Shooting Times
October, 1998
by Dick Metcalf

NEW STING FOR THE .22 HORNET!

New popularity for the classic .22 Hornet cartridge has fueled the development of new premium- bullet factory loads and the first-ever commercial double- and single-action revolvers chambered for the round.
 
The venerable and diminutive .22 Hornet is among the most enduringly popular centerfire cartridges in firearms history. Supernaturally accurate, with minimal recoil, the Hornet has been (or currently is) chambered in a variety of different models and action types by every leading rifle manufacturer at home and abroad, and it has also found a secure home in precision shooting pistols as the Anschutz Exemplar and Thompson/Center Contender.
 
Now, there are two entirely new handguns chambered for this delightful little round: both revolvers (that?s right, revolvers). One is an eight-shot version of the massive new Ranging Bull (RB) double-action design from Taurus, and the other is the Little Max six-shot version of the new Magnum Research Inc. (MRI) single-action BFR.
 
The appearance of these two different makers' guns on the market at literally the same moment is a remarkable coincidence, especially in view of the fact that the other leading revolver manufacturers previously tried, failed, and essentially gave up on the notion of producing tapered-case .22 centerfire varmint revolvers a quarter-century ago because of problems with cylinders freezing due to case setback from the chambers when firing. These two new guns avoid that problem in an interesting way and provide a unique application for the .22 Hornet cartridge. Shooting Times was privileged to receive the very first shooting samples of both revolvers, so let's take a look at them.
 
SOLVING THE SETBACK PROBLEM
Every experienced shooter I've mentioned these new .22 Hornet revolvers to has immediately asked, "How can they keep the tapered cases from setting back and locking up the cylinder?" So, I'll address this issue right off the mark. The question stems from the well-known fate of the Smith & Wesson Model 53 revolver, manufactured from 1961 to 1974. This double-action revolver was chambered for the .22 Remington Jet, a centerfire .223-caliber cartridge built on a necked-down .357 Magnum case with a tapered shoulder that would generate approximately 1800 fps velocity with a 40-grain softpoint bullet from an 8 3/8-inch revolver barrel. It was a precision shooting tool with several unique features, including a rotating rimfire/centerfire striker in the hammer and aluminum chamber inserts to allow interchangeable use of .22 Long Rifle rimfire ammunition. Unfortunately, the Jet case would frequently back out of the Model 53 chamber at the moment of ignition and "weld" itself over the firing pin hole, stopping the cylinder. Of the chambers were roughened to prevent setback, extraction became difficult, often requiring a mallet to knock the ejector rod.  S&W finally got tired of Model 53s coming back to the service department to fix the unfixable and dropped the gun from its catalog.  No revolvermaker since has dared try to chamber for a tapered- or shoulder-case, high-velocity cartridge.
 
Until now, that is. And I'll cut right to the chase and tell you that neither the review sample .22 Hornet single-action MRI nor the double-action Taurus Raging Bull had any problem whatsoever with case setback or difficult extraction. In loading their cylinders full—six for the BFR, eight for the Taurus—and running them through rapid-fire, I experienced no drag or hangup. And when I opened the loading gate on the BFR or swung out the Raging Bull's cylinder, the fired cases dropped out into my hand, pushing the extractor rod was barely required.
 
The reason for these revolvers? success is their ignition design. Both employ positive transfer bar safety ignition systems, similar in design, wherein a flat-fronted hammer transfers its force through an intervening piece of metal to a spring-loaded firing pin in the frame. By comparison, the direct-impact hammer-ignition design of the old K-Frame S&W Model 53 was lightweight, without sufficient mass to hold forward at the moment of ignition, and allowed the rearward force of the fired case to kick back hard enough against the firing pin to bounce the hammer. With the Taurus and MRI .22 Hornet revolvers, the entire combined masses of their heavier hammers and transfer bars provide sufficient inertial resistance against rearward case movement at the critical ignition instant (or so the engineers say). The threshold force is probably very close to the edge, but it's nonetheless enough to eliminate the setback problem. Whatever the exact technical explanation, cylinder rotation of both guns works flawlessly.
 
