Winchester .22 Hornet 34-Gr. JHP

Development of the cartridge we know as the .22 Hornet is usually credited to Grosvenor Wotkyns, who at the time was a member of the Ordnance Department at Benecia Arsenal in California. Inspired by Wotkyns's work with the then-new cartridge, Townsend Whelen and a couple of his Army buddies, G. A. Woody and Al Woodworth, decided to convert three Model 1922 Springfield rifles to handle it.

They made their own .223-inch bullets by using jackets formed from .22 Rimfire cases. Whelen tested his rifle in a machine rest and reported groups measuring as small as 7/8 inch at 100 meters and two inches at 200 meters. Even though this was darned good accuracy in those days, he was not totally satisfied with the DuPont 1204 powder he was loading in the cartridge. He convinced his friends at Hercules Powder Co. to develop a new propellant. It was called No. 2400 because of its ability to push a 45-grain bullet along at 2400 fps when it was loaded in the experimental cartridge Whelen was so excited about.

During spring 1930 Whelen and his two friends headed for the varmint fields with their converted Springfields. Woodworth was first to bag a woodchuck with the new cartridge at 150 yards. Among Whelen's circle of friends was Winchester executive Edwin Pugsley who gave orders to build a special test rifle on the Model 54 action for the "22 Hornet," as Whelen decided it should be called.

As fate would have it, the new cartridge produced the best accuracy of any centerfire cartridge tested by Winchester technicians up until that time. Winchester introduced the .22 Hornet in late 1930/early 1931 in two loadings: one with a softnose bullet, the other with a hollowpoint, both at 2500 fps.

When the .222 Remington was introduced in 1950 it stole the show from the .22 Hornet among varmint shooters, but history has proven it to lack the staying power of the mild-mannered little Hornet. You have to look long and hard these days to find a new rifle in .222 Remington, but rifles in .22 Hornet are quite common.

They include the Anschutz Model 1730, Ballard Model 1885, Browning A-Bolt Micro Hunter, Browning Model 1885 Low Wall, BRNO ZBK 110, Cooper Model 21, CZ Model 527, Ruger 77/22H, Ruger No. 1, New England Handi-Rifle, Thompson/Center Contender Carbine, Savage Model 40, and the Savage Model 24F combination gun with its .22 Hornet rifle barrel and 12-gauge shotgun barrel. The old cartridge is more alive today than it has ever been.

Layne's vintage Model 54 is a real .22 Hornet tackdriver with the most modern varmint bullets.

Older rifles, such as the Winchester Model 54 and Model 70, have a rifling twist rate of 1:16 inch while those of more recent production, such as the Ruger Model 77/22H and Savage Model 40, have a quicker 1:14 rifling pitch. Some rifles of foreign make still have the older twist rate, and those built by Anschutz are good examples.

As a rule, the 1:16 twist is too slow to stabilize bullets heavier than 45 grains, and some slow-twist rifles I have shot would not stabilize anything heavier than 40 grains. My Griffin & Howe Krag shoots the relatively short Nosler and Sierra 45-grain bullets quite accurately, but it scatters the longer Hornady 45-grain Spirepoint all over the paper. On the other hand, my Winchester Model 54 also has a 1:16 twist, yet it shoots the Hornady bullet like a house afire. My Kimber Model 82 Super America has a 1:14 twist, and it is quite accurate with bullets as heavy as 55 grains.

Sierra 40- and 45-grain .22 Hornet bullets come in two diameters: .223 inch for older rifles and .224 inch for current-production guns.

A Snap To Handload
Best choices in bullets for the .22 Hornet are the Speer 33-grain TNT and 40-grain Spirepoint, Sierra 40- and 45-grain softnose, Nosler 40-grain Ballistic Tip and 45-grain softnose, and Hornady 35- and 40-grain V-MAX and 45-grain Spirepoint. Weight alone should not be the deciding factor. Sierra offers two 40-grain .224-caliber bullets, a softnose for the .22 Hornet and a hollowpoint for faster cartridges like the .22-250 and .220 Swift.