.22 hornet Pros and cons

[daniel craig]

I recently bought a ruger M77/22 in .22 hornet I find the .22 hornet to be fairly under powered for the price (at least against anything other than big squirrels and small wood chucks). However it is cheaper than the .220 swift and I have a personal bias against the .223/5.56. So What would you recommend to replace this .22 hornet, for a 300+ yard small caliber coyote round?

LoonWulf: I don't reload. Right now reloading is not practical for me (I live on a military post). I am looking for a round that wont cost as much as my 30-06. Maybe I am just SOL.

 

[303tom]

Get a .243 Win...................

 

[LoonWulf]

A .22 K hornet..... LOL.
Personally i really like the hornet, Ive used it alot while helping a friend with game control. Its not a 300yds round, 200yds is about as far as id like to be firing at something the size of a coyote (we used to shoot 40-60lb feral goats with it quite a bit).Do you handload? If so youve got alot of options, including the .222 family (excluding the .223/5.56 as you dont like it) and If your looking at a 300+ coyote round the .22-250 or .243 would be a better option, the .220 swift you listed would be a good choice also.
...If you really dislike that little hornet ill trade you a .300 winchester for it

 

[MachIVshooter]

The Hornet definitely has a place, and it wouldn't be here after nearly a century if many folks didn't find the utility in a cartridge that splits the difference between .22 WMR and .223, but with noise much closer to the WMR.

If you handload, it is actually a very economical round to shoot. Cases last just about forever, it uses less powder than a .357 Magnum, and lower grade jacketed or even GC cast bullets are cheap.

If you don't like it, then sell it. But don't convince yourself it's not a good round. If you want a little more oopmh, have it reamed to a K-Hornet as Loonwolf suggested.

So What would you recommend to replace this .22 hornet, for a 300+ yard small caliber coyote round?

.17 Rem, .204 Ruger, .22-250.

I personally use the .17 Rem. Kills like lightning, but with a tiny entrance hole and seldom leaves an exit wound, so the pelts are usually in great shape.

 

[Onmilo]

Pros,
Cheap to shoot when using handloads/reloads.
Quiet
Almost no recoil to deal with.
Smaller action= lighter rifle

Cons, tricky to reload, K Hornet really is better & more versatile
Can be hard to find accurate factory ammo & lots of test loads when reloading to find a perfect match
Factory ammo is more expensive than .223 per round

 

[kludge]

I recently bought a ruger M77/22 in .22 hornet I find the .22 hornet to be fairly under powered for the price (at least against anything other than big squirrels and small wood chucks). However it is cheaper than the .220 swift and I have a personal bias against the .223/5.56. So What would you recommend to replace this .22 hornet, for a 300+ yard small caliber coyote round?

LoonWulf: I don't reload. Right now reloading is not practical for me (I live on a military post). I am looking for a round that wont cost as much as my 30-06. Maybe I am just SOL.

You may not like the .223, but for what you described (cost, 300yd 'yotes, don't reload) the .223 is perfect. Sorry.

 

[LoonWulf]

getting ammo cheaper then the 06 can be difficult LOL, even .243s here are only like a buck cheaper for the same type of rounds. The hot .22s are about double the cost of a box of 06, but we dont have alot of use for them so they are a little harder to come by.
Take a look around locally and price ammo, anything over from .222 on up will work for your needs. See whats cheapest locally and thats probably your best bet.

 

[Sniper66]

The .223 is the obvious answer, so maybe you need to overcome your "bias". The .223 comes in many loads and is cheap. I recently bought boxes of 50 Fiocchi Extrema .40 gr for $15. But, I would not really recommend it for 300 yd shots. Your criteria is a bit flawed. You are not going to find a "small caliber coyote round" that is both cheap and practical for 300+ yd shots. My 300 yd gun is a Rem 700 heavy barreled .243 and I shoot 58 gr reloads, which I understand you can't do at this point, but, man, will it ever turn a coyote inside out!! I also have a .204, but factory ammo is not cheap, usually about $1 per round and not good on windy days. The 22-250 is a great alternative, but again factory ammo is not cheap. Maybe you should just shoot your reliable 30-06 until you can get what you want.

 

[Walkalong]

.221 Fireball if the Hornet is too weak for you and you don't like .223.

 

[Craigman]

+1 on the .243. hits with far more authority than .223 and ammo is everywhere.

 

[redneck2]

I have a Ruger in .22 Hornet. It's a fun rifle. Quiet and cheap to shoot (reloads).

I also have a CZ in .204, a Bushie AR Varminter, and a Remington 700 in 22-250. If I have to keep one out of those, it would be the Bushie. It's the most accurate.

Other than the .223, everything is gonna be about the same money to shoot. Expensive if you don't reload.

IMO, you're really short changing yourself on the .223.

 

[DM~]

.223 IS the best choise, BUT i'd choose the .222 Remington second!

DM

 

[dagger dog]

You have to handload to take advantage of the Hornets potential, there are powders and bullets that enhance the old greybeards performance.

Using modern 30 grain Varmint bullets and Lil' Gun powder most Hornet rifles acheive 3000plus fps,and are sub moa @ 100 yd. capable, that leads to explosive one hole in no hole out shots on coyote size quarry out to 200 plus yards.

In the right hands a 50 grain solid bullet loaded to 2500-2700 fps will kill whitetail deer with headshots or carefully placed heart shots, it won't knock them over but many a deer has fallen to the Hornet.

All this with 11-13 grains of powder, no recoil, quiet as a church mouse.

If your trying to compare to a 220 Swift, it's like A-bombs to hand grenades.

 

[eastbank]

my brno 680 .22 hornet suits me fine,its a light 200yd gun. eastbank.

 

[MachIVshooter]

I recently bought boxes of 50 Fiocchi Extrema .40 gr for $15.

I'll bet those are fast............

 

[browningguy]

I don't like the .204 for Coyotes at that range, so given the situation as described in the original post I would also go with the .243. That's what I use for varmint/predator shooting and it will work way past 300 yards.

 

[DFisher3112]

.243 or 17HMR.

 

[ColtPythonElite]

.22-250 gets my vote.

 

[alsaqr]

i own several .22 Hornet and K-Hornet rifles including a pre-64 model 70 Winchester. i like the .22 Hornet for called in coyotes and when hunting on a big ranch where the lady owner don't like loud guns. Because i bought tens of thousands of 40, 45 and 46 grain bullets years ago; it costs me less than 20 cents to re-load a .22 Hornet round.

The Hornet is easy to re-load after you get the hang of it. i use IMR 4227, 2400 and Li'l Gun in my Hornet rounds. Many of the .22 Hornet guns made in the US since about 1965 have huge sloppy chambers that are not conducive to accuracy. The chambers of European made guns are much tighter. A tool and die maker friend made my very own .22 Hornet chamber reamer to European specs.

This article by Bob Forker is a good one:

http://archives.gunsandammo.com/content/the-22-hornet

I discovered a few years ago what the Europeans have known for a long time. The standard American chambers for Hornet rifles are much too loose for good accuracy. The European guns in .22 Hornet (5.6x35R) have much tighter chambers and as a group, shoot far better. This chamber-dimension discrepancy goes a long way toward explaining why Hornets have such a spotty accuracy history. Some guns shoot great, and some are worse than ho-hum.

BTW: Please don't tell me to get a .223 or a .22/250. i have those along with two .22 Swifts and a .22 Cheetah MK II.

 

[Abel]

If you can't stomach the best choice, 223, then go 22-250.