Of course, beyond their similar transfer bar ignition mechanisms and the fact that both are offered with 10-inch barrels, the DA Taurus and SA MRI .22 Hornet revolvers are quite different.
 
TAURUS' DA RAGING HORNET
The double-action Taurus revolver is designated as the Model 22H raging Hornet (with appropriate bold barrel logo) and is built on the massive new Taurus raging Bull frame, action, grip, and barrel system introduced last year for the profoundly powerful 50,000+psi .454 Casull cartridge. As such, it can easily handle the 43,000 max-psi .22 Hornet loads. Like the .454-caliber version, the Model 22H features a dual-latch independent locking system for the eight-shot cylinder and a recoil-cushioning shock-absorber insert in the rubber grip (scarcely needed since recoil on the 10-inch, nearly five-pound Hornet revolver is virtually nonexistent). To sustain the Hornet motif, according to Taurus, the grip insert on the Model 22H will be bright yellow instead of the signature red color of the .454 Casull, .45 Colt, and .44 Magnum versions.(Note, however, that the review sample Raging Hornet had a red grip insert.)
 
The barrel is also distinctive. Unlike the barrels on all other Taurus revolvers, which the company manufactures itself, the hammer-forged 10-inch stainless-steel Raging Hornet barrels are purchased from Lothar Walther in Germany, already precisely bored and rifled, then shipped to Brazil where they are shaped and finished to the standard external dimensions of the Raging Bull series and fitted to the frames. Thanks to the extra "varmint revolver" length and overall heavy weight, the Hornet barrels don't have the integral expansion chamber compensator found on the big-bore magnum versions. It's simply not needed. The review sample prototype .22 Hornet revolver featured a sling swivel stud in the bottom barrel lug just in front of the ejector rod slot—a sling is surprisingly more useful than a holster for carrying this heavy guns in the field while hiking to a woodchuck post.  
 
All other features of the Model .22H—sights, scope mount options, mechanical trigger action—are common to the Raging Bull series. Our review sample Raging Hornet revolver came from Taurus already set up with a variable Burris 3-9X handgun scope on a frame mount. Generally, I prefer barrel mounts on scoped revolvers to reduce the protrusion of the scope?s eyepiece behind the gun, but due to the shorter eye relief of the higher magnification scopes appropriate for this chambering, the frame mount here is actually more practical and easier to use.
 
MRI'S SA BFR
Turning to the single-action Magnum Research .22 Hornet BFR (MRI spokesmen insists the initials officially mean: Biggest, Finest Revolver"; the revolver?s frame is marked Magnum's BFR"), the first thing noticeable is how similar in form and function it is to a Ruger Super Blackhawk. No surprise; the revolver's manufacturer, D-Max Inc. of Springfield, South Dakota, buys the BFR series grip frames directly from Ruger, and the gun utilizes the well-known Ruger SA transfer bar ignition system and loading-gate/cylinder-rotation release mechanism. In fact, to look at the gun, the only apparent difference between it and an actual Ruger Super Blackhawk (SBH) appears to be added mass at the upper front area of the cylinder frame to provide the strength necessary for those other version of the gun that are chambered for cartridges including the .454 Casull, .50 Action Express, and even (in a longer cylinder design), the .444 Marlin and .45-70 Gov't. Maybe BFR also stands for "Bigger, Fatter Ruger." (Watch for a complete performance review of all the varied revolver variations and chamberings in the MRI BFR lineup in a forthcoming issue of Shooting Times.)
 
Everything about the sample BFR .22 Hornet was finely fitted and tightly gauged. Overall finish is a satin natural stainless steel with black Pachmayr rubber grips (the standard Ruger SBH model). The hammer has a grooved and slightly widened semitarget spur. Trigger pull measured a smooth 4.25 pounds, with the slight creep inherent to all SA transfer bar ignition systems. The straight bull barrel has a flat-cut muzzle. The six-shot cylinder is not counterbored.
 
