The .22 Hornet or 5.6×35mmR is a varminting, small-game

hunting Hunting is the human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/hide (skin), hide, ...

, survival and competition centerfire rifle cartridge commercially introduced in 1930. It is considerably more powerful than the rimfire

.22 WMR The .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire, also called .22 WMR, .22 Magnum, .22 WMRF, .22 MRF, or .22 Mag, is a rimfire cartridge. Originally loaded with a bullet weight of delivering velocities in the range from a rifle barrel, .22 WMR is now loaded ...

and the .17 HMR, achieving higher velocity with a bullet twice the weight of the .17 HMR bullet. The Hornet also differs very significantly from these in that being a centerfire cartridge makes it reloadable, and thus much more versatile. It was the smallest commercially available .22 caliber centerfire cartridge until the introduction of the FN 5.7×28mm. The .22 Hornet fills the gap between such popular varmint/predator cartridges as the

and the .223 Remington. In regard to

muzzle velocity Muzzle velocity is the speed of a projectile (bullet A bullet is a kinetic projectile, a component of firearm A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further i ...

muzzle energy Muzzle energy is the kinetic energy In physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force ...

and noise, it is well suited to vermin and predator control in relatively built-up areas.

History

Prior to the development of the modern .22 Hornet, there was a conceptually similar but physically different cartridge by the same name invented in the 1890s by Reuben Harwood (nicknamed "Iron Ramrod)", sometimes called the ".22 Harwood Hornet" to avoid confusion, as the two rounds are not compatible. Harwood's cartridge was formed by necking down .25-20 Single Shot brass to .22 caliber, and was initially loaded with black powder. The modern .22 Hornet's ancestry is generally attributed to experiments done in the 1920s using the black-powder .22 WCF at Springfield Armory.

Winchester Winchester is a cathedral city in Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; ...

adopted what had so far been a

wildcat cartridge A wildcat cartridge, often shortened to wildcat, is a custom cartridge for which ammunition Ammunition (informally ammo) is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. Ammunition is both expendab ...

in 1930, producing ammo for a cartridge for which no commercially made guns yet had been built. It was not until 1932 that any company began selling commercially made guns for the cartridge. Wildcat variants of the .22 Hornet, such as the .22 K-Hornet (designed by Lysle Kilbourn) and .22 Ackley Improved Hornet, can boost bullet velocity and energy considerably above factory .22 Hornet levels, but performance still falls short of what is deer-legal in the

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or the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, although it is legal for deer in some other countries and some American states.

Performance

Factory ammunition is widely available from all major manufacturers, with bullets generally weighing 34, 35, 45, or 46 grains (2.2, 2.3, 2.9, or 3.0 g), with bullets invariably either hollow point or soft point. Muzzle velocity typically is in the range, and muzzle energy is just over 700 ft·lbf (950 J) for factory ammo fired from a rifle. Velocities and energies are less when Hornet ammunition is fired from short-barreled firearms. Published handload data from major handloading-product companies shows how versatile the .22 Hornet can be. According to the Hodgdon Powder Company reloading data, the heavier bullets show an affinity for Lil'Gun smokeless powder to produce much higher velocities than other powder with heavy bullets in this small case.

Applications

Survival

Beginning during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, aircrew survival rifles in .22 Hornet were developed and issued by the U.S. military. They were a bolt-action rifle with collapsible

stock In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dictionary: "stock - ''especially AmE'' one of the shares into which ownership of a compan ...

( M4 Survival Rifle), a break-open rifle/

shotgun A shotgun (also known as a scattergun, or historically as a fowling piece) is a long-barreled firearm A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different ...

over-under ( M6 Aircrew Survival Weapon), and a takedown bolt-action rifle ( AR-5/MA-1). Military survival issue .22 Hornet ammunition was loaded with soft-point expanding jacketed bullets, not complying with the Hague Convention. The United States was the only exception to a complete prohibition of the use of expanding bullets in war, due to its ambiguous policy. However, the cartridge boxes were labeled "Under no circumstances is the ammunition to be used for offensive or defensive measures against enemy personnel. This ammunition is provided for use with your emergency survival rifle for the killing of game for food under emergency survival conditions only." File:22-Hornet-Disclosure.jpg, Disclosure File:22-Hornet-Box.jpg, .22 Hornet Box

Competition

The .22 Hornet is a popular cartridge for the Field/Hunter's pistol category in IHMSA and NRA metallic silhouette shooting.

Hunting

Survivalist Mel Tappan on the .22 Hornet: "It is accurate, has virtually no recoil and a light report.... s performance limits its use to small game and pests within 150 or 175 yards. It is by no means a reliable deer cartridge, even with handloads." Sam Fadala of ''GUNS'' magazine calls it "perfect for mid-range varmints of all stripes," everything from small game, mountain birds (e.g., blue grouse), turkey, javelina, peccaries, coyote, and Australian wild pigs and goats. The Hornet is considered an optimal cartridge for

turkey hunting Turkey hunting is a sport involving the pursuit of the elusive wild bunker. Long before the European settlers arrived in North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western ...

, though it is not as powerful as modern .22 centerfires. At mid-century, southern sportsman Henry Edwards Davis pronounced the Winchester Model 70 chambered for the Hornet "the best commercial rifle for wild turkeys the world has ever seen". In 2011, Lane Kinney was awarded the "Top Turkey in the World" award by Safari Club International for a record-setting Osceola turkey taken with a T/C Contender pistol in .22 Hornet. The Hornet's virtual absence of

recoil Recoil (often called knockback, kickback or simply kick) is the rearward thrust generated when a gun is being discharged. In technical terms, the recoil is a result of conservation of momentum, as according to Newton's third law the force ...

has made it even quite popular among deer hunters in some areas, although it is generally regarded as very underpowered for deer unless bullet placement is absolutely precise. American hunter Jack O'Connor decried this practice in the 1950s, stating the Hornet could "under no circumstances" be considered a deer cartridge. Many jurisdictions such as the

, the UK (other than England and Wales) and some states in the USA currently prohibit the Hornet (and other .22 caliber cartridges) for use on deer. The .22 Hornet also proved popular among the Alaskan

Inuit Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earlie ...

due to low cost, who used it for hunting seals, caribou, and even polar bears.

Firearms

Rifles are currently (2007) being chambered in .22 Hornet by Ruger, New England Firearms, CZ and various other mass-market manufacturers. Most current-production rifles in .22 Hornet are either bolt-action or

single-shot Single-shot firearms A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see #Legal_definitions, Legal definitions). The first firearms originated ...

designs, with the exception of a very few "survival" rifle/shotgun over-under designs such as the Savage Model 24 from Savage and a few European-made ''kipplauf''

break-action Break action is a type of firearm action in which the barrel or barrels are hinged much like a door and rotate perpendicularly to the bore axis to expose the breech and allow loading and unloading of cartridges. A separate operation may be requi ...

, single-shot rifles. Older guns generally have a slower twist rate of 1-16" (or one turn in every of barrel length) for lighter bullets with a .223 caliber dimension. Newer guns feature a faster 1-14" twist in the .224 bore diameter. Revolvers have been produced in .22 Hornet by Taurus, Magnum Research, and others. Single-shot pistols in .22 Hornet have been made by Thompson Center Arms. Muzzle velocities are somewhat less for this cartridge in short-barreled handguns than in rifles.

References

External links

Chuck Hawks .22 Hornet Page

.22 Hornet article in Petersen's Hunting

Cartridge Dimensions at Steves Pages
{{DEFAULTSORT:22 Hornet Pistol and rifle cartridges Winchester Repeating Arms Company cartridges