Which 22 mould for 10" Hornet T/C

[ihmsakiwi]

I am about to throw caution to the wind and enter the 22 casting challenge.
I have read most of the threads and see three moulds that might be a good starting point. But which would you recommend for the usually long throated T/C barrell? I want a field pistol load for 100 meter shooting. Bator, RCBS or the Lyman?
What would you recommend for sizing if needed? Lee push-through or Lyman 450base first.
Which gas-check, Hornady or Gator?
I need to buy all so I would like to call on your expertise. Thanks, Peter.

[Ed K]

I'm in a similar situation: relatively new to casting and looking for a TC Hornet mold. My searches of this site have turned up the NEI 224-45-GC as the most likely to yield decent success. I have not purchased the mold yet. Perhaps you could look into this mold or maybe someone on the board with experience will see this and confirm/deny.

Ed

[Larry Gibson]

Peter

My 10" TC 22 Hornet barrel has a 14" twist (got it in '88. For hunting squirrels the Lyman 225415 shoots well. Best accuracy is with the Lyman 225438. I tried 225462 years ago but had stability problems. Haven't tried any other cast bullets in the 10" Hornet barrel.

"What would you recommend for sizing if needed? Lee push-through or Lyman 450base first."

I use the 450 with the GC seater to seat the GCs then lubed in a .224 sizer. Always thought "as cast" would be better. I've finally got a .228 sizer but haven't tried anythin yet in the hornet.

"Which gas-check, Hornady or Gator?"

I've used the Lyman and Hornadys with equal success. Haven't used Gator .22s but the .30 Gators work fine.

I was casting the 225415 bullets hard out of linotype and loading them over 4.7 gr Unique and a CCI SP primer. Velocity was 1750 fps I would carry the TC in my back pack when out shooting ground squirrels, the small Columbian ones that we called "picket pins". They presnt a very small and fast moving, skittering target. Farmers love you to come and shoot them out of alfalf/hay fields. Sort of like shooting prairie dogs only a much, much smaller target. A large one sitting up is agout 4-5" tall and 1.5" wide. Laying down feeding they are about 1" high and 4-5" wide. A 250-300 yard shot on one of these is a very, very good shot. Anyways when set up in a prone position I would pull out the TC and shoot the picket pins out to 100 yards or so with it and the ones past that with the .223. Great fun.

I once went through 500 rounds of .22 Hornet ammo (J bullets) with my #3 Ruger making 3 stands in one alfalfa field. Ranges were 25-250 yards with the majority of hits (I ran right at 80% that day) in the 75 to 150 yard range. At one time I kept track of such. With the same cast load as used in the TC with the Ruger on a "walk about" shoot I have shot many hundreds of picket pins. That load in the Ruger with the 16" twist was a 1" load at 75 yards but a 3" load at 100 yards. Stability was lost real quick. But alas the #3 is almost shot out.....many thousands of shots it took!

Another tip is I use a Redding Bushing die to neck size only that part of the neck for the bullet and only enough for proper neck tension.

Larry Gibson

[Nobade]

Hmm, looks like TC used different twist rates on these barrels over the years. Mine is a 1:12 and works great with the RCBS 55gr.

[Larry Gibson]

Nobade

That appears to be the case which is why I mentioned the twist. Lyman's 48th still lists the 10" barrel as a 14" twist (probably because they have an older one for a test barrel).

Larry Gibson

[kir_kenix]

I have been playing around with my new Lyman 225438 in my 14" Hornet contender. I havn't put together the load or groups I want yet, but I got decent results out of several unique loads. This boolit drops right around 47 gr with gas check and lube. I have been sizing to .225, but will eventually get around to experimenting with different diameters.

The RCBS 55gr semi-point is a nice looking boolit, but I havn't got it to shoot worth a darn yet in the Hornet (only one range trip for both boolits, so its too early to tell for sure).

I hope to have a really good load and range report put together here soon on the Lyman 225438 out of my hornet and in a 218 bee. I think this boolit shows alot of promise tho.

Also, investigate using pistol primers in your hornet. I have found them to be more consistent with the faster burning powders.

[JIMinPHX]

If you have a long throat, I would think that blunt boolits would be the order of the day. The Bator boolit comes to mind.