got a hornet today

[Inrut24/7]

 I mentioned a while back about a handi hornet that a local shop had, Well i decided to take a ruger 10/22 and try to get an even up trade, I tried, but they gave me 140 for the ruger and i got the price knocked down from 199 down to 185, I bought a box of factory hornady 35 gr v-max loads, I went to the range on the way home where i mounted my old bushnell sportview 3x9x50 (my new gun test scope)  after dialing it in at 50 yards i shot at 100, the first 4 shot group put them in a semi verticle line that measured about 2 1/2 inches, After letting it cool down and making a small scope adjustment i shot 4 more shots and 3 of the 4 measured a 2 inch group, the 4th either went perfectly through another hole or flew off the paper, I stopped at true value on the way home and got an o-ring, the wood is in good shape, but i know i can get it to look better, so i stripped it this evening and am going to stain it with a redwood stain and then about 5 or 6 coats of true oil and it should be looking good, Im going to get some dies and powder hopefully within a week or two and will put the 0-ring in and test some loads and give a full range report. yeah thanks to this site i now got 2 and have a ultra 25-06 coming from my dad in iowa when he comes back to pa at christmas

[RugerNo3]

Good luck with the Hornet. Lil Gun powder with small pistol primers and 35-40 grain bullets should be a handloaders start. Partially resize the cases to get the neck tension only and the rest should be history.

[aulrich]

Mine preferred the Winchester 46 grain HPs over the hornady ammo.


Have fun with it even though there are plenty of faster varmint rounds out there the hornet is a neat little round that is fun to shoot and is a good addition to anyone's cabinet.

[just bill]

Ditto on the factory load Winchester 46 gr hp over Hornady 35 vmax.  I think the Hornady load runs hotter than most reloaders, loads........to hot for best accuracy in a Handi although it can be good.  The Winchesters should do real well.  After you have gave your new gun bore a good,chemical bath and brush scrubbing, try just using a dry bore snake through it and not the chemicals to keep it in the groove while shooting,hunting season etc.  You won't get any copper fouling from that caliber in Handi anyways,mostly just powder.  If you reload I am using the 40 gr V Max over Lil Gun with SRP's and I am under 1 moa easy, along with some other tweaks found above.

Good luck,fun caliber. 

[BANG_OW]

Open sights or scoped?

[McLernon]

Good luck with the Sportview. Mine was a disaster!

Mc

[Inrut24/7]

It had open sights when i brought it home along with the weaver base, the open sights are useless to me and more useless with a base on the gun,  so i took them off. It looks much better without them, The stocks are coming along. I have refinished several stocks, but this was my first h&r stock i have done and the finish came off easyer than any others i have done, I stained it with a rosewood stain and have two coats of tru oil on it and its looking better than i though it would.  yeah i know the sportview is junk, its just my test scope, I had that scope on a m77 7mm mag and a T/C omega and it would shift p.o.i about 6 inches with every shot. It seems to be alright for testing smaller cals, I plan on putting on somthing in the 4-12 range with a lighted dot probally a mueller, since plan on using it for night time fox huntng and some groundhogs.

[greg916]

Intrut24/7, the Hornet is one of my favorite rifles. When I first received mine it shot patterns rather than groups. It now shoots MOA.

 I read in a gun rag once that it is commom for Hornets to have SAAMI maximum chambers. That and SAAMI minimum ammo makes for a loose fit. That is exactly what happened with mine. I neck size only cases that have been fired in my chamber, and problem solved!

I like Winchester brass, IMR4198 powder, and 45gr bullets.  Have never tried L'il Gun, but I think I might. It seems to be popular in this cartridge.     

[dw06]

The Hornet is a blast,I had my best loads using either 40gr ballistic tip or v-max.The 45gr Hornady hornet bullet is my all time favorite.Lil gun works great,and don't overlook ww296.Some of my best loads was using 296 with 40gr and rem 6 1/2 primers.

[quickdtoo]

One of the great things about Lil'gun is it provides excellent velocity at pressures well below other powders with most bullets.

Tim

http://data.hodgdon.com/cartridge_load.asp

[jon f]

Another good thing about Lil Gun or 2205 as we call it is, its made in Australia by Thales. Formerly Australian Defence Industries.

http://www.adi-limited.com.au/handloaders-guide/index.asp

Hope you enjoy the site. 
               regards Jon