.22 K-Hornet and LilGun... WOW

[joelomunro]

Had a productive day at Majura this afternoon with Rob(dashooter) and my girlfriend Kellie testing a few loads in some various rifles. Kellie owns a Simson Vierling single shot which has been rechambered to .22K-Hornet. I had previously been playing around with some loads with ADI 2205 and have been using a very light load of 8.5gr and a 40gn projectile for fireforming. I had the chance today to use Robs Magnetospeed Chrony on my rifles, all in the name of science of course, and the results for some new loads with LilGun blew me away. Kellie did some shooting first off the bags at 50 meters using the fireforming loads of 8.5gr 2205 in new, prepped S&B cases with Sierra #1100 .223" 40gn projectiles. These chronied at an average of 1994 fps with a S.D. of 55 fps. Next I tried some LilGun in already formed Remington cases with the same projectiles, starting at 12.4gn and progressing in 0.1gn increments to 12.8gn. Hodgon's data on their site lists 12.5gn as a starting load for 2981fps and 13.5 as max at 3000fps for the K-Hornet. My starting load of 12.4gns yielded a three shot average velocity of 3211fps and a S.D. of 29fps. This produced a 3/4" group at 50meters with a 3x Weaver steel tube scope. The other loads incrementally edged up to a highest av. velocity of 3249fps for the 12.8gn load however the S.D. and groups got a little larger. I'll be sticking with the 12.4gn load and to say I'm surprised with the velocity is an understatement. All cases bar one extracted very easily and with the Simsons sliding fork type extractor not giving much extraction power, the easy extraction is fairly telling of a load that isnt pushing things too far.

While at the range I also chronied my Ruger 77/44 bolt action .44Magnum with both factory Remington 180gn JSPs and Federal American Eagle 240gn JHPs. These came in at 2140fps and 1750fps respectively, along with my .222 load of 20.0gr RL7 and a 50gn Blitzking giving 3072 fps and my .22-250 load of 35.2gr ADI2209 and a 75gn A-Max giving 3102fps. Was a top way to spend one of my last free days before work resumes next week.


Joel

[Ol 55]

I use Winchester or CCI pistol primers in all my hornet based cases they seem to be more accurate
Ol 55

[stinkitup]

Hmmm Johno said lilgun was the bees knees in the MMJ 5.7, maybe I should give it a go...

All this talk about Chrony's am going to have to make one me thinks

[joelomunro]

I've been using Remington 5 1/2 small pistol primers to date, ignition seems very positive with them and she shoots well for what it is.

Ryan... come down for a weekend and we'll go to the range for a play, bring your dies and we can load a few test loads here and I'll take my chrony.


Joel

[stinkitup]

Will have to come down Joel, might be able in Feb, took my gear to seaham last year and loaded as I went so will do it again.

Ryan

[hitch62]

As far as I knew lil,gun wasn,t available in Australia. Can someone point me towards a supplier?

[Con]

As far as I knew lil,gun wasn,t available in Australia. Can someone point me towards a supplier?

Been available for at least 18 months. Ask your local gunshop. Some States its been difficult to source due to restrictions on transport of powders.

Joel,
How accurate is your 77/44? Got a hankering for a 77/357 as a plinker.

Cheers...
Con

[aushunter]

I have found that if you already load using 2205, in most cases you will see a high velocity increase when switching to Lil'gun.

[joelomunro]

Gday Con, I'm still running factories in the .44 at the moment. Put an old Aimpoint reddot on it and sighted in yesterday, had a couple of groups with shots touching, and the worst was about 1 1/4" at 50m. Thats about the best I can manage with no magnification. Its definitely accurate enough for fun plinking or rolling pigs with.


Joel

[VARMTR]

I have found that if you already load using 2205, in most cases you will see a high velocity increase when switching to Lil'gun.

This is what I found with my K-hornet and lower pressure.

[joelomunro]

Magic powder for small cases alright, the Remington cases Im using have been fired about 3 times since being run short through a FLS die and are still extracting easy, suggesting lowish operating pressures. Pity its hard to find.


Joel