22 Hornet and Pellets

[303Guy]

I use 22 cal pellets in my air rifle. They work really well and save a 3 cent primer.

Yeah but is it as much fun?

[pcolapaddler]

Begin with a reasonably inexpensive Crosman 1377.



Swap in a .22 steel breech, bolt and 18" barrel, rifle stock and cheap scope.


and you have a fairly cheap Evil Black target/pest shooter.

Lots of additional mods and parts to experiment with. These are the AR of the air gun world.

With no mods other than those listed, it will penetrate a wood privacy fence on 8-10 pumps. I usually shoot at a box filled with rubber mulch and toward my back fence and a wooded lot - no house back there.

It is a bit loud. I don't know if it is the sound of the compressed air, dieseling from excess oil or mechanical noise from the hammer and valve. I live in a subdivision and the neighbors haven't complained.

Sent from my HTCD200LVW using Tapatalk

[EMC45]

I use that same pellet gun. Killed many squirrels and various other critters with it.

[jhalcott]

I have that Grossman and a few other air guns. I use them for bad weather practice in the basement usually, but they do get used on critters that DO NOT belong in my yard! The Crossman has a 3x Tasco pistol scope on it. It groups under an inch at 20 yards.

[richhodg66]

Begin with a reasonably inexpensive Crosman 1377.



Swap in a .22 steel breech, bolt and 18" barrel, rifle stock and cheap scope.


and you have a fairly cheap Evil Black target/pest shooter.

Lots of additional mods and parts to experiment with. These are the AR of the air gun world.

With no mods other than those listed, it will penetrate a wood privacy fence on 8-10 pumps. I usually shoot at a box filled with rubber mulch and toward my back fence and a wooded lot - no house back there.

It is a bit loud. I don't know if it is the sound of the compressed air, dieseling from excess oil or mechanical noise from the hammer and valve. I live in a subdivision and the neighbors haven't complained.

Sent from my HTCD200LVW using Tapatalk

I have been wanting to try one of those Crossmans for a long time now. I started bowhunting deer again after a long hiatus from it and it's illegal here to carry any kind of a firearm while bowhunting. Squirrels abound and practically crawl in my lap, so I thought an air pistol might be a good thing to carry and wouldn't scare deer (hopefully).

Back to the original topic, this is very interesting. I have also read where guys use the appropriate size of buck shot pellets, #4 perhaps? All good stuff.

FWIW, the Hornet is real easy to get cast to work in. My squirrel load is a plain based bullet and two grains of Bullseye, but dropping it down to 1.5 grains quiets it down quite a bit. Works better on squirrels than a .22 LR.

[303Guy]

FWIW, the Hornet is real easy to get cast to work in. My squirrel load is a plain based bullet and two grains of Bullseye, but dropping it down to 1.5 grains quiets it down quite a bit. Works better on squirrels than a .22 LR.

That's an idea. I have some Clays. And Trail Boss. All I need is a lighter boolit.

[richhodg66]

Try whatever you have. I first tried it with Lyman 225438s minus the gas checks and it worked almost as well as the bullets designed to be plain based. I only shot them at paper, and cast them much harder than I normally would (only because I was lazy and had some pure linotype) then tumble lubed them in LLA. Not sure with that round nose and cast hard how effective they'd be on game.

[Rustyleee]

I tried it in a .223 and it blew the skirt out on the pellet. Accuracy was non existent.

[MT Chambers]

I'd just get a descent spring powered air rifle, the RWS 34 is an inexpensive quality airgun, the finest is the AirArms Tx200 though a bit spendy. The latter will shoot tiny groups, really just ragged holes, past 30 yards, and ammo is just over 1 cent each.

[Pardini]

15 or 20 years ago I bought a kit to shoot pellets out of my .223 Contender or any .223 for that matter. It had 3 modified .223 cases. The necks were dimpled in 3 spots to hold the pellet. The primer pockets were bored for 209 primers and had an oring to hold the primer in place.

I remember 1000 fps and poor accuracy. The cases came out sootysmelled bad and were a mess to handle. Novel idea, but not very practical. Seemed like a waste of a primer back then and that's when they were cheap. Still have them in the safe somewhere. I think they are still being made.

[clearcut]

I made some with 209's for my AR and PC'd the pellets to fatten them up . Under 2" @ 25 yds. lots of fun

CC

[Ballistics in Scotland]

OK, you mean like the BB and CB cap which are primer powered and will exit my 26" barrel around 800 fps? Gotcha...

