Can I jump in? I am a real Hornet fanatic and probably squeeze off 1000 rounds of Hornet a year controling prairiedogs and other vermin.
The Hornet is a great rifle provided you get the right gun. I bopught my first Hornet in '78 and immediately learned why some people curse them. Depending on the manufacturer they can give spotty accuracy. I have owned Hornets from the cheap Savage bolt actions to custom single shots and the ONE AND ONLY .22 Hornet to own is the CZ 527 American. The bottom of my list is the Ruger. The CZ's are consistently accurate, gun to gun.
The first CZ Hornet I saw work was my buddy's gun shooting slat-shaker sized ground squirrels down on the Mexican border. He was flipping these little critters at 200M with an amazing regularity while sitting on a lawn chair and shooting off of a camera tripod. I bought an Anschutz to "one-up" him but the Annie didn't shoot anynear as well as the CZ and the brass came from the chamber oversized and hard to reload. Soon afterwards, my son's birthday and a deal on a little used 452 American collided so I bought the CZ for my son. Amazingly, it shot just as well as my buddy's gun with groups well under 1 inch at 100 yards. I continued with the Annie.
The following summer I sold the Annie and bought a 452 American. Never will I look back. Last June my son, my buddy Tim, and I were all together at the range shooting identical handloads, firing identical cloverleaf groups at 100M. Amazing gun to gun consistency. I have killed prairiedogs to 300+ yards tho that is a very long shot for a Hornet.
We tend to shoot 32 - 35 grain bullets and while my son and Tim have settled on "Lil Gun" powder by Hodgdon, I also dabble with Hodgdon H-110 and Accurate Arms 1680. All shoot well but the Lil Gun gives the lowest, brass conserving pressures. The Hornet is frugal with powder. With any of these powders 12-14 grains is top load. With most loads, Hodgon's Lil Gun is my #1 powder as well.
For the kind of shooting you describe, the Hornet will work excellently. Hornady's 35 grain V-Max or MidwayUK's 32 grain "Dogtown" HP are tops.
~Muir
PS: I
do hope you are a handloader!!
Three shots 100M. (That's a 1" square!)
The Kid with a winter dog at 135 yards. Head-shot from a Camera tripod rest.