The review revolver came equipped with precision adjustable Millett sights featuring white-outline rear notch and highly visible fluorescent orange Baughman-style ramped front blade. These are excellent, but a .22 Hornet handguns really needs a scope to make is really sting. MRI does not yet offer ant proprietary mount for the BFR revolver series, but its technical people tell me that any standard frame-attach mount base system for the Ruger Super Blackhawk can be used, due to the identical dimensions of the rear sight slot on both the Ruger SBH and the BFR. Of course, this requires drilling and tapping of the BFR topstrap, which I was loath to do, so I rummaged around in my mount inventory and came up with an old B-Square Mono-Mount (no longer on production) for the SBH; it's a one-clamp system designed to attach to the full-round 10-inch Ruger .44 Magnum's bull barrel ahead of the ejector rod housing. The barrel diameter of the .22 Hornet BFR is actually a bit bigger than the Ruger .44 Magnum SBH's, but the aluminum body of the Mono-Mount was sufficiently elastic to conform around the larger surface when tightened down with B-Square's heavy duty hex screws, and it provided a rock-solid base for the Burris 7X scope I selected.
 
WOODCHUCK-GRADE PERFORMANCE
With both guns checked thoroughly over and scopes in place, I gathered up a quantity of the five currently available American-made .22 Hornet factory loads and headed for the range. In addition to the two revolvers, I also brought along a 10-inch T/C Contender chambered for .22 Hornet as well as my old bolt-action .22 Hornet Anschutz "Exemplar" pistol (also a 10-incher). Both are extraordinarily accurate guns and I was interested in how the solid-breech designs through a matched review series on a load-for-load basis. Plus I had a new laminated stock Ruger Model 77/22 All-Weather .22 Hornet rifle fitted with one of Weaver's brand-new 6-24X target scopes, which I had already planned to use to check out and compare the accuracy and gel-block impact performance of Hornady's hot new V-MAX .22 Hornet cartridge (see the accompanying sidebar on .22 Hornet ammunition). I fired all five available factory loads through all five guns for velocity and accuracy at 50 yards and 100 yards, and the results are listed in the accompanying chart.  Several interesting things emerged. The critical fact for his review is that the Hornet revolvers shot very well indeed, and very much alike in combined averages. Their overall group figures placed at about 1.25 to 1.5 inches at 50 yards and about 3.5 to 4.0 inches at 100 yards. Of course, that may not seem impressive alongside some of the results posted by the Ruger rifle or the Anschutz Exemplar, but these are revolvers, after all, and I have always held that any revolver of any caliber that can hold 2.5 inches or better at 50 yards, or less than four inches at 100 yards, is an exceptional revolver indeed. A 1.25-inch group at 50 yards is a close-focus headshot on any target you name. Plus the combined averages don't tell the entire story. There was a considerable variation in consistency of performance load to load, and all the individual guns were very picky about which loads they liked best. A key factor appears to be powder burn rate and barrel length. For reasons known only to God, there was a large amount of statistically random velocity variation with all loads throughout all guns—more than 200 fps with some load/gun combinations. This large round-to-round variation did not seem to have much effect on the 50-yard group results, but at 100 yards the less consistent velocities were translating into less consistent accuracy. There are an abundance of intersecting variables to consider, but the pattern seems to indicate that the loads with small velocity variation combined with faster twist-rate bores yielded better long-range accuracy.
 
So the 35-grain Hornady V-MAX load did better from the 1:9-inch twist MRI BFR revolver (with 65fps variation) at 100 yards than it did from the 1:16-inch twist Taurus Raging Hornet (with 135 fps variation), yet the Raging Hornet shot the Remington 45-grainPSP (with 57 fps variation) measurably better at that same distance than did the T/C Contender (with 249 fps variation) which has a 1:14-inch rifling twist rate. The practical conclusion is that with the loads they like best, both of these revolvers will give you a factory-load woodchuck anchor, and crows dropping from the trees, out to at least 100 yards, but you'll need to do your range homework with a full variety of ammunition to find out which works best in your own gun. Handloaders ought to love all this, as the opportunity to experiment with different propellants to discover which give optimum consistency in the 10-inch revolver barrels offers an intriguing challenge.
 