OTOH, these might work, depending on diameter...

Attachment 165727

They are available from Midway.

No. I meant the kind of primer people were talking about on the thread. Some CB caps have no powder charge, others do, but it is a primer different formulated from the centrefire variety, in order to give a longer propulsive impulse. Even so there is a significant velocity loss in a rifle, as compared with a pistol, and it is likely to be greater, or failure to exit, if ordinary centrefires are used with bullets which have a long contact surface.

[Digital Dan]

So did I, the reference to the Caps went to barrel length and bullet exiting same. Shooting light bullets with little or no powder is not a mystery or disaster waiting to happen. Jacketed bullets will exit a Hornet barrel with less than 1.5 grains of powder at velocity comparable to a .22 HVLR. Lead is easier and while not being in a position to evaluate the merits of another's gun I'd suggest that a little common sense will win.

38 grains (wheel weight alloy), no gas check, wee bit of tin in a lead bullet and it will work with a primer in most guns.

NOE 225-37-FN 2 cavity 1GC 1PB



If you are truly of the opinion it won't work you probably wouldn't mind putting your thumb over the muzzle for a test fire, hey?

[dudel]

Pellets work fine in my 22Hornet (good range and accuracy); but not so well in .223. I don't drill out the primer hole for pellets. Just a standard case and small pistol primer. Have not stuck a pellet in my Handi 22 Hornet. This is a case where too much oomph will blow through the pellet, and could leave the skirt in the barrel. Like overpowering a HBWC in 38spl.

Don't try and turn this into a higher power round. It's not, and is not intended to be. I find them good out 25 yards. It's a good game getter without turning your game into red mist. It's very quiet. If you need more distance, or more power, this might not be for you.

My advice would be to try SP and see what range, accuracy and energy you get. If it meets your needs, great. I wouldn't be throwing much power behind the pellet, because it's not meant for it.

If you have a good 22 cal air rifle, use that and save the cost of primers. I have a Stoeger air rifle in 22 Cal, it's comparable to the handi hornet when shooting pellets.

[rbuck351]

Yep, I tried the pellet primer thing but wasn't getting good accuracy or velocity so I put in a bit of powder and found the skirt still in the neck of the case and no accuracy. That's when I went back to the air rifle and save the 3 cent primer. Now what I'm working on is a centerfire 22mag. I'm swaging/turning 5.7x28 cases to 22mag dimensions. I made a 22mag barrel liner from a beat 22mag rifle for my TC contender in 44mag. Using a small pistol primer, a 48gr cast boolit and 1.7grs of BE, it will penetrate about 3" of green birch. 1.2grs is good for a bit over 2" penetration. I haven't tried yet but in the TC I believe I can easily exceed 22mag performance at about 4 cents per shot. The RWS pellets my air rifle likes cost 6 cents each. Anyway pellets in a Hornet was fun but it didn't work very well.

[rond]

I pulled the bullets from my dud 22 lr and loaded them with 4.5 gr of Unique, SP primer. Haven't shot them yet, will try later this week.

[mozeppa]

why not use these?

they have no powder and they are quiet...and they are already assembled.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/250...ad-solid-point

[dudel]

why not use these?

they have no powder and they are quiet...and they are already assembled.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/250...ad-solid-point

Maybe because they aren't 22 Hornet? OP was asking about using pellets in 22Hornet brass.

Those rounds ARE super quiet in my Henry levergun.

[prsman23]

comparing all this to a dedicated pellet gun,,NOT THE SPENDY air tank 1000.00 jobbers

Without powder at 7 cents a round to assemble it would take a little over 2800 rounds to make it to $200
That's the price of a reasonably capable airgun and scope combo.
Both can be fun. But if you plan to shoot a lot, the airgun would probably be more economical in the long run. And just as much fun. I've shot many many thousands of rounds in my backyard with a pellet gun. Once you have the gun $10 buys a tin of 500 pellets.
Another point would be less trouble if the neighbors (assuming you live in town) call the cops too. Just food for thought. I like messing around with projects like this too! Best of luck bud.

[Blackwater]

For those having trouble with the charge blowing through the pellet, have you tried the pointed or heavier RN type pellets? Seems like being thicker at that point, they'd maybe cure the blow-through problems?