So picked up a .22 Hornet

[Wolfdog91]

So picked up this little lady at the pawn shop for a cool $165 after taxes and all.



Was just going load jacket round but was curious how hard is it to Cast for the hornet? Any real saving to be had?

[cwtebay]

Holy Cow yes there are savings!! I am quite sure someone will be along shortly to offer up way better advice than I am capable of providing. I can shoot my hornets for less than 22 rimfire (pre-stupidity cost of 22 LR) and they are awesome.
Nice find!!!

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[frkelly74]

Sure , I hope you already laid in some primers already. My answer to the obama 22 shortage was a 9mm carbine, which I have enjoyed and loaded for, My son has enjoyed it too but so far has not shown interest in doing any of the loading.

Side note.... The first rifle I loaded cast boolits for was a 30-30 handy rifle. I got good results almost immediately.

[muskeg13]

And the answer is: Lyman 225438. Listed as a 44 grain Rounded Flat Nose w/gas check, replicating a 22LR profile. Could be discontinued ??, but you may find one on the net or get something similar from one of the semi-custom mould makers. Midsouth still has them listed as In Stock. This boolit is slightly more accurate in my CZ527 than the Lee 55 gr FN.

[brnomauser]

I can shoot my hornets for less than 22 rimfire (pre-stupidity cost of 22 LR) and they are awesome.
Nice find!!!

I’m not doubting you - but I’m wondering how? Are your Primers comparatively cheap? Here we’re paying on average $0.08/primer - 10% discount if you buy 1000. That’s more than cheap 22LR ammo, then there’s powder on top, and maybe GCs and brass depreciation. I mean, I love casting/reloading and don’t actually own a 22 (choosing to download my 222 with cast instead) but here there is no way it can be cheaper

[smithnframe]

My recently acquired Ruger 77/22 hornet shoots Lyman cast 55 grain bullets exclusively! I cast them from pure linotype.

[DonHowe]

But there is no way a .22 LR can be more fun than casting bullets and rolling your own loads for a Hornet.

[farmerjim]

The lee C225-55-Rf works well in my 22 Hornet Handi. You have to cast fast to keep the mold hot.
I have powder coated them, Hi-tek'ed them, and tumble lubed with 45-45-10, and all have worked fine.

[dverna]

I had the same rifle. Mine was not accurate so I sold it.

First shoot some jacketed bullets to see if it will shoot. Most rifles will not shoot cast better than jacketed. Shooting jacketed gives you a base line. If your rifle shoots 2 MOA with jacketed, a realistic expectation is 4 MOA with cast.

.22 cal bullets are the most difficult for a newbie to cast well. But nothing wrong with trying!!! IMHO, if you are new to casting, expect a lot of frustration. It is better to start with a larger caliber at lower velocity. If you do not get the results you want, do not give up on casting. I have been reloading and casting for almost 50 years and own one custom .224 mould, but have never used it. It is for SHTF in case the supply of inexpensive jacketed bullets dries up. But I am lazy and impatient...YMMV.

When figuring your cost, remember to take into consideration the cost of cases and how many loads you get out of each. My "cheap" shooting is with .38 Spl ($60/1000) or 9mm ($30/1000) with once fired cases. Also, if you need to use gas checks they will run about $25/1000. It is easy for me to get over 20 reloads from a .38 case....I have never tracked it. bit I loose very few cases a year and I shoot quite a bit.

I doubt you will be able to shoot .22 Hornet for less than .22 LR if you put pencil to paper. And if you can, the effort is not worth the reward unless you are a caster and reloader instead of a marksman and shooter.

[Elroy]

I had a H&R 158 22 Hornet a while back ,and could not warm up to it, so I sold it. I did load for it, and found that the 46 gr Speer Flat Nose with a compressed charge of Lil Gun would stabilize. Brass for the Hornet is very thin walled ,and crushes easily. You wont likely get good longevity from it regardless of how you load it. You may love it,or you may get tired of it fast,but for what you payed for it you didn't get hurt one bit.

[cwlongshot]

I love mine!! I reamed it to a "K" a few years back and bought it a fancy Bushnell
Scope. I also found a set if yellow laminated stocks for her! She is a favorite!

LOVE CAST IN MINE!! I borrowed a MP 35g HP and 42g Solid mold from a friend. GREAT SHOOTING BULLETS!!

Good luck with yours!

CW

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

SNIP...

Was just going load jacket round but was curious how hard is it to Cast for the hornet? Any real saving to be had?

YES it is worth it !
But let me add a couple things. I see from your other posts that you are relatively new to casting.
Number 1, casting for Rifle is kind of "advanced casting"
Number 2, Casting for 22 centerfire Rifle is "MORE advanced casting".
...At least that was my experience.

Rifle boolits need to be perfect and uniform to get the best accuracy.
22 centerfire Rifle boolits are more challenging to cast than larger rifle boolits.

Now there are surely other pitfalls, but that is the simplified version.

My suggestion is to seek a boolit swap, from someone here that has plenty of experience casting 22 boolits, and give those a try before investing in molds/sizers/GCs and such.
Good Luck.

[yovinny]

Good luck on your quest...
While I love Hornets, their super picky on the bullets and ammo they like.
As bad, if not worse, then 22rf rifles... Where the difference between groups and shotgun patterns comes down to keeping strait, what ammo goes in which firearm.

