it. But was bound and determined not to let it whup him. Scrapped the first try and was on the second, had over 80 hours that far.
Jeff

[chutesnreloads]

Try fatter boolits ?

[Hickok]

Lyman 225438 shoots great out of my CZ 527 22 Hornet. It is a shorter boolit than the 225415 you are using.

The 16 inch twist of the CZ 527 is better with shorter, more stubby boolits.

[Hannibal]

Well, do you know the answer to all the basic questions?

Bore diameter
Bullet diameter
Freebore diameter
Freebore length
Twist rate

If you do not positively know the answer to these questions, you will likely spend months looking for the 'magic bullet'.

If you want an 'easy out', you might try factory J - words. Maybe you'll get lucky.

But maybe not.

If you just want an easy to shoot small bore, there's better stuff out there than a .22 Hornet.

[richhodg66]

I did basically the same thing in response to the rimfire shortage, but mine is an old Savage 219 single shot. I never even contemplated shooting at 100 yards, I wanted a fox squirrel rifle and 25 yards is a realistic distance in my experience. Tried the 225438, did alright. Tried the 225425, it did alright too. Got in on the group buy for the 45 grain WFN by NOE. I ordered mine all plain based. Mold casts great, loads are anywhere between 1.5 and 2 grains of Bullseye. Somewhere between those is sonic speed, 1.5 is very quiet, 2 grains has a definite "crack". Accurate as I can shoot, usually puts most through one hole at 25 yards and kills squirrels as well or better than a .22 LR hollow point.

After the 219, I got a Stevens 322 (Savage 340) and it wouldn't feed the WFN, so I ordered the Lee Bator that Midsouth used to sell, unavailable now. I cast them real soft, gas checked and in front of 5.5 grains of 2400, it's a great squirrel load too.

What kind of primers are you using? I was advised to use small pistol primers rather than small rifle and it seems the general wisdom is it makes a big difference in the Hornet.

[JSH]

Diameter is not the issue, it's twist.
Of the dozens of calibers I have played with, any key hole issues I ever had was all twist related/bullet length. Speed can over come a twist issue in some instances.
Buddy has a mold, I will see what it is.
The savage would hold 9 ring easily on BR50 targets. I want a good shooter and no sense in trying to polish a turd. It may end up with a Lothar barrel on it, who knows.

Rich, good to see ya here still. I started with the Hornets on or around 85. At that time all loads were for IHMSA. I even gave it a try in BB UASHS, 50-200 meters. I stayed with small pistol primers even for the HOT 200 meter loads.
I am still on the thoughts that the rifle primers blow powder column and bullet out a bit before full ignition. Just talked to too many folks over the years that had the same results. I never had a primer pocket issue or blown primer either. The 200m loads were hard on brass, usually 3 and they were tossed.
Forward a few years. I went from the 300 Whisper aka, 30x221. Ran a 30-20 (32-20 with 308 bore and throats) side by side. The whisper with no rim and the 30-20 with, I saw not enough arguable difference in the two with any load. One oddity, the 221 shot better with SRP's where the 32-20 had a preference for SPP, go figure. Same bullet, same load, same twist.

The 32-20 is a favorite of mine. I was doing with it 20+ years ago that they just figured out with the 327. I still out run it, Blackhawk buckeye.
Jeff

[deltaenterprizes]

I recently got a Savage Model 25 in 22 Hornet and will be following this thread.
I looked closely at a CZ 527 and came close to buying one but wanted the synthetic stock and the $200 difference in price helped too!

I am working on a swaging die for my Herters 9 ton press to make RN lead bullets of various weights to experiment with and save $$ too!

[turtlezx]

need boolits in the 40 or 45gr weight with 1/16 twist no heavier!!

[richhodg66]

need boolits in the 40 or 45gr weight with 1/16 twist no heavier!!

The Bator design, which unfortunately isn't available anymore, is nominally 55 grains but due to design is actually a hair shorter than the Lyman 225438, stabilizes fine in my Stevens 322 which I don't know the twist of, but suspect due to age that it's slow.