.22 HORNET

[CZ]

just bought a Factory CZ .22 Hornet rifle.
Any experience with it??
Have a CZ .22 Magnum also.
Will use i for jacks, maybe a coyote with a well placed shot.
Any recomendations.
Just liked this CZ.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm a big fan of the Hornet going back at least a couple of decades. Accuracy can be a little sketchy in some rifles but it's generally sortable.

When I lived in the East- it made an efficient killer of groundhogs on the woodlots and small farms that are common there without a lot of blast and racket to upset the local peasantry who relocated to "farm country" without realizing that people still shoot stuff there.

Up North it makes a great fur rifle- reliably puts down fox, lynx and coyote who are called in without destroying fur value the way higher velocity rounds will.

It's went out of favor in the varmint scene since it lacks the range and "drama" of the 22-250, .223, 220…etc that are mostly used to eradicate prairie dogs and what not with no regard to fur salvage.

 

[pre6422hornet]

I love the Hornet. I have mine, and a good friend of mine has a Ruger bolt gun with a scope that will dispatch a ground hog pretty easily at 150+ yards.

As Hodgman said, report is almost nothing and recoil is non existant. Great round.

Post some pics. CZ makes some nice rifles.

 

[truck driver]

I had a Winchester M43 in the Hornet and my Gun Smith friend had one in 218 bee which was considerable faster but the Hornet is what I learned to reload center fire cartridges on and the little M43 was very accurate with 50gr spitzers loaded with IMR 4198 powder. The little Hornet has been known to dispatch game from White tail deer down to rabbits. Though I wouldn't recommend shooting Deer with one. I once read in an Out Door Life Mag that a Lady in Alaska killed a Grizzly with a .22lr. and I sure wouldn't recommend that either, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do.

 

[JD338]

The 40 gr BT should be perfect for the Hornet. Great round and a lot of fun to shoot.

JD338

 

[RogueRiver]

I have 2 hornets a contender carbine 21" and a HR 157. Biggest critter I have killed with the hornet is a Big blacktail doe. My favorite hornet bullet is the now discontinued 45 grn nosler- got 4 boxes left.

 

[FOTIS]

Yup! 35 gr v-maxes and 40 gr BTs with LILgun!

Very accurate

 

[maverick2]

You don't hear a lot about the .22 hornet anymore. I don't know what the effective range of a .22 Hornet is, but I do know that if a ground squirrel was within a 150 yd radius of my Mom when she was carrying her .22 Hornet, odds are that it was game over for the squirrel... When my brother and I left home for college in the early 80's, my Dad needed a new squirrel shooting, rockchuck chasing partner so he bought an H&R .22 Hornet for my Mom and the two of them would spend sunny, spring weekends running around pastures and rock canyons of eastern Washington. I can't even look at that gun w/o breaking into a grin and laughing now, as going out on a squirrel shooting afternoon with my parents was like getting inserted into the middle of a 4-hr episode of the "Honeymooners". Dad had been spotting and shooting ground squirrels his entire life, and was hell on wheels at dispatching squirrels with his .22Mag AS LONG AS HE HAD A REST. My Mom, relatively new to the game, struggled to SEE them in the grass, but could shoot very, very, VERY well offhand. Dad would point out a squirrel to Mom, they'd talk for 5 minutes as he tried to pinpoint its location for her, give up, and then start getting set up to take the shot himself (which usually took another couple minutes). Just about the time he'd be ready to shoot, Mom would finally see the squirrel, take 1/2 a second to raise the rifle to her shoulder, and then shoot it offhand right before Dad was going to pull the trigger. He'd then growl about her stealing "his" squirrel, and then she'd fire back that the squirrel was apt to die of old age before he got around to pulling the trigger, and it would escalate from there. That .22 Hornet played a part in a lot of fun and laughter in our world.

 

[HeathSexton]

Mine is the little 77/22 in a walnut stock. It has killed several coyotes and quite a few ground hogs. The heaviest critter I have ever killed with mine was a beaver just over 100yds. They were destroying a friends pond and I went to work on them. The biggest was 64lbs taken with the little Hornet and a 35gr Vmax.

 

[cloverleaf]

You don't hear a lot about the .22 hornet anymore. I don't know what the effective range of a .22 Hornet is, but I do know that if a ground squirrel was within a 150 yd radius of my Mom when she was carrying her .22 Hornet, odds are that it was game over for the squirrel... When my brother and I left home for college in the early 80's, my Dad needed a new squirrel shooting, rockchuck chasing partner so he bought an H&R .22 Hornet for my Mom and the two of them would spend sunny, spring weekends running around pastures and rock canyons of eastern Washington. I can't even look at that gun w/o breaking into a grin and laughing now, as going out on a squirrel shooting afternoon with my parents was like getting inserted into the middle of a 4-hr episode of the "Honeymooners". Dad had been spotting and shooting ground squirrels his entire life, and was hell on wheels at dispatching squirrels with his .22Mag AS LONG AS HE HAD A REST. My Mom, relatively new to the game, struggled to SEE them in the grass, but could shoot very, very, VERY well offhand. Dad would point out a squirrel to Mom, they'd talk for 5 minutes as he tried to pinpoint its location for her, give up, and then start getting set up to take the shot himself (which usually took another couple minutes). Just about the time he'd be ready to shoot, Mom would finally see the squirrel, take 1/2 a second to raise the rifle to her shoulder, and then shoot it offhand right before Dad was going to pull the trigger. He'd then growl about her stealing "his" squirrel, and then she'd fire back that the squirrel was apt to die of old age before he got around to pulling the trigger, and it would escalate from there. That .22 Hornet played a part in a lot of fun and laughter in our world.

And that, boys and girls is what its all about.... Before the latest "ammo run" I thought I wanted a hornet cause the ammo was everywhere and cheap. Now I think I want a .17 hornet. Its the one practical .17 out there IMHO. Of course I would rather shoot my 22mag over anthing else, but a hornet would be fun. CL

 

[Wincheringen]

I have a Ruger also, and the 40 grain Sierras with Lil Gun work nicely together to turn gophers inside out.