Henry Rifle Forums

Was talking for a while to a gentleman in Sportsmans Warehouse yesterday and he said he would like to find a .22 Hornet.
Did some web surfing when I got home and realized that the Hornet has been around since 1930. Some impressive bullistics!
Far out performs the mag and .17 HMR.
Has anyone had any experience with this caliber?
This guy said finding ammo can be difficult. He referred to it as Remington 22 Hornet, yet I saw another brand or two at Gun Broker.

Mark
You dont reload though. For someone who doesnt reload I would stay away from it as the ammo cost is going to be an issue. Ive played with it and liked it ok even did the Khornet for awhile. But the brass is super thin in the neck and if you arent careful reloading its easy to deform it. Id do 223 if you are looking for a more powerful 22 cal as the ammo is everywhere and cheap. Just my .02 cents worth.

But the brass is super thin in the neck and if you arent careful reloading its easy to deform it.

A Lyman Neck Epanding die (m-die) is a big help with that.
Just from my limited experience reloading 25-20. One of the cartridges almost put down by the Hornet.

You dont reload though. For someone who doesnt reload I would stay away from it as the ammo cost is going to be an issue.

Ditto this.
The older & classic calibers are fun to own and shoot and some are obsolete (or nearing so) and are simply not practical to own unless one reloads.

There's a guy at the range who shoots at the 200 yard targets with a 22 Hornet and 22 Swift. They make a strange "whistling" noise going down range due to the fps they make. Looks like a lot of fun shooting but like others wouldn't want to pay for the ammo unless reloading.

If you don't want to reload
The rimfire, .17 caliber, 17 WSM, is a very fast cartridge with comparable Balistics to the 22 Hornet.

.
Maybe why it's called a Hornet

Shakey Jake wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 10, 2019 12:24 pm

... They make a strange "whistling" noise going down range ...

.
Following up on BigAls .223 suggestion. ah-hm - (hint) Henry Long Ranger in .223

markiver54 wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 10, 2019 11:26 am

Was talking for a while to a gentleman in Sportsmans Warehouse yesterday and he said he would like to find a .22 Hornet.
Did some web surfing when I got home and realized that the Hornet has been around since 1930. Some impressive bullistics!
Far out performs the mag and .17 HMR.
Has anyone had any experience with this caliber?
This guy said finding ammo can be difficult. He referred to it as Remington 22 Hornet, yet I saw another brand or two at Gun Broker.

I've had a long and wonderful relationship with the 22 Hornet, shooting it in a variety of rifles, but, especially, the Contenders. In a Contender, the 22 Hornet has been famous for its accuracy. As for rifles, CZ still offers it in the 527 Mini-Mauser bolt gun (wonderful rifle). True, it's expensive to shoot with factory ammo, but there are some exceptions.

The 22 Hornet actually has been a popular cartridge in Europe and remains so to this day, so some imported 22 Hornet ammo is still reasonable. For instance, Privi Partizan (PPU) 22 Hornet factory ammo shoots very well in the Contender and isn't a whole lot more expensive than bulk factory 223 at about 50 cents a round. Sellier & Beloit also offers 22 Hornet ammo at about 75 cents round.

The American brands of 22 Hornet ammo are typically very expensive, though. Nevertheless, I can get 22 Hornet ammo though my local Wisconsin Cartridge Company for 75 cents a round.

I promise you, you will not find a sweeter to shoot 22 cal centerfire rifle round than the 22 Hornet.

To all the new members...this is an example how quickly you can get information about something you knew little, or in my case, nothing about. Thanks to everyone!
NCG, your last comment especially is enticing, along with the other info you provided!
Oh, from what I`ve researched, the Hornet is about 600 fps faster than the .17.

I've been back-and-forth on a .22 Hornet for some time now...one of my local shops has an old BSA Martini (single-shot 'lever') chambered for that round sitting on the consignment shelf. Honestly though, I have .22 WMR rifles, and a really nice shooting 'Triple Deuce' (.222 Rem), so something in the middle probably wouldn't see much use.

The .17 (Hornady) Hornet has my attention, though. From what I have read, it sounds like fun.

roddy wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 10, 2019 2:15 pm

I've been back-and-forth on a .22 Hornet for some time now...one of my local shops has an old BSA Martini (single-shot 'lever') chambered for that round sitting on the consignment shelf. Honestly though, I have .22 WMR rifles, and a really nice shooting 'Triple Deuce' (.222 Rem), so something in the middle probably wouldn't see much use.