Even then, some can be fustrating to the extreme and not a great caliber for a beginner.
I went through 5, including a beautiful Anschutz Mannlicher, before I found one that shot to my liking...ymmv

[Larry Gibson]

Excellent find! I've been loading and shooting 22 Hornets from the early '70s. Haven't found one yet that wasn't accurate. Most "inaccuracy" comes from using the wrong bullet for the twist [hronets come with twists from 11 to12" to 16"] Using the wrong weight/length bullet can easily give stability problems.

Also the very thin necks are easily bent crooked when dragged over the expander with typical dies. For best accuracy you'll want to NS only to the base of the seated bullet. I use a Redding Bushing die w/o an expander button to NS. However, the Lee Collet die works very well. Once NS'd I then use a short Lyman M-die to expand and bell the case mouth. I put a sharper taper on the expander mandrel to avoid scrunching the necks. I use the belled case mouths to also seat jacketed bullets. That has pretty much eliminated any scrunched necks [It's very easy to scrunch the thin hornet necks BTW].

Once properly NS 'd the Hornet cartridge can be very accurate with cast or jacketed bullets. Cast bullets can easily duplicate 22LR velocity and accuracy at a cost similar to high quality [not your bargain basement blasting bulk 22LR ammo] 22LR but with much better efficiency on the terminal end. I shoot a 225415 or 225107 at 1050 fps over miniscule amounts of Bullseye out of my suppressed Hornet. It's quieter than my 22 cal air rifle and the FN 52 gr cast bullet thumps squirrels and other small game/vermin as good, if not better than HV 22LR HPs. I also push that bullet into the 1850 fps range which duplicates the WRF Magnum terminal performance. In my 14 and 16" twist Hornets the 225462 is pushed to 2400 - 2500 fps which duplicates the original Hornet velocities. The 225428 is also, as mentioned, an excellent Hornet cast bullet.

With jacketed bullets out of 14" or faster twist barrels I've come to prefer the Hornady 45 gr Hornet SP. Loaded over 12.5 gr Lil'gun it runs 2950 fps out of my Savage M40 and is very accurate and super deadly on critters up through coyotes. In the 16" twist Hornets either the 40 or 45 gr Sierra Hornet bullets over 11.8 gr H4227 has always been an accurate and excellent "standard" Hornet load.

[mvozz]

I love the 22 Hornet! I have been shooting a Ruger #3 for 30 years and as far as I can remember it has only seen 1 box of factory ammo. About a year ago I decided to try my hand at casting for it. I had only been casting for about 1 year but thought I could take a stab at it. This is the result of my efforts. Just so you know this is 10 rounds. This is my 22 LR replacement in the event I ever run out!

[cwtebay]

I’m not doubting you - but I’m wondering how? Are your Primers comparatively cheap? Here we’re paying on average $0.08/primer - 10% discount if you buy 1000. That’s more than cheap 22LR ammo, then there’s powder on top, and maybe GCs and brass depreciation. I mean, I love casting/reloading and don’t actually own a 22 (choosing to download my 222 with cast instead) but here there is no way it can be cheaper

I buy primers in bulk and have about $0.02 Into them, the powder was $173.50 for 8# 2 years ago - that's around $0.01 per round, the bullets are 45gr +/- hollow point plain base wheel weights that I cast in a mold I got from eBay for $15 about 12 years ago, I bought my dies used at a gun show around 1988 (can't recall what I gave for them), and also have a Lee Loader for it that I was given for my 12th birthday, the brass lasts me about 7 loads per case but I can't remember what I paid for the 2500 cases I am working with. I cast for it 3-4 times per year in marathon sessions with a crucible over an old hand crank coke forge that was given to me. I enjoy the casting and reloading and it's my boys that shoot most of it, but I'm sure there is some cost to me doing it. But I figured it's pretty cheap, and was less than 22 LR last time I recall looking. I should probably look at opportunity cost if I were to sell the powder or primers also, as well as the cost of the coke I use and the wheel weights if I ever have to start buying them.


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[Tripplebeards]

I’d love to run into one for the same $$$$!

[rbuck351]

I have been lucky scrounging stuff for the last 50 years and can load for the hornet at around 2 to 3 cents per round. I was given 24lbs of H116 (1680) and have bought quite a bunch of primer at auctions for $10/$20 per 1000. Most of my ww I bought years ago for $10 to $20 per 5gal bucket. Brass has been acquired in trades for other brass I have picked up or bought cheap at gun shows and such. I make my own gas checks from aluminum flashing. I have a 150 yd range at home so I recycle my lead.
I know most folks don't go to these extremes to shoot cheaply. I find it comforting to have the stuff on hand to be able to shoot as much as I want during shortages and not break the bank.
I know that if I had to buy powder, primers, brass, and lead at todays price it would cost around 6/8 cents per round but what does bulk 22lr cost per round today?

[RustyReel]

I'll go against the grain here. I'm a caster and casting is the only way I could afford to shoot some of my larger bores, 458 Win Mag, 45/70 etc. I am set up so my only additional cost would be a mold. I tried it for a very short time. The smaller boolits are more difficult to cast, no question. I decided I could buy jacketed stuff for ten cents each, less if I shop around and wait for sales, so casting for the .22 xxxx wasn't worth the effort.

[cwlongshot]

I picked up a used LEE 6cav RANCH DOG 22 mold.
That is as east to cast with as any mold I have.

But then I have a couple two cav Lymans that give me FITS!!

I borrowed two MP molds from a friend one HP 35g and one solid 42g. BOTH cast beautifully. And that durn HP is a laser in my BEE 'Tender!!! I need to try some in the K.

IMHO calibers are different with cast 22. I cannot make a 223 shoot good as Id like. But I have two 222's that LOVE LOVE LOVE Lymans 62g gc bullet!!!!


CW