22 Hornet for Coyotes

Originally Posted By: gdc23Im sure this may have popped up before but with the newer powders such as Lil Gun the Hornet can now be handloaded to around 3000 fps with 45 gr hornet bullets, does this make it a viable coyote gun out to 100-150 yards as this is close to .221 fireball velocities. I have some of the discontinued Barnes 40 gr VLC bullets I am going to try in my Kimber hornet.

Thanks
gdc

The K hornet is one of my favorites!
I have used both the hornet & the K hornet chambering on coyote with good results. Both are easy to shoot & mine (TC contender) is just deadly accurate! making it possible to take coyotes out to 175-200yrds with the K chambering. The K has a bit more power & I prefer a 50gr bullet for it. My load for the hornet is built around a 45gr speer bullet, as it acts more as a controlled expansion bullet at hornet velocities.. I use the hornet more for tight quarter setups as it just don't have much left past 150 yrds..
 
In most of my hunting experience unless I'm shooting ground hogs I have hardly ever shot at much beyond the hundred yard mark. Most of my hunting is in the woods or small clear cuts around the woods I do have a 300 yrd range behind the house & shoot it but just haven't had shot's that far in my hunting situations
 
I have 2-Hornets and 2-K's. I enjoy the little cartridge and sure I'd shoot a coyote with it if thats what I had at the moment. If I was leaving the house specifically for coyotes I'd take the Rem 700 in 223 or 243. The 243 with 87 grn V Max's really crumples them up and in my old age I've come to appreciate it. Then again if your on a long walk a light weight Hornet is pretty nice.
 
Out to 200 yards my Hornet has it covered even larger game with the correct bullet choice. With half the amount of powder for a 223 . Got my low wall for a lite weight hiking rifle . Only problem is its way to shiny & pretty . So I told my wife its her rifle . That way I can justify leaving it in the safe & keeping it pretty girls like shiny things
 
22 hornet with 35gr vmax does wonders on coyotes for me. I’ve killed several with it and I was impressed with the results. I had a cz gun and it was very accurate. It’s not my go to caliber for coyotes but it has worked just fine. At 200yds or less you should have no issues with a hornet.
 
Taken coyotes and bobcat without issue. But they all came in close in limited sight area, so can’t
say how they would do at distance. But if you wanted to shoot long range I’am sure you would pick different round in first place.
 
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Bounce a bullet around in the skull, dead. Poke a hole in the heart or both lungs, dead. Rupture the stomach or liver, dead just takes longer and possibly harder to find.
 
When I lived in Az, we rode Gaited horses hunting coyotes. Took 45 minutes to cover 11 miles. We would ride around the outskirts of housing developments, couple of miles off.

I had a Ruger 22 Hornet with a rotary magazine that I had converted to a K hornet, feed lips took a tad of tweeking but it fed flawlessly.

I could touch the lands with a 40g speer spire point and still use the magazine, and this is where many fail in their attempts to get accuracy with their hornets. 2900 fps with the 40g Speer was my load with Remington or Winchester brass.

With the ruger, I had honed the trigger to a crisp 2 lbs, and used a Leupold 3.5x10 on the rifle.

80-125 yard shots were normal long range, and if I hit them in front of the diaphragm, they were dead on the spot. Many were killed under 50 yards, bobcats and foxes were not torn to pieces by the load. Since the 40g Speer spire point is a high velocity bullet, I felt comfortable using it on a lion if I called one in.

For short range coyote hunting, the Ruger All weather stainless, tweeked trigger, using the 40g Speer spire points is a marriage made in Heaven. I have the same rifle in a 22 mag, it has taken it's share of coyotes also with Winchester 40g HP.

If you are working with a hornet, first establish the distance to the lands, then magazine length, sort your bullet choices by designs that will fit in the magazine that will allow you to touch the lands....cull out all other choices. I had a pard that shot a 50g Sierra semi point in his hornet with Win 296 with Win primers/win cases, and he tumumped coyotes hard...his concern was calling in a lion, and we were seeing plenty of tracks with the horses getting us far away from roads.

I have had a number of hornet through the years, and most I wish that I had never sold. The trick of touching the lands with a bullet and still being able to use the magazine was taught to me by an old gunsmith that was from San Diego. I watched him kill a Dominant male coyote that I howled in at 220 long steps.

I had entertained the thought of designing a Hornet reamer that was .050 short in length, zero freebore, which would give a guy more magazine length in his OAL. Win 296/AA#9 would have room in the case with the 40 Speer spire point.
 
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