22 Hornet Black Powder

[Ballistics in Scotland]

I know some of you may balk at me, so please forgive my ignorance. I usually don't venture into the black powder section.

However, I read the 22Hornet was originally developed as a black powder cartridge in the 1920s from a couple sources... I don't have a mold for .22 caliber yet, but I'm super curious to try this.

Does the above data sound right? Any conciderations I should use? Anybody do this before?

Nearly, but it was developed from a black powder cartridge in the 1920s. As the .22 WCF it existed before gas-checks were invented, or jacketed bullets in an American sporting rifle. It worked well at about 1500 ft./sec. with black powder, and fouling wasn't an insuperable problem. You will probably find that modern cases will hold less powder than the early ones, due to having thicker walls, but it should be enough for a marginally hotter .22LR equivalent, which lots of people seem to have a use for nowadays.

The tendency to foul may be diminished in a period-authentic way by using a sheet of wax between tight-fitting card discs behind the bullet. If you melt any hard lube in hot water, you should have an even sheet floating on top when it goes cold.

[tacklebury]

First off, I know this is old. It's something I'm playing with also though, so ignore me if you aren't interested...

Why not paper patch bullets to save the fouling issues. I load a BP converted .22 LR that I shoot the little .221 Air rifle round balls through and I use thermal paper from a receipt machine, very thin, to patch them. I've shot up to 20 times in a row without issue. I've just got a hornet and I'm paper patching NAA 30 gr. RN lead bullets with thermal paper and want to try out the 4ffffg powder to see what it'll do. Not really trying for super high velocities, but in my converted .22, it works good and the patch seems to clean up the bore each time you load another. I've not patched a cartridge previously, but will see if it helps. 8)

[StrawHat]

First off, I know this is old. It's something I'm playing with also though, so ignore me if you aren't interested...

Why not paper patch bullets to save the fouling issues. I load a BP converted .22 LR that I shoot the little .221 Air rifle round balls through and I use thermal paper from a receipt machine, very thin, to patch them. I've shot up to 20 times in a row without issue. I've just got a hornet and I'm paper patching NAA 30 gr. RN lead bullets with thermal paper and want to try out the 4ffffg powder to see what it'll do. Not really trying for super high velocities, but in my converted .22, it works good and the patch seems to clean up the bore each time you load another. I've not patched a cartridge previously, but will see if it helps. 8)

I admire your manual dexterity to be able to pp a 22 caliber boolit! I have considered it but have successfully put it off.

Kevin

[Castaway]

tacklebury, unless I’m missing something in your post, patching the bullet won’t do a thing to mitigate fouling from black powder.

[Eddie Southgate]

The Hornet was never a BP cartridge and in my opinion you would be wasting time trying to make it one.

[StrawHat]

The Hornet was never a BP cartridge and in my opinion you would be wasting time trying to make it one.

Correct, the 22 Hornet was developed as a smokeless powder cartridge. But the final dimensions used by Winchester(?) when the commercialized the cartridge were based on the older 22 WCF, which has caused many to wonder what the Hornet could do if loaded with black powder.

Kevin