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Thinking about .22 hornet


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Hi everyone

Just start thinking about geting .22 hornet (for long craw/bunny/fox) i dont i nead .223 (bit to big)

 

question is what cheap reloading kit to go for.

and how much it will set me off.

is home load hornet much cheaper than shop round.

 

is it good idea to go for hand loading die set or press is must.

Thank You

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although I have presses, I load the Hornet with LE Wilson hand dies. The big factor is concentricity! Hand dies or collet dies both achieve this goal however a hornet case is quite thin and headspaces on the rim not the shoulder, so hand dies extend the life and give me better feel. If you haven't used the hand dies before a small arbour press speeds things up but you can use them with a little plastic mallet. After the expense of the gear the hornet will cost about HMR money to feed cheapest shop bought is Privi £46 per hundred best is RWS at £19 per twenty five- well it is in mine at least and yields great brass!

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Hi everyone

Just start thinking about geting .22 hornet (for long craw/bunny/fox) i dont i nead .223 (bit to big)

 

question is what cheap reloading kit to go for.

and how much it will set me off.

is home load hornet much cheaper than shop round.

 

is it good idea to go for hand loading die set or press is must.

Thank You

 

You can get a Lee full reloading kit (excluduing dies) for around £115. This gives youa good starting set up and you can upgrade bits and pieces as you go along. Other than that you're lookign at something like an RCBS kit which will run you over £300, although it's unquestionably better gear.

 

Hornet isn't an expensive round to reload as you are only using small powder charges and bullets are relatively common and not too pricey. It's an under used and I think an under rated round for this country and should be a lot more popular than it is.

 

J.

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i like the idea of lee hand press.

 

next question is Which rifle or what twist rate is best all round.

Buy a CZ they have the correct twist, don't get side tracked by twist rates the likes of Ruger and many other just slam a std .22 centre fire tube on and say its a plus - ITS NOT! The concentricity of the chambering is not guaranteed in mas production in this way and many simply don't shoot due to this. Head spacing on the rim not the shoulder means straightness is paramount, the way CZ chamber and create the barrel in one operation works in their favour. Errors in chambering can be negated a little in bottle necked cases in the older rim head spacing case they cannot. IMO the only other choice from a CZ might be a custom falling block action single shot, reasoning is the cases are small and hard to collect in the grass (especially at night), it only takes 1 well aimed shot anyway. Furthermore the cartridge can at times "rim lock" the mag feed of a bolt action if care is not taken

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You can get a Lee full reloading kit (excluduing dies) for around £115. This gives youa good starting set up and you can upgrade bits and pieces as you go along. Other than that you're lookign at something like an RCBS kit which will run you over £300, although it's unquestionably better gear.

 

Hornet isn't an expensive round to reload as you are only using small powder charges and bullets are relatively common and not too pricey. It's an under used and I think an under rated round for this country and should be a lot more popular than it is.

 

J.

 

Plague scales avoid the like Lee.

 

RCBS - OHAUS is/are the better bet/s.

Edited by wymberley
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someone said that ruger77 is rubish becouse rifling is extremly shalow and for that its good for 22LR not for hornet.

so CZ it is.

how much expect to pay for one.

 

Probably more than a very good condition second hand Anschutz. Weihrauch do a good range including single shot. Don't get put off and be faced by Hobson's choice. From your OP you are not trying to win the Queen's Medal at Bisley so being unnecessarily obsessed by pinpoint accuracy beyond that required is silly. If you take that route and decide to reload, you'll possibly end up spending all your time reloading (but not actually shooting anything) in your quest for 'El Dorado'. For a start, how come Ruger are still in business? Yep, apparently CZ are good but so are many others.

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That's my opinion too (Edit... the loading kit, not the other makes of rifle! Sorry W, I've heard of too many poor Rugers to risk one although I accept some can be good). Lee kit in general is ok. I've used a lot of it and their dies, presses etc are plenty good enough. Their scales... well after using my mates the one time I'd feel guilty selling them on if I had a set! I've got RCBS 10/10's and they're very nice. Lee on the other hand are terrible - they rock up and down for ages before they settle and it slows down the loading ten fold!

Edited by njc110381
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That's my opinion too (Edit... the loading kit, not the other makes of rifle! Sorry W, I've heard of too many poor Rugers to risk one although I accept some can be good). Lee kit in general is ok. I've used a lot of it and their dies, presses etc are plenty good enough. Their scales... well after using my mates the one time I'd feel guilty selling them on if I had a set! I've got RCBS 10/10's and they're very nice. Lee on the other hand are terrible - they rock up and down for ages before they settle and it slows down the loading ten fold!

 

No problem, mate, just playing devil's advocate. Mind you, how many good Rugers out of the millions sold have you never heard about. Just emphasising that there IS a choice out there.

 

Getting twitchy yet are we? Isn't tomorrow supposed to be the day?

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Hi everyone

Just start thinking about geting .22 hornet (for long craw/bunny/fox) i dont i nead .223 (bit to big)

 

question is what cheap reloading kit to go for.

and how much it will set me off.

is home load hornet much cheaper than shop round.

 

is it good idea to go for hand loading die set or press is must.

Thank You

 

This is one of the few situations where the 17 hornet would fit far better, for small quarry at range do you want a loopy caliber like the .22 hornet or one that shoots pretty flat

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This is one of the few situations where the 17 hornet would fit far better, for small quarry at range do you want a loopy caliber like the .22 hornet or one that shoots pretty flat

Long shots are relative, to one man its 150 yds to another 500 yds. Neither the .17 or .22 hornet can be called long range guns. As for flatness its point and shoot with a correctly zeroed .22 on a rabbits head from 25-160 yds with those "loopy" rounds and only 2 moa low at 200 yds, a crow at 200yds is certainly harder to hit via 5.6 moa of fv 10mph wind than the paltry 2 moa of drop using a 45 grn pill @ 2900 fps which is very achievable . The biggest advantage over the slightly flatter shooting .17 being far better terminals - especially on fox- oh and easier hand loading

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No problem, mate, just playing devil's advocate. Mind you, how many good Rugers out of the millions sold have you never heard about. Just emphasising that there IS a choice out there.

 

Getting twitchy yet are we? Isn't tomorrow supposed to be the day?

If I was going for a Ruger (which I wouldn't) it would be the no.1 not a 77 which is just a rimfire chassis. Ruger can shoot its all down to luck of the draw, Cz will shoot its all down to the nut behind the butt. Ruger make far more money from their 10-22 etc than they do with hornet rifles, hence they don't even bother to make / buy in a hornet specific barrel

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Long shots are relative, to one man its 150 yds to another 500 yds. Neither the .17 or .22 hornet can be called long range guns. As for flatness its point and shoot with a correctly zeroed .22 on a rabbits head from 25-160 yds with those "loopy" rounds and only 2 moa low at 200 yds, a crow at 200yds is certainly harder to hit via 5.6 moa of fv 10mph wind than the paltry 2 moa of drop using a 45 grn pill @ 2900 fps which is very achievable . The biggest advantage over the slightly flatter shooting .17 being far better terminals - especially on fox- oh and easier hand loading

 

Why .17 hornet is easier for han loading.

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