The occasional encounter with items like these two new revolvers reminds me that the reason I love this job in the first place is because some guns and cartridge loads are so much fun to take out and shoot. And that's exactly what the new Taurus Model 22H and the MRI Little Max .22 Hornet handguns are—just plain fun.
 
.22 Hornet Myths & Realities
With several new guns and new ammunition loads now reaching the market, it's time for a fresh look at the myths and realities surrounding the .22 Hornet?s history and capabilities and its overall place in the ammunition continuum.
 

As a "rifle" cartridge with widely used handgun applications, the .22 Hornet has a variety of interesting characteristics. It was originated during the 1920s by army Captain G.L. Wotkyns, who was looking to upgrade the relatively slow (1550 fps) 1185 .22 Winchester Center Fire (WCF) into a higher velocity, longer range woodchuck/crow/varmint cartridge. The .22 WCF's actual caliber diameter was about .226 inch, so he necked the tapered case down to accept 45-grain .223-caliber bullets that would match the bore of the Model 1922 Springfileld .22 LR rimfire rifle barrel he had rechambered to accept the .22 WCF cartridge and powered the load up to a guestimated 2400 to 2600 fps with Hercules No. 1204 powder. Groups averaged about an inch at 100 yards.

Wotkyns communicated his preliminary results to the legendary Colonel. Townsend Whelen at the Springfield Armory, who was sufficiently impressed to enlist a pair of coworkers and pursue Wotkyns? development and propellant research.  The No. 1204 powder did not prove as consistent as desired, so Whelen persuaded Hercules to pitch in. The result was a new small-case propellant that would deliver a consistent 2400 fps velocity with 45-grain bullets from the modified .22 WCF case, and the powder went on the market as the soon-to-be-classic Hercules "2400" (now you know; and how interesting it is that 2400 would be the powder Elmer Keith later standardized in his creation of the .44 Magnum). Incidentally, Hercules brand powders are now made and distributed by Alliant Powder Co., Dept ST, Rte. 114, Box 6, Radford, VA 24141.
 
Winchester picked up the ball around 1928 with a rechambered .22 rimfire rifle and experimental ammunition of its own. The accuracy results surpassed any cartridge the company had ever before developed, and the first of ".22 Winchester Hornet" ammunition was announced in late 1930. Converted Model 1922 .22 LR Springfield rifles in .22 Hornet were advertised by custom makers by early 1931. The first factory-built rifle came from Savage (Model 23-D) in mid-1932, and Winchester itself finally got a Hornet gun on the market in 1933.
 
The .22 Hornet was instantly popular and has remained so, especially in the eastern U.S. and populated areas where its mild report and 100- to 150-yard optimum range continued to make it more appropriate for most varmint/pest-hunting applications than the hypervelocity .220 Swift (introduced 1935) or the varied crop of other .22-caliber centerfires commercially introduced in the 1950s and '60s. It is mega-popular in Europe, where it is known as the 5.6x35Rmm, with Norma a leading ammunition manufacturer.
 
Recent U.S. rifles introduced for the cartridge have included the Kimber Model 82 (1982) and Ruger Model 77/22 (1994). The .22 Hornet was the cartridge for which Warren Center invented his original Contender single-shot break-open handgun (1961), and it was the only centerfire cartridge for which Anschutz ever commercially chambered it bolt-action Exemplar magazine-fed pistol (1988).
 
Caliber Confusions & Rifling Twists
The Hornet's true caliber has been an issue of some confusion over the years. The original Whelen/Winchester specification called for a .2233-inch diameter bullet, which is the caliber of the rimfire .22 Long Rifle barrels in which the cartridge was developed. The earliest commercial .22 Hornet rifles were bored to that dimension. However, virtually all subsequent .22 centerfire cartridges were specced to a .224-inch bore (the .22 Jet is the sole exception). Consequently, following World War II, gunmakers turned universally to putting .224-caliber barrels on all their .22 centerfire firearms (to simplify the manufacturing process), and many handload manuals provided .22 Hornet data both for .223 "Hornet" bullets and standard .224 bullets (hence the confusion). All current-manufacture .22 Hornet firearms of all types are specced at .224 (and have been for a half-century), all commercially loaded .22 Hornet ammunition loads are specced at .224 (and have been for a half-century), and all current handload manuals use .224-caliber bullets for the .22 Hornet (with mention of the earlier situation). Only the oldest, early manufacture Hornet rifles (and some special-built personal custom guns) have .223-inch bores. Sierra alone continues to offer .223-caliber 40-grain and 45-grain softnose "Hornet" bullets for handloaders who specifically need them, but the standard .22 Hornet load data in the Sierra manual is for .224 bullets. So don't be confused: The modern .22 Hornet is a .224.
 
