I need a .223 load close to a .22 hornet

B

bigben

New member
I need help with a load that will work on fox without blowing them in half. i was thinking that it is possible to load a .223 down to a .22 hornet. I was thinking on a nosler balistic tip around 40gr. or would a Pointed soft point bullet work better? any info would be great as to primers powder and bullet selection. I am a newbie to reloading but my father done it 20 yrs agoa and has the equipment the only thing i need is a set of dies. the gun will be a eea bakial izh94 .223/12ga w 1:12 twist. look a couple topics down to get the whole story. thanks in advance.
 
I think it's this month's Guns and Ammo magazine that has a section on downloading. The goal of the article was to shoot more by reducing the speed and using lead slugs, but the concept remains the same. Reducing speed though the use of smaller charges of faster burning powder. The reduced speed should lessen noise and reduce terminal velocity and energy, thus not tearing the fox apart. Sorry I don't have an example for your 223 but if you use Varget, a good medium speed rifle powder, you'd need to change to a faster burning pistol powder like HS-6. I'm sure others will have better examples or a specific load---Good Luck
 
Be vary careful of using reduced loads in the 223 to get Hornet velocities. Especially if using pistols powders. I have heard of BAD THINGS happening.

OTOH, Hodgdon may have some published loads on there website.
 
Reduced loads can be very dangerous. The chances that you could get do double charge are great.
That being said I've worked up a nice load using Blue Dot.
The way I do it is as soon as I drop the powder I go ahead and seat a bullet. I hand weigh EACH charge. Go look around at www.jamescalhoon.com/ under articles.
I can not stress this enough be very very careful.

Ron
 
The best downloaded 223 that I have used is 22 Grains of IMR 4064 with a 55 Grain PSP winchester bullet.Has real good accuracy for me and does not blow foxes apart.
 
The Blue Dot loads are great and give good performace with much less muzzle blast. They are not low pressure loads and you must work up to them carefully. They also can be double charged, which will ruin your day for a long time.

Jack
 
According to Speer, here's a reduced load for the 40gr bullet.

Powder= XMP 5744 (11.0 - 12.0 grains)
This gives velocities in the 1990-2134 fps range. This is according to Speer's #13 manual. Actually, the same powder charge is listed for bullets of 40gr - 55gr. The listed velocity for the 55gr with max charge of 12.0gr of XMP 5744 is 2022 fps. Hope this helps.
 
Because of the small amount of powder used you can easly double charge a bullet and not even know it.
Because of the faster burning powder used.
To little the bullet might not clear the barrel. Then the next round would be bad. To much well it would be really bad. They are not low pressure loads.

Ron
 
BB,

I gotta agree with the rest of the guys here....

Sometimes minimum's below listed data can get a little hairy, for several of the reasons listed.

.223 minimum's that I have listed show velocities bottomed out at around 3000fps. with the 40gr. bullets.
.22 Hornet velocities max out at around 2800 with the same weight.
The two cartridges use totally different powders to achieve these velocities, which could get you into trouble there, as the other guys said.
The Hornet uses mostly pistol powders, i.e., 2400, 4227, H110, etc.
The .223 uses 4895, 3031, 4064 & H322 on it's minimum velocities.

To avoid "pass through" shots on fox, my preference would be to use a Hornady VMax bullet in either, your preferred choice of 40grs., or go a little heavier with a 50gr. bullet to reduce your velocity even more.
The VMax's, seemingly more so than other bullets, have a tendency to distrupt totally within most game, even at lesser velocity.

If you can find load data for the .223 that shows less velocity with the 40gr bullet, and it is of a reputable source, use it. If not, using a heavier bullet will bring the velocity down more, but might also promote a pass through shot due to it's lowered velocity.
If you do decide to go to a heavier bullet, try some of the "Hornet specific" bullets which are designed to expand, or detonate at those velocities. Make sure you get the .224 diameters, instead of the smaller .223's.
Thinner jackets and probably a little better overall anyway.
Kind of a balancing act I guess.....

Take care,
Bob
 
Bigben, I am looking at the IMR handloading guide and it is listing 50 gr spizter bullet with 26gr. IMR 4831 at a velocity of 2475 ft.per second.It says is a max load and can be reduced by 10% to start.This is also a compressed load so no danger of double charge.I use it in my 222.with 52 gr hp bt for close shoots on pdogs in the summer and have not shot a fox with it yet but works great on coyotes at close range. A 2" high zero at 100 yards with normal velocity loads is right on zero with the 4831. Hope this helps, B78 shooter.
 
Welcome to the board B78 shooter! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

The "Blue Dot" loads are worth looking into. They can easily be loaded to Hornet velocity and are very quiet.

Jack
 
This topic info. listed is great. I'd like to hear more about some other reduced .223 loads. We know the .22 Hornet also works great on coyote as well. Would be nice to carry a few rounds for quieter killing and lowering the fur damage.

Thanks for the already listed loads. I plan to put some together for myself.
 
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