Can understand your logic roddy.

markiver54 wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 10, 2019 2:17 pm

roddy wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 10, 2019 2:15 pm

I've been back-and-forth on a .22 Hornet for some time now...one of my local shops has an old BSA Martini (single-shot 'lever') chambered for that round sitting on the consignment shelf. Honestly though, I have .22 WMR rifles, and a really nice shooting 'Triple Deuce' (.222 Rem), so something in the middle probably wouldn't see much use.

Can understand your logic roddy.

You responded while I was editing my post...have you looked at the .17 Hornet?

roddy wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 10, 2019 2:21 pm

markiver54 wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 10, 2019 2:17 pm

roddy wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 10, 2019 2:15 pm

I've been back-and-forth on a .22 Hornet for some time now...one of my local shops has an old BSA Martini (single-shot 'lever') chambered for that round sitting on the consignment shelf. Honestly though, I have .22 WMR rifles, and a really nice shooting 'Triple Deuce' (.222 Rem), so something in the middle probably wouldn't see much use.

Can understand your logic roddy.

You responded while I was editing my post...have you looked at the .17 Hornet?

No, only learned of the Hornet just yesterday. Will have to research it more. Not in the market for a new gun yet; I just found this to be very interesting. Just picked up my new Ruger single 10 recently, so, any additions will have to wait a while.

from what I`ve researched, the Hornet is about 600 fps faster than the .17

22 Hornet, 45 grain SP, MV 2690fps
17 Winchester Super Mag, 25 grain High Energy, mv 2600fps
17 Hornady Magnum Rimfire, 20grain fmj, MV 2375fps.

The Hornet info from the internet, the rimfire info is off ammo in my cabnet.

I caved...picked up a .22 Hornet today. It is a Brno ZKW 465 bolt-action rifle, c1971. This will be my first experience with a double-set trigger.

roddy wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 22, 2019 2:05 pm

I caved...picked up a .22 Hornet today. It is a Brno ZKW 465 bolt-action rifle, c1971. This will be my first experience with a double-set trigger.

congratulations .... looking forward to pictures, range reports, and use impressions .... will it be a hunter .. .. if so, for what .. ..

Brno is a great Czech gun make. On and off over the years they've been a part of CZ, so it's no coincidence that some CZ designs are very much like Brno designs, especially the CZ 452 rimfires. I'm about to cave, too, on ordering in a CZ 527 in 22 Hornet. We already have a CZ 527 in 223, so it's hard to justify another 527 in 22 Hornet, but I love the 22 Hornet, so that's that.

North Country Gal wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 22, 2019 5:06 pm

Brno is a great Czech gun make. On and off over the years they've been a part of CZ, so it's no coincidence that some CZ designs are very much like Brno designs, especially the CZ 452 rimfires. I'm about to cave, too, on ordering in a CZ 527 in 22 Hornet. We already have a CZ 527 in 223, so it's hard to justify another 527 in 22 Hornet, but I love the 22 Hornet, so that's that.

NCG, If I would have known you wanted a 527 Hornet I could have sold you my CZ 527 Hornet FS that I never fired and just sat here gathering dust. With me being a reloader it was always to easy to load my 222 Sako from 2450-2500 FPS with a 50 gr. bullet with much better accuracy than fooling with the paper thin Hornet brass. The 222 loaded to that speed was a killing machine with minimal meat damage on turkeys. One thing for sure the most accurate Hornet's I ever saw shoot were T/C Contenders and Contender carbines. Ruger 77 Hornets were usually the worst in accuracy I ever had the chance to shoot. Mine was not here very long.

JEBar wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 22, 2019 2:10 pm

roddy wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 22, 2019 2:05 pm

I caved...picked up a .22 Hornet today. It is a Brno ZKW 465 bolt-action rifle, c1971. This will be my first experience with a double-set trigger.

congratulations .... looking forward to pictures, range reports, and use impressions .... will it be a hunter .. .. if so, for what .. ..

Thanks. It will be a while before I get to this one...there's a few lined up in front of it. I will try to get some pics up, though. I'm more of a plinker than a hunter. If I did hunt, I would also leave this one in the safe in favor of my .222. Small caliber stuff is interesting, and I've been curious about this cartridge for a while.