A more significant issue concerning the Hornet is the question of optimum rifling twist rate, which has definite impact on accuracy performance with different weight bullets and different barrel lengths. The SAAMI-spec standard twist rate for the .22 Hornet is 1:16 inches, which dates from Whelen?s original work. This works fine in rifle-length barrels with the Hornet?s standard 45-grain (or lighter) bullets but not so well with other popular .224-caliber bullets weighing 50 grains and up (especially the long-nosed ones).
 
It's too slow and doesn't stabilize the bullets. Accordingly, several modern .22 Hornet riflemakers adopted 1:14-inch twists (Kimber's Model 82 and Ruger?s current Model 77/22 are two examples). European rifles like the Sako Model 78 remain 1:16. (My somewhat idiosyncratic fellow ST staffer Layne Simpson has long threatened to have a custom .22 Hornet benchrest rifle built with a 1:10-inch twist just to prove that it?s really capable of superb accuracy with match-grade bullets.)
 
A faster twist is also preferred for hand-gun-length barrels, even with standard 45-grain and lighter bullets, due to the inherent velocity disadvantage and shorter engagement time. T/C Contender been bored at 10- and 14-inch pistol barrels have always been bored at 1:14 inches. The new MRI BFR single-action revolver is specced with a very fast 1:9-inch twist rate (the benefit shows in the shooting chart). By contrast, the Anschutz Exemplar remained with the European preference for the SAAMI-standard 1:16, which is also the twist rate or the German-made barrel on the new Taurus Model 22H.
 
Hornady Updates The Hornet For The 21st Century
In addition to the new Taurus and MRI .22 Hornet revolvers, 1998 has also seen the introduction of the first original new loading for this cartridge to come along in a half-century: the Hornady 35-grain Varmint Express with a tiny 35-grain V-MAX bullet factory rated at 3000 fps muzzle velocity! Plus, Winchester is also known to be on the verge of releasing (planned for the 1999 SHOT Show) its own high-tech .22 Hornet load employing another new lightweight, high-performance bullet.
 
For a long time the only .22 Hornet cartridge manufactured in the U.S. have been a 45-grain pointed softpoint (PSP) and a 45-grain hollowpoint (HP) load from Remington and a 45-grain softpoint (SP) and 46-grain HP from Winchester, all corresponding closely to the original Hornet performance design specification, all with velocity ratings in the mid-2000 fps range. But now things are changing.
 
The Hornady V-MAX varmint bullet design is based on principles pioneered in the well-established Nosler Ballistic Tip bullet, and before that in the Winchester Bronze-Point Expanding bullet. The V-MAX design puts a lightweight polymer tip over a small internal hollow cavity, which allows the geometric center of the bullet to be near-congruent with its center of gravity (like a high-grade HP match bullet) and provides optimum flight stability for long-range varmint shots. The very sharp tip and the Hornady-pioneered secant ogive  profile create an improved ballistic coefficient for low drag and flatter trajectory while maintaining an optimum bearing surface. The copper jacket is designed to withstand the fast rotational speeds generated by today?s varmint rifles.
 
Upon impact, the polymer tip acts as a wedge, driven backward into the bullet core. The hollow cavity directly behind the base of the tip allows it to build up speed (kinetic energy) before smashing into the largest part of the core itself. The result is dramatic, explosive fragmentation—as already proven with V-MAX bullets in .223, .22-250, and 6mm loadings, even in the long range/slowed-velocity shooting situations.
 
