22 hornet vs 222

[Drilling Man]

  I've shot LOT'S and LOT'S of light loaded 222's for small game hunting.  I made the "bullets" out of fired rimfire caseings put in my swage dies assbackwards to make a kind of "solid".  I'd load them to a lower veloicity, equil to moderate hornet veloicities, and hunted small game with them.  They are just as quiet as a hornet...

  I gave it up, as i moved UP to moderate velocity 25/20 rounds, that killed MUCH better at lower velocities.  If i sped the 22's up for more killing power, then they were much more destructive and i didn't want that.

  DM

[jackruff]

No experience with any centerfire .22's, but can't imagine any shooting any better than my Ruger M77 6mm Remington.  Can't see a .22 doing anything it won't do with 55 gr. Nosler bullets!

[nomosendero]

No experience with any centerfire .22's, but can't imagine any shooting any better than my Ruger M77 6mm Remington.  Can't see a .22 doing anything it won't do with 55 gr. Nosler bullets!

I can, the 223 could do all of the sub 400 yd. stuff at a fraction of the cost, give me much more trigger time & have about triple the barrel life.

I do however like the 6mm alot & shot one for a while & yes it is a Varmit Beast with a 55BT, but then again so is my 25-06AI with the 75V-Max, even more so, but that has nothing to do with this thread.

[jeepmann1948]

A 22 hornet in the H&R series of single shots is in my opinion a perfect low noise round.I reamed my to to 22K hornet by hand. I chose the K version because of added brass life. Check out the H&R forum lots of info on the Hornet there.

[martineta]

I love the 22's.  I have a 222, 223, and just bought an encore rifle barrel in 22 hornet to carry to my hunting lodge in Uruguay to work on all the big European hares that some British rancher released 200 years ago and have taken over.  I had a ball breaking in the barrel and tweaking the different loads and bullet weights.  All shoot very well 35, 40, and 45 grain projectiles.  In fact at 100 yards, I haven't found a bad bullet.  My shots will be limited to 100 yards or so.  I put a Leupold VX II 3x9 on it and am more than pleased. I liked the hornet so much, I bought a ten inch barrel to put on my Contender which also sports leupold glass.  The hornet has become my new close work varmit clean up round of choice.  I love the zero recoil and pin point accuracy.  I don't do a lot of paper shooting once I get a rifle sighted in so case life is not a huge concern.  Saying that, I did buy a neck sizing only die to milk a few extra loads out of the brass.  I bought 500 pieces of new brass, now all loaded and ready to carry to Uruguay,,,,, 5 kilos at a time as per international regulations.

My next posting on the hornet will be a picture of a pile of monster sized bunnies.  Those suckers can grow to ten pounds.

[OK hunter]

The 222 can be downloaded to hornet speeds with no loss of killing power or accuracy.  It can even be downloaded to 22 mag velocities but I see no reason for that.  The hornet is a nice round but can be somewhat finicky to load for.  Brass can be weak due to thinness.
The 222 is a remarkable caliber that is easy to load for, mild mannered and will perform extremely well with bullets 50 grains and below.

[Lloyd Smale]

lots of 22 hornet ruger bashing here. I must have gotten luck. Ive got a standard weight blued gun and it shoots 3/4s of an inch at a 100 all day long with 35 vmaxs and lilgun or 1680

[martineta]

I loaded my hornets with H110 as that is what I had on hand for reloading my 300 whisper.  Worked great.

[DDZ]

lots of 22 hornet ruger bashing here. I must have gotten luck. Ive got a standard weight blued gun and it shoots 3/4s of an inch at a 100 all day long with 35 vmaxs and lilgun or 1680

Lloyd, Yeah, don't ya just love the Ruger bashing. Wonder how they are still in business by selling all those rifles that don't shoot.
I have a 77/22 VHZ and it will shoot under an inch also with the same bullet and powder combo.   

[Three44s]

I've bought two Ruger centerfire rifles and one rim ........... a 10-22.

One CF and the 10-22 shoot lights out.  The CF that did not got traded after 30+ years of fiddling with it off and on .......... a tang safety model 77 in .270 win.

I traded it off against a Browning A-Bolt II Boss in .25-06.  The Browning is exceeding that Ruger right off the starting blocks!!!!

Back to the thread:

If I wanted something different, I'd look at the .222 or the .221FB

The platform hands down would be the CZ 527 American!!!!

Mine is a .223 and I am a trigger fanatic ......... The CZ comes standard with a single set trigger that's second only to my Canjar in a 788 in .22-250!

For all intents and purposes, CZ set the .223 cartridge out and built the "527" around it ..... a hand in the glove!!!

You will NOT find a trimmer package than this combo!!

The one caveat is the magazine hanging down a country mile .... it's a single stack ..... there is another model that sports a three round mag that's flush.

A cheek pad may be in order as the bolt shape precludes a low mount on your scope and the early models like mine have backward safeties.  (But then, I complain everytime someone hangs me with a new rope so take that with the grain of salt!)

Three 44s