.22 hornet help!

[tree rat]

A freind gave me about 500 bullets for my hornet, in a green sierra bullet box. these bullets are only 30 grain hp, never seen any this light before, are they sierra bullets? they are a real pain to load because they are almost as short as wide. been using 33g and 35g data with lil-gun and 296 with little luck, paterns not groups. so I am thinking wrong powder for this light of bullet and mabye to fast. so I am considering getting some 3031 and making some 1200 to 1500 fps squirrel loads. whats your thoughts? rifle is a cz 527 1 in 16 twist, have plenty of 40 and 45 grain bullets that shoot wonderful with lil-gun at full velocity.

[LaOtto222]

I was on Sierra's site and could not find a 30 grain .224 bullet. Nor does Hornady and Speer. Unless they are a special run of some kind I would thionk they are either a Berger or a Barnes Bullet. They both offer 30 grain bullets. The Barnes is a lead free bullet, so I am guessing it would not be that short. It might be a Berger; which is a hollow point, flat base design. Get on thier site to confirm, it is the same shape.

http://www.bergerbullets.com/index.html

As far as powder is concerned I do not think that 3031 would work, even at reduced velocities. Not always, but generally the lighter a bullet is, the faster you want the powder, not slower. Try some 2400, it is faster than either one of the ones you have tried and is still in the loading books for the 22 Hornet. You could try some Unique. It is not widely used in the 22 Hornet so you could be playing with fire, but is listed for some heavier cast bullets in the Lyman reloading manual. I would start with maybe 5 grains and work my way up real slow - but I am guessing and take no responsibility. I do not have a Barnes reloading manual to tell you what their recommendations are for their lightest .224 bullet. Good Luck and Good Shooting

[cwlongshot]

 IIRC, Sierra made a 30Gr bullet for the 22Mag some years back.. Maybe your buddie got hold of some of those? 

At 1:16 twist, your CZ should be able to stabilize them. Try some different powders and see what happens. Lil'gun and the 35Gr Hornady bullet. Both 2400 and IMR4198 are long standing, exceptional hornet powders too.

CW

[tree rat]

some one wrote a date of 1996 on the box, so I thought mabye sierra sold them years ago, guess I could just call them and ask! got a can of 3031, going to try it and see. Lee reloading manual shows 3031 for low preasure low veocity 40g .22 hornet loads, since I am using a lighter bullet it should be ok to use that data right?

[stimpylu32]

Tree rat

With a case like the Hornet I don't see a problem starting with the 40g data , pick a load about 1/2 way and you should find it shoots goood enough to start your load work-up from .

stimpy