I was intensely curious to see if the V-MAX .22 Hornet version would live up to Hornady?s billing for velocity, accuracy, and upset and even before the two new Hornet revolvers came along I had planned to check it out in Ruger's new All-Weather version of its Model 77/22 rifle. So this project merely provided the opportunity for an even more intensive review in a wider variety of types of guns.  As the shooting chart shows, the new load easily surpassed the 3000-fps mark from the rifle and even topped 2000 fps from both 10-inch-barreled revolvers! Accuracy was also excellent, on par or better than existing conventional .22 Hornet loads at both targeted distances.
 
But what really intrigued me was how the combination of 3000+ fps velocity and the ultra-lightweight little 35-grain V-Max bullet would perform in-target. So I placed a standard 8x8x11-inch block of 10-percent ordnance gelatin (weighs about 25 pounds) at 50 yards and center-punched its eight-inch face with a round of the new Hornady ammo from the Ruger Model 77/22. I was not prepared for the result. The block was lifted from the table by the impact and turned 90 degrees. The front third of its length was literally blown off, dangling in shreds and chunks. I could find nothing left of the V-Max bullet itself, save the bright red polymer tip that was hanging in the shredded gel.
 
I might have expected this kind of result from a .22-250 or .220 Swift, but not from the itty-bitty .22 Hornet. It had been my intention to fire comparison rounds into the gel with the V-MAX load and the other four existing conventional .22 Hornet loads, recover upset bullets, measure wound channels, and do a conventional bullet-upset performance chart. Not this way, I wouldn't. So I got a same-size block of 20-percent gel from the cooler (normally used to stimulate heavy muscle tissue when testing big-game bullet designs), and tried the 50-yard shot again into the heavier, double-density medium.
 
This time the front of the block lifted slightly on impact and turned a few degrees off line, but it held together. Looking into the translucent gel, the wound channel appeared as an opaque, nearly perfect spherical area, about 3.5 inches in diameter, beginning about a quarter-inch into the block behind the tiny entrance hole—almost as if a fuzzy baseball had been molded inside the material. No trace of the bullet was visible. I sliced the block open through the center of this spherical area, which was completely shredded (like grated carrots run through a Cuisinart). All that was left of the V-MAX projectile was the polymer tip and an abundance of miniscule lead and copper fragments, the largest of which would not even trigger the LCD display on my electronic scale. "Explosive" expansion, indeed!
 
I went on and fired the conventional Remington and Winchester .22 Hornet loads into the 20-percent gel at 50 yards for comparison. They behaved as expected for traditional-design softpoint and hollowpoint .224-inch bullets, with abrupt upset and significant fragment shed but still recoverable mushroomed core remnants. To compare the terminal ballistic effect of the five loads, I did a standard volumetric calculation with the Remington and Winchester bullets, and—having no recovered core remnants at all for the Hornady V-MAX—simply figured the volume and surface area of its "wound sphere."  The specific performance data, penetration measurements, and calculated results are listed in the accompanying chart. The results are, well, stunning. Obviously, varmint-load bullet effectiveness must be judged by different standards than personal-defense handgun ammunition or big-game rifle loads.
 
There can be no question. Conventional .22 Hornet cartridges have pretty good shock effect in their own right; shoot an unopened soda can or water-filled milk jug with any of them and you'll see. Hit a woodchuck in his boiler room with any of them and he'll stop moving right then. But the new Hornady V-MAX load is something entirely different. As has already been the situation with other long-existing "traditional" rifle and handgun cartridges now being equipped with modern high-performance, new-tech bullet designs, this load lifts the .22 Hornet cartridge to a completely new performance level. Out to about 100 yards, it'll deliver the same explosive shock effect on a prairie dog as a conventional softpoint .22-250. At least.

Reprinted by permission from the October, 1998 issue of Shooting Times. Copyright 1998, PJS Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.

Shooting Times is not responsible for mishaps of any kind which may occur from use of published loading data or from recommendations by staff writers. Any prices given were the suggested list prices at presstime for the printed issue and are subject to change.
 

If you have any questions or comments regarding this service, contact Customer Service   To purchase a firearm, please see your favorite Federal Firearms Licensed dealer. All other products can be ordered online or by phone.