223 or 22 hornet?

[lead chucker]

I would love to get a 22 cal rifle for casting not sure what is the most cast friendly.

[stubshaft]

I have loaded for the 218 Bee, Mashburn Bee, 22 Hornet and K-hornet, 221FB, 222, 223 and 220 Swift. The one that gives me the most enjoyment, efficiency and ease of loading is the K-Hornet followed closely by the Masburn bee. They are efficient and produce excellent accuracy and velocity with most 22 boolits.

[Larry Gibson]

While I love the Hornet and .223 my nod goes to the .222 Remington with a 14" twist barrel based on experience with numerous rifles of each.

Larry Gibson

[frnkeore]

Larry,
What's your best load for your 222?

Frank

[Larry Gibson]

Larry,
What's your best load for your 222?

Frank

Most consistently accurate at high velocity was with the 225462 over H4894 with a dacron filler for right at 2350 fps. Like a fool I let a "friend" talk me out of that very nice shooting M788. Knowing what I know now I would opt for a slower powder like AA4350 or RL15.

However, my most used load for shooting ground squirrels was the 225415 over 18 gr of H4895 for 2200 fps. That was deadly on ground squirrels. I never could get that 225462 to shoot as well over 2000 fps in either the Hornet with 16" twist or the 223 with a 12" twist. In the 14" twist 222 it was deadly.

Larry Gibson

[303Guy]

I'm glad you mentioned that, Larry. I have a 1-in-14 twist 22lr barrel and a desire for a 222 cast boolit shooter. Still, I'd have thought the 22 Hornet would be ideal for cast but I seldom hear of great success with it. The 222 with its long neck appeals to me greatly. The problem is casting those tiny boolits!

[GabbyM]

I find the trick to casting 22 boolits is to cheat and use lots of tin and Sb.
They are so light the richness of the alloy has a minimal impact on coast per round.

I pressure pour them with a Lyman ladle.