AusVarmint

Hi all,
what do you guys think of the 22 hornet? I tried one out two night ago and thought it was great my dad says if i do well on my exams he will help me buy one. do think it would be a good rifle for rabbits, foxes and cats, what else are they good for? I heard that they are very cheap to reload.
Who makes a good 22 hornet? what kind of money would i be looking at for a new one? what is the largest game that you could humanely kill with a 22 hornet?
thanks for your help.

Johny,
If it's your first rifle and you'll be hunting small game only, and later (or now) you want to reload ... do yourself a favour and get a 223Rem.

If you luck into an inaccurate 22Hornet, there isn't that much factory ammunition about to try. The 223Rem can be loaded back to match a 22Hornet, it'll give you an extra 50m range and there's a tonne of cheaper ammunition and rifles available. You can buy a 223Rem in sporter, carbine or heavy-barrel varmint configurations, stainless or blued ... basically you can buy a rifle that really suits you and your needs.

The 22Hornet is great fun and cheap to load ... but its very much an enthusiast's cartridge.
Cheers...
Con

Hi again,
thanks for your help con, I am going to get a 223 but maybe in a few years down the track, i have read alot about the 223 and they sound like a brilliant little rilfe, they also have very very cheap ammo, which is great, "more bang for your buck"

G'day Johny, welcome to the forum. Mate Cons post is spot on I reckon, you would do well to follow his advice.

I have a Sako Hornet. It can be a frustrating little round to get working, so 222 and 223 would be easier from that regard but where the Hornet wins is in closley settled areas where it is a bit quieter and the long shots aren't that frequent.

You can load forever on a 500g can of powder, but you would have to shoot a lot for that to be a big factor in your decision.

Personaly I'd look for a good cheap 222 as a first centrefire rifle.

Yeah the hornet isnt such an easy one to load for and ammo is expensive as hell. Over $50 a box. A 222 would be a really good one to get- they arent that much more powerful.

If it has to be a hornet, and you want a new one, I think rugers will probably be the best. The laminated stock target grey barrel ones dont look too bad at all. I would be loading W296 powder and 35gr hornady vmax for the best performance out of it. It will be good to 150m but will lost power a fair bit after that.

If you want another option, I actually sold my hornet a couple of years ago because I bought a 17HMR. Realistically, the HMR can do everything I reckon a hornet can for less noise and its a hell of alot cheaper to run. They are also really accurate. For a first gun they are a really good idea. A top of the line savage thumbhole rifle will cost you less than what a new hornet will- Im guessing about 700 compared to Im guessing again about 900. Ammo is $20-$25 for 50. Its very easy to shoot MOA groups with.

how ya going little johnny,I agree with mr dhv and brad y . the 222 would be my choice.but dont get me wrong, them little hornets are a brilliant little round, i reckon there very underated.i had one as a kid built from a lee enfield 303, the magizine hole was soldered up and an old 5 shot brno magizine was then fitted to a slot cut into the new floor plate .i used to take the heads off crows and hawkes at nearly 200 yards.the price of crackers back then was around $50 for 50 i think,but i loaded my own.i could load 22 hornet for around 18 cents a shot and 222 for 20 cents a shot. but the old savage 222 did get a fair bit more work than the hornet.

nowdays i still use a 222 for a fair bit of my work (part time roo harvester) and i like the 222 alot more than the 223 cause i reckon there more accurate in my experience. ive always used them and always will.

but if you want a hornet i would get a brno fox.good luck with the exams young fella.

me again, theres a BRNO fox 2 22 hornet in ex cond at noosa shooting surplies for $695 in this months australian shooter magizine. my grandfather had one with a set trigger and he was a professonal shoe rooter for nearly 40 years.it was a really good little rifle.

Ditto everything Con said, I've got one and enjoyed using it when I was in WA but if it wasn't for the WA firearms laws I would have got a .222 or .223 instead.

I have a Ruger .22 hornet , which I've been using for the last 10 years or more . I reload my own ammo and really enjoy shooting it . It has never let me down.

If its a Brno, jump on it. The hornet is a fantastic little calibre to shoot if you have the right rifle. They are a little expensive to buy factory ammo for and fiddly to reload but well worth it in my opinion, character building!

one of the queensland gun shops has a CZ 527 222 brand new $849. I have 2 CZ 527s. Both customised but I cant rate them highly enough

it's 50 times easier to get a pig of a hornet rifle than a good one

I have had 5 hornets in my life 1 jewel that I wish I had never solid
2 finiky little princess to load for and pigs with factory ammo- even the mega $$ sako when avail

and 2 dog mongrel bastastad things that I would have gladly thrown in a river

never again a hornet for this little fat duck-- the shit and Imean absolute shit brass is 40% of the problem- but there is no way round it

if you are goingto reload- grab youself a 222 or a 223 and some 40 V-max or NBT with some 2207 and load up about 2500-2700 fps- bteer than a hornet ever could but still a shit load quieter than a 223 doing 3250 with a 55

quiet for small achearges but can be stoked up for bigger places and if you get a 223 with a 1:8 you can compete in f-class and learn to shoot long ranges also
more of a bonus

or better yet- get yourself a quality air rifle from Lewis for the small acreages and get a 223 stoked up properly for bigger places

later
P

I reckon the hornet can do 2700 with 40gr bullets. I got over 3000fps with 35gr vmax and W296. But thats beside the point. Yeah you can load them down, just use the min load of 2205 and 40gr bullets in the 222.

But still seriously consider the 17HMR... its a darn good cartridge, then you can get a 204 later, then a 25-06 and you have pretty much all varminting/hunting bases covered. Oh and you need a 22lr in there as well.

See arent we nice, we plan your arsenals out for you

hi,
thanks for all your help guys,but let's not get to excited, we will see how i go on these exams first .
thanks again