SmallCaliberCentral

I'm thinking about selling my 22 mag and buying a 22 Hornet for closer shots on small game and plinking. What do you guys think? My 22 magnum is a MOA rifle. I've wanted a Hornet for a while since the bullets cost the same as the magnum and the Hornet will shoot farther with less drop if I have to shoot farther, but don't know if the one I get will have the accuracy my magnum will. Any advice will be appreciated. Also, what is a fair price of a 22 Hornet?

CZs in Hornet are right around the $450 mark or a little more, right now. NEFs are around the $250 mark, Rugers and Brownings cost somewhat more than the CZs, shopping around will help the price a good deal, if you're canny about it. I hear good things about the CZs and the price is right, too. I've owned two of the H&Rs when I was a lot younger, they shot "okay" but not outstanding. The Rugers can be problematic, the two-piece bolt is sometimes a problem causer for accuracy reasons. The mini-Mauser that Remington is selling (M799) is, at least the ones I've looked at, were rougher than a cob, and didn't get me interested at all.

I have several hornets. My best is Ruger 77/22 heavy barrel. The hornet brass is thin and sometimes hard to work with. The most accurate load I have found for it is 35 gr Hornady bulllets and Lil'gun powder. The old usual hornet powders and heavier bullet have not produce small groups.

I also have a 22 Khornet in a Ruger #3. It is alot of fun. I still don't like the hornet brass.

I am considering getting a .221 Fireball. It is in the same performance range as the hornet and uses shortened .222 or .223 brass. It is just my suggestion that if you are starting from scratch the .221 may be a better deal that the hornet for reloading.

I had the Ruger 77/22 heavy barrel Hornet, I could not get it to shoot less then 1.5 inch groups, tried lots of loads. Then sold the gun

I have the ruger heavy bbl 77/22 hornet i have not loaded a load yet that it likes better than the remington fac. h.p.

22shooter wrote: It is just my suggestion that if you are starting from scratch the .221 may be a better deal that the hornet for reloading.

I don't reload but thanks for the info.

glenn asher wrote:. I've owned two of the H&Rs when I was a lot younger, they shot "okay" but not outstanding.quote]

I'm not wanting to invest in one that much so exactly how good do the NEF's shoot? The ones you owned, were they both in .22 Hornet?

At the time, I didn't handload either, and about the best I could get out of factory loads was 1.5 MOA, although some of that was due to 4X scopes and the bad triggers. Plenty good enough to kill a few groundhogs with them, but not much else.

That sounds good as my longest shots may very rarely exceed 200 yards if I buy one. I'll probably get a trigger job done on it and put a higher power scope on it to solve the problems you stated. It may be a little farther down the road before I get one, since I'm getting my trigger pull lightened on my .204 and getting a new firing pin (because of the possible J lock problems you told me about). Thanks for all the info guys. {close topic}

Keep the Maggie if it's an option. IMO the Hornet ends around 175yds if there is wind. The 221FireBall is a big jump above the Hornet. It will kill groundhogs with a 50gr bullet out close to 300yds. The 40gr bullets can run around 3200fps. The Hornet is a nice rd but it falls well shy of the 221. Since you don't reload either 22H/221FB ammo will be expensive with the Hornet falling into the "pricey" category. Around $27/20 around here. The FB runs $18/20 in 50gr Remington & Cabelas has HSM ammo. It comes in 50ct boxes & I'm not sure of that price but it's easy enough to find. HTH

After putting more thought into this, I've decided to keep my 22 magnum since I would be getting rid of a great rifle and spending a little more for a centerfire that may or may may not have the under-MOA accuracy my magnum has with no real range advantage. Thanks for all the help guys. I'll just wait a while and get something else later on and still keep my 22 magnum.

I have a 77/22 standard hornet. It works great. Not sub moa
but moa at 100 pretty regularly. I shoot calhoons 37 gr dbbl hp over lil gun.
I have been thinking about getting it rebarreled to a 19 calhoon.
3000fps woooo....


If for any other reason to trade the 22m for a hornet..you can reload..

my brother in law has a ruger m77/22 heavy barrel in 22 hornet and saw this post and thought he would share is most accurate load.
40 grain vmax
11 grains of IMR 4227
CCI 400 primer
OAL 1.850
A 4 shot group will all touch at 100 yards.

The CZ 527 in 22 hornet is awesome. 46 grain Winchester ammo goes good with it.

I bought a 22 hornet handi this last fall one of the superlight models and I have been really happy with it. In orig condition I was able to take jack rabbits out to 150 or so with ease though no real accuracy testing the best groups where 1.25 -1.5" for 3@100 on a windy day.

The main reason was that the plan from the start was to convert to k-hornet, and at this point post conversion it shows potential but real testing is coming in the next few weeks. 1" or better should be very achevable, and since it's intended use is a sub 175 yard coyote gun for my boys even at 1.5 it will do the job just fine.

Ammo is the real kicker with 22 hornet it's one of those rounds where you can save money by reloading, OK i'll be honest you'll just shoot twice as much. A fella on another site has been using one of those lee kits that you use a mallet (classic kits I think) 25$ and you can reload, slowly but it works:)