The 22 Hornet

As a child, I remember going varmint hunting with my Ruger 77/22 chambered in 22 Hornet. Growing up on a horse ranch, I had a lot of area to do so. Most kids start with a 22 Long Rifle but I started out with that 22 Hornet chasing squirrels, rabbits, and on occasion, rockchucks and coyotes.

With the new cartridges coming out these days, I feel like we all get caught up with what’s sexy and new. However, I still love going into the safe and pulling out memories with each rifle. I don’t have that 22 Hornet I grew up with, but the 22 Hornet I do have, is a CZ 527. It has a “micro-length” Mauser-type action in a Turkish walnut American-style stock with checkering on the wrist and forend. The CZ 527 has quickly become one of my favorite varmint rifles for small calibers. Unfortunately, CZ-USA discontinued them in 2021, so if you are in the market for one, you will pay a heavy premium, as most sellers know what they have.

The 527 is a well-built rifle with a lot of excellent features that shooters like on a rifle. The CZ 527 has a detachable five-round magazine, cold-hammer-forged barrel, integrated 16mm dovetails for mounting optics, two-position safety and my favorite part of the rifle is the single-set trigger. The trigger works as a standard single-stage trigger that’s adjustable, but also as a single-set trigger by pushing the trigger forward until it clicks. Then, it’s a lightweight single-stage trigger. It works great for target practice or making prairie dogs take a dirt nap. The 527 is also light for carrying around the woods, looking for that squirrel to jump from branch to branch. The rifle weighed in at just under 6.5 pounds with no optics.

The optic I chose to use was a Vortex Copperhead 4-12x 44mm scope with a Dead-Hold BDC (MOA) reticle with a 1-inch maintube, with a weight of 15.8 ounces. With the optic and rings in place the rifle weighs just over 7.5 pounds.

My one complaint is that the rifle does not come from the factory threaded for a muzzle brake or suppressor. These days, most rifle companies are threading barrels as they follow the trend to lessen recoil and help with hearing protection. As for the rifle’s functioning, now and then, the gun would fail to feed the first round out of the magazine properly and cause a jam. As it would not do it every time, I don’t know what was causing the problem, but it was enough to be annoying while on the bench during testing and for me to make a note about it.

With the case being rimmed, pay attention while loading cartridges into the magazine, as they can get jammed this is called “rim lock.” This occurs when you put one of the rimmed rounds behind a cartridge that is already loaded into the magazine. As you push your bolt close to feed a cartridge, it will stop your bolt and not feed, locking the two rims against each other.

The 22 Hornet has an exciting history. It’s loosely based on the black-powder 22 WCF (Winchester Center Fire) cartridge that was introduced in 1885. The 22 WCF shot a .226 45-grain lead bullet going at speeds of 1,500 feet per second (fps). Meanwhile, the 22 Hornet bullet is .224 diameter. It was for taking small game and appealed to varmint hunters. In 1894, Reuben Harwood improved the 22 WCF

using duplex loads that combine semi-smokeless powder. He applied the name “Hornet” to those loads and achieved a velocity of around 1,900 fps. German ammunition makers that modernized a cartridge known as the 5.6x35R Vierling around the 1920s with smokeless powder while using jacketed bullets and getting around 2,000 fps. But like the improved 22 WCF by Harwood, it still lacked the more modern performance of the 22 Hornet we have today. The 22 Hornet we know and love was developed at the Springfield Armory by Col. Townsend Whelen and Capt. G.L. Woytkins.

In 1931, Griffin & Howe advertised its custom-built 22 Hornet-Springfield. The early rifles chambered in 22 Hornet were the Model 1922 Springfield rechambered, which was altered to work with centerfire ammunition. Savage came out with its Model 23-D in the 22 Hornet in August 1932, becoming the first factory option. Winchester followed in February 1933, with its Model 54. Savage came out shortly after with its Model 19-H bolt action.

In 1940, Hornet factory ammunition was being loaded with jacketed softpoint and hollowpoint bullets, weighing 45 and 46 grains, with advertised speeds of 2,600-2,625 fps, along with chambered pressure between 38,000 to 40,000 pounds per square inch (psi). Factory ammunition these days is mainly loaded with lighter bullets like the Hornady V-MAX 35-grain bullet and the Remington Premier Varmint AccuTip Polymer 35-grain bullet. Both these options shot well out of the CZ 527 and both also stated that the box muzzle velocity is 3,100 fps. A heavier factory option is the Remington High-Performance Rifle pointed

softpoint 45-grain bullet with a stated box muzzle velocity of 2,690 fps. Factory ammunition these days has come a long way. Factory ammunition shoots so well that it’s almost hard to argue that handloading is worth it, except for the cost per round, as it can be expensive to purchase. Refer to the factory load table in this article to see the performance of the loads that were tested.

