Today's article is by a good friend on mine, J, that I've known many years, and one of the few people that I would vouch for like the mafia. He has many skill sets: medical, reloading, hunter, gatherer, backpacker, and survival enthusiast. So, without further ado....
The great little round we’ve all been ignoring, or perhaps didn’t know existed.
In the 1920’s a few fellows a the Springfield armory (the
actually Springfield armory not the one your thinking of right now)
started messing around with a diminutive little blackpowder cartridge
called the 22 Winchester Center Fire or 22 WCF. The Winchester round was
an old thin cased, long necked cartridge introduced in 1885 and
propelled a 45 grain bullet to around 22 magnum velocities. The
wildcatters at the military base started to tinker with the round using
modern propellants, bullets, and toying with crimps managed to come up
with, what was at the time, the most accurate rifle cartridge ever. They
named it the 22 hornet and shenanigans ensued. Fast forward about 10
years and Winchester decided to adopt and standardize the round and so
in 1930 Winchester became the first manufacturer to produce 22 hornet
cartridges. The little hornet took off and even found itself in military
service. Im sure your familiar with some of the survival rifles
produced by the United States military like the M6, though it was only
one of a few such rifles and all of them came chambered in 22 hornet
(among other calibers).
If the hornet was so popular, why have you never heard of
it? Thats a solid question. I’ll answer it with another, have you ever
heard of the 222 Remington "triple deuce", the 256 Winchester, the 218
Bee, the 25-20 Winchester, the 264 Winchester, the 44-40 Winchester, the
38/44 Smith and Wesson, the 6mm Remington? Like so many other rounds
the 22 Hornet has fallen out of favor with shooters for faster, more
powerful rounds with better technology behind their design and bullets.
The 220 Russian for instance is the son of the 7.62x39, the father of
the 22, 6mm, and 6.5mm ppc, and the great grandfather of the 6.5
Grendel, but have you ever heard of it?
Now, down to the real meat and potatoes, why should you
care about it? Well, have you ever let the words “I wish there was a
reloadable 22 (lr)” slip from your lips? I have good news for you, there
is, in a few forms if we’re going to be thorough about it, they all
however stem from the 22 hornet. With modern powders like Hodgdon H4895,
Alliant 2400, and especially Hodgdon Lil Gun the diminutive hornet is
capable of nearly 3200 fps with 35 grain pills, however, loaded with a
60 percent load of H4895 one can expect velocities around 1400 fps from a
45 grain soft point. The nice thing about H4895 is the way that it
burns. The powder is fairly slow and uniform when burning so the
likelihood of having a charge all light off at once is fairly non
existent. This is nice because while Hodgdon only recommends loading a
60% load (for legal reasons, it eliminates the possibility of a double
charge) you can go well below that. I have read recipes that allow one
to take the hornet down to around 700 fps with a 45 grain bullet. You
wanted a reloadable 22lr well boys and girls, there you go.
Time to start getting into the fun part. So you have your
22 hornet, you like it, you’ve shot it and kept your brass (keep your
brass, the hornet is not popular and therefor is rather expensive to
shoot and buy brass for, it’s worth it though), but your looking for
something different. Want more speed? Not a problem, have your chamber
reamed to 22k hornet and that same 13.2 (I assume no responsibility for
your loads here, load at your own risk and always work your way up)
grains of Lil Gun you were using to make 3200 fps now makes 3500 fps.
The beauty of Lil gun in the 22k hornet is that you literally cannot
load enough of the powder into the case to ever cause a pressure issue,
and it allows you to shoot standard 22 hornet rounds in it which eject
fire formed to 22 k hornet. On the opposite side of the spectrum, if
your looking for something more like a 22lr have a look at 22 Squirrel,
its a wildcat load that uses a cut down 22 hornet case to mimic 22lr up
to a hot lr load like CCI maxi mag. The nicest thing about the hornet
wildcats is they place the shoulder forward and at a much steeper angle.
This means that cases stretch significantly less, neck splits become a
thing of the past, and cases now last 5+ times longer. In fact, some
users of the 22 Squirrel are reporting well over 50 reloads per case and
even into the 70s. There is also a cartridge know as 22 CCM (Cooper
Centerfire Magnum) and one called the 22 Velodog, however both were
flops. The 22 CCM is only the most recent reincarnation of an attempt to
size a 22 hornet down to 22 magnum rimfire size and shape and it has
never turned out well. The Velodog was produced for cyclists as a means
to ward off unfriendly dogs as they peddled by. The Velodog gained some
popularity overseas and I believe Fiocci still makes it, they were
actually the ones who send Cooper Arms their brass for the CCM.
Personally, I own a CZ 527 in 22 Hornet that has been
reamed to K hornet. The cost for the reaming was 70 dollars from the
best gunsmith I know (also a hornet fanatic) and the Redding dies were
30 dollars more for the K hornet than for the regular hornet. The CZ has
a 1/16 twist (literally my only complaint about this rifle) and it
prefers old school, short, fat, flat base bullets in the 35-46 grain
range. Most boat tail bullets will not work in the 1/16 twist, save
perhaps the 40 grain Hornady Vmax, 39 grain Sierra Blitz King, and the
40 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip. Some rifles with shoot them, others will
have to stick to Speer 46 grain hornet/ bee bullets, 40 grain spire
points, and 35 grain Vmaxes and the like. No mater what bullet your
rifle likes you will need to take the time to analyze bullet
construction vs intended game. The 35 grain Vmax at 3500fps is literally
explosive and terrific for quarry you want gone but don’t intend to
eat. A 45 grain spire may provide better penetration when thats needed, I
know a man who euthanizes car struck deer and elk with a 45 grain
Hornady Bee bullet.
My 22k is my favorite rifle and should I ever have
children, a 22k hornet will be their first rifle. The flexibility of the
cartridge is ridiculous, it has been called the perfect turkey round in
states that allow it, it is a fantastic rifle for dog towns out of 250
or so yards, it is legal to take deer with in some states (and plenty of
old timers will attest to its effectiveness), its cheap to reload, its
easy on the shoulder, and most importantly in a SHTF scenario, its
quiet.
I hope you enjoyed this and found it informative, if
nothing else, give the hornet a quick google search, some of you may
like what you see.
Whatcha think? Comments are encouraged and appreciated. - K