Morning Blobby
I’ve got the standard Hornet in the Annie 1700
It’s a lovely rifle to shoot, I’ve never needed to reload, finding factory Ammo sufficient, my rounds I use are the Winchester SP they sub an inch at a hundred and knockdown is brilliant, rarely do I shoot out over a 100 a really lovely calibre to shoot and very accurate
What bullet weight have you found is best, I recently changed from Hornady 35 grn to a heavier Winchester load ( only due to a fault on Hornady Ammo)
Cheers
Phil
Morning Phil,....
What a coincidence is that eh, such that the first and so far only responder so far not only has a .22 Hornet (well, .22 K-Hornet now) but also has pretty much the same rifle too!? Have you found that the ergonomics of the stock makes it a great and stable "fit" too?
I have reloaded (and therefore shot) several bullet types of varying weights over the passing years through my Anschutz .22Hornet rifle. From the same 35gr V-Max as you, through 40gr Sierra BlitzKing, onward through the excellent 45gr Sierra Hornets, and 45gr Sierra Spitzers & 45gr. Hornady Hornets to the sleek 50gr Sierra Blitz and 50gr Hornady Softpoints - the highly frangible ones who's name I have temporarily forgotten here... I found them ALL able to hold sub inch (often half inch) 100 yd three shot clusters given an appropriate powder and load of said.
But for the early years I settled on the really excellent 45gr Sierra Hornet projectiles in .224". These were the easiest rounds to get effective accurate groupings with, and their effects on hitting my targeted quarries was surprisingly devastating most times. Those neat, semi-pointed projectiles have really thin jacket walls and super soft lead cores and they near EXPLODE when striking rabbit or fox at moderate ranges when velocities and therefore striking energies are still relatively high.
This is helped by the fact that those projectiles from various manufacturers like Sierra & Hornady that are specifically designated as "Hornet" rounds are designed to be exceptionally frangible in due deference to the Hornet's moderate achievable velocities...
So as mentioned above, my original vermin bashing loads tended to be fronted by the Sierra 45gr 'Hornet' projectiles. Latterly I have settled on the Pointed, poly-tipped 40gr Sierra BlitKing as a reasonably aerodynamic projectile with honest velocities into the upper 2,800+f.p.s. without over-stressing the super thin, light weight brass cases. And then also out of my love for experimentation I have recently been loading a few blocks of those relatively blunt nosed, 35gr V-Max projectiles @ slightly over 3,000f.p.s. muzzle speeds. My loadings have shown amazingly tight groupings along with those high speeds (in still air) though I kept the shooting ranges closer in deference to the light weight and poor ballistic coefficient making them rather susceptible to a rapid loss of speed and hence killing energies, and to being pushed off course/target by even moderate breezes if the ranges are stretched at all ....
ATB ...... and shoot safely.