One of the cool things about the 22 Hornet is that it was adapted for military use in World War II as a survival firearm. It was used in a bolt-action rifle known as the M4 survival rifle with a collapsible stock and ammunition loaded with a softpoint expanding jacketed bullet. Another interesting military rifle was the M6 Aircrew Survival Weapon, it had two barrels in an over-under configuration. The top barrel was chambered for 22 Hornet and the bottom barrel was chambered for .410 bore, a unique and interesting concept.

The 22 Hornet is still capable of running out to 200 yards. When zeroed at 100 yards using the factory Hornady 35-grain V-MAX, it only drops about 5.5 inches at 200 yards and has a velocity of 1,603 fps, but it falls off at 250 yards, where the drop is more than doubled, at 12.8 inches. This is an ideal option for varmint hunting, provided you plan to shoot from 200 yards and in. The big bonus on the 22 Hornet is its light recoil, allowing for easy spotting shots or watching prairie dogs fly 5 feet up in the air on impact.

The 22 Hornet is an excellent intermediate varmint cartridge between the 22 Long Rifle and the 223 Remington or even the new 22 ARC (Advanced Rifle Cartridge), all of which still shoot a .224-caliber bullet.

Premium varmint 223 Remington factory ammunition cost is about the same per round as 22 Hornet. The availability is better for 223 Remington and is easier to find in local gun shops. However, the 22 Hornet is widely available on online retailers.

Let’s talk handloading, as the 22 Hornet can be a picky cartridge to load. Starting with brass prep, I achieved better accuracy by neck sizing brass instead of full-length sizing. That is the case for most rimmed cartridges as they headspace off the rim, like 30-30 Winchester or 303 British. Another thing to get the most accuracy out of the rifle is to sort brass by rim thickness. By doing that, I was getting fewer flyers in my groups. A few other vital things are trimming all brass to the same length every time and keeping a light chamfer on the month case as the brass is thin on the neck.

I achieved the best results regarding primers with Remington 7½ Small Rifle benchrest primers. I also tried CCI along with Federal, but the performance was not quite as good as the Remington primers in regard to standard deviation and extreme spreads throughout testing.

For bullets, the Hornady V-MAX has become my go-to for varmint hunting, as it is an easy bullet to load and performs as advertised. When it comes to bullet selection, I recommend using bullets weighing between 30 and 50 grains in weight as the standard twist-rate barrels are 1:16. The downside to being a 1:16 twist is that most lead-free bullets won’t stabilize. However, Barnes and Nosler have some lead-free options that should perform well. When it comes to powder, Alliant 2400, Winchester 296, and Lil’Gun are some great choices to start with.

Col. Whelen talked to some colleagues at Hercules Powder Company and got them to develop a new powder that they called No. 2400 because it could propel a 45-grain bullet at 2,400 fps when used in the 22 Hornet cartridge. If you are a handloader, you can load this cartridge relatively cheaply as it burns very little powder, about half of what the 223 Remington does.

Looking at the pros and cons of the 22 Hornet as a varmint cartridge, let’s start with the pros first. The biggest pro must be its very light recoil. After that, I would say other pros include how efficiently it shoots out to 200 yards with such a lightweight bullet and how well it shoots factory ammunition. On that note, factory ammunition is easy to find online at the time of this writing. I want to also talk about the pros of handloading as well. The biggest pro must be that it uses such little powder while pushing a little bullet at a decent speed.

Now, for the cons. I would have to say the biggest one is being restricted to shooting lighter bullets while shooting in heavy wind. The bullets just get pushed all over the place, especially past the 200-yard mark. This makes shooting wine bottle-size targets like prairie dogs difficult. Even coyotes, if you don’t put the bullet in the right spot, they can run forever, and you might never find it. Con number two, while factory ammunition is getting easy to find, it’s costly. It was $1.30 per round on average at the time of this writing.

Now, I want to talk about the cons when it comes to handloading the Hornet. The biggest con is trimming brass to the same length every time to get the best results, as well as neck-sizing the brass. Based on my testing, it also seems to be picky about primer type. Also, keep brass from the same lot together and do not mix them up, as I found uniform rim thickness to aid in accuracy.

Now, weighing those pros and cons, this is still a great little accurate varmint cartridge for its purposes. I hope to hand this rifle down to my kids and their kids for varmint hunting, as it’s a well-built rifle and a lot of fun round to shoot.

Over the years, the 22 Hornet has hung in there. Even with all the new calibers, it’s still a go-to for many varmint hunters. Many of the guys I hunt coyotes with still use it for their primary coyote rifle. If you have not tried one, maybe pick one up and give it a try. You never know, you might get hooked.