Barnes Varmint Grenade.....anyone tried them in a .22 Hornet?

[kombi1976]

Recently a good friend very generously made a gift of his Sportco Martini Hornet rifle as well as dies, cases and projectiles, specifically some Hornady V-Max 35gr pills.
These have been quite accurate and I'm wondering if the extremely lightweight 36gr Varmint Grenades are also effective in Hornets.
With an 11.6gr load of H4227 powder these should clock almost 2900fps at the muzzle so there should be no problems with expansion although the effects would be much less dramatic than with a .223 or 22-250.
Has anyone loaded these?

[billy_56081]

I have loaded them in my Handi hornet. While I haven't shot them on paper, they seem to have the same point of impact as the 35g Vmax. They seem to blow up varmints about the same as the Vmax. I'm using Lil Gun as my powder.

[saltydog]

H110 or Lil Gun and Varmint Grenades make for a red mist morning. Check your rifle with 40 Nosler BT or Hornady Vmax bullets.

[Inrut24/7]

I have been hunting groundhogs some with the varmint grenades from my .222 and 223. The bullet shoots great on paper, but performs very poorly in the field.  With Close shots 50-75 yards the bullet fragments and dosnt exit just like it should, but every single groundhog i have shot over 100 yards had a single hole in and single hole out.  I had two misses with two ricochets, something you rarely hear a v-max do.  I dont have a chrono, but with the 223 im loading 24.5 grains of h322 so that should push the bullet around 3500  fps or so. Could it be the bullet performes better at lower speed, maybe but i doubt it,  If your getting great explosive performance from the hornet then maybe i got a bad box?  I also tried them on some 20 oz water filled soda bottles at the range to see what was going on, at 200 yards it was as expected, single hole in single 22 sized hole coming out,  At 100 yards my 17 hmr was tearing the bottles up greater than the varmint grenade.


   ^this big guy was only 75 yards, the blood you see is the exit, not to explosive.


   ^ this one was shot at close range,about 25 yards, the bullet entered the other side and with no exit just as it should.


   ^ This fatty was shot around 50 yards, not bad expansion


   ^ This one was shot at 50 yards with no exit, blood over the paw is where i hit it.
   

   ^ This one was shot with the 223 at 150 yards, it would have had to hit bone going through, lots of blood, but still a single hole in small single exit hole out. 

[bfflobo]

Thanks for the pic's. I've worked up a load with them for the 22-250. Plan on trying them on bobcats and coyotes for fur. I think they would perfom best at max. velocities, but they didn't shoot well there. I backed off to around 3700 - 3800 fps and am getting exceptable groups but not great. Need to hit some fur now to get an opinion. Probably could use a slower twist.