The .22 Hornet or 5.6×36mmR Hornet
is a
varminting
Varmint hunting or varminting is the practice of hunting vermin — generally small/medium-sized wild mammals or birds — as a means of pest control, rather than as games for food or trophy. The targeted animals are culled because they are cons ...
,
small-game hunting
Hunting is the Human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, and killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to obtain the animal's body for meat and useful animal products (fur/hide (sk ...
,
survival
Survival or survivorship, the act of surviving, is the propensity of something to continue existing, particularly when this is done despite conditions that might kill or destroy it. The concept can be applied to humans and other living things ...
and competition
centerfire
Two rounds of .357 Magnum, a centerfire cartridge; notice the circular primer in the center
A center-fire (or centerfire) is a type of metallic cartridge used in firearms, where the primer is located at the center of the base of its casing (i. ...
rifle cartridge
A rifle cartridge is a firearm cartridge (firearms), cartridge primarily designed and intended for use in a rifle/carbine, or machine gun.
Types Full-powered
A full-powered cartridge is a rifle cartridge used interchangeably between servic ...
commercially introduced in 1930. It is considerably more powerful than either the
.22 WMR and the
.17 HMR rimfire cartridges, achieving a higher velocity with a bullet twice the weight of that used in the .17 HMR. The Hornet also differs significantly from these in that being a centerfire cartridge makes it
reloadable, and thus more versatile. It was also the smallest commercially available
.22 caliber centerfire
Two rounds of .357 Magnum, a centerfire cartridge; notice the circular primer in the center
A center-fire (or centerfire) is a type of metallic cartridge used in firearms, where the primer is located at the center of the base of its casing (i. ...
cartridge until the introduction of the FN
5.7×28mm.
The .22 Hornet should not be confused with the 5.6x35mmR Vierling. As per C.I.P., the Hornet case has a longer shoulder length, case length and thicker rim than the Vierling. This makes it very difficult to chamber the higher pressure Hornet cartridge in a Vierling rifle.
The .22 Hornet fills the gap between such popular
varmint/predator cartridges as the
.22 WMR and the
.223 Remington. In regard to
muzzle velocity
Muzzle velocity is the speed of a projectile (bullet, pellet, slug, ball/ shots or shell) with respect to the muzzle at the moment it leaves the end of a gun's barrel (i.e. the muzzle). Firearm muzzle velocities range from approximately t ...
,
muzzle energy
Muzzle energy is the kinetic energy of a bullet as it is expelled from the muzzle (firearm), muzzle of a firearm. Without consideration of factors such as aerodynamics and gravity for the sake of comparison, muzzle energy is used as a rough indi ...
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 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 City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...
adopted what had so far been a
wildcat cartridge
A wildcat cartridge, often shortened to wildcat, is a custom-made cartridge (weaponry), cartridge for which ammunition and/or firearms are not mass-produced. These cartridges are often created as experimental variants to optimize a certain ballis ...
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
Netherlands
, Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
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 Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the 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 (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, aircrew survival rifles in .22 Hornet were developed and issued by the
U.S. military. They were a
bolt-action rifle
Bolt action is a type of manual firearm action that is operated by ''directly'' manipulating the turn-bolt via a bolt handle, most commonly placed on the right-hand side of the firearm (as most users are right-handed). The majority of b ...
with collapsible
stock
Stocks (also capital stock, or sometimes interchangeably, shares) consist of all the Share (finance), shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided. A single share of the stock means fractional ownership of the corporatio ...
(
M4 Survival Rifle), a break-open rifle/
shotgun
A shotgun (also known as a scattergun, peppergun, or historically as a fowling piece) is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed to shoot a straight-walled cartridge (firearms), cartridge known as a shotshell, which discharges numerous small ...
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
Metallic silhouette shooting is a group of target shooting disciplines that involves shooting at steel targets representing game animals at varying distances, seeking to knock the metal target over. Metallic silhouette is shot with large bore rif ...
shooting.
Hunting
Survivalist
Mel Tappan
Mel Tappan (1933 – 1980, born Melrose H. Tappan III) was the editor of the newsletter ''Personal Survival ("P.S.") Letter'' and the books ''Survival Guns'' and ''Tappan on Survival''. Tappan was an influential leader of the Survivalist movement ...
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 . 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 turkey. Long before the European settlers arrived in North America, the Native Americans took part in hunting wild turkeys.
History
By the early 1900s, the turkey population ha ...
, 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, for according to Newton's third law the force requ ...
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.
Some jurisdictions such as the
Netherlands
, Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
, 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. Other countries allow the .22 Hornet on all game, such as New Zealand.
In contrast to those who believe the little .22 Hornet is incapable on larger game, the round has proved popular among the Canadian and Alaskan Eskimo and
Inuit
Inuit (singular: Inuk) are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Russia, including Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwe ...
peoples due to its low cost, who have used it extensively for hunting seals, caribou, and even polar bears.
Firearms

Rifles are currently (2007) being chambered in .22 Hornet by
Ruger
Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc., better known by the shortened name Ruger, is an American firearm manufacturing company based in Southport, Connecticut, with production facilities also in Newport, New Hampshire; Mayodan, North Carolina; and ...
,
New England Firearms,
CZ and various other mass-market manufacturers. Most current-production rifles in .22 Hornet are either bolt-action or
single-shot
In firearm designs, the term single-shot refers to guns that can hold only a single round of ammunition inside and thus must be reloaded manually after every shot. Compared to multi-shot repeating firearms ("repeaters"), single-shot designs have ...
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(s) 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 required for ...
single-shot rifles, and ''drilling'' break-action shotgun/rifle combinations consisting of two side-by-side shotgun barrels and a rifle barrel underneath. 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
Magnum Research, Inc. (MRI) was an American privately held corporation based in Fridley, Minnesota which manufactured and distributed firearms. The majority owners, Jim Skildum (President and CEO) and John Risdall (Chairman, COO), had been wit ...
, and others with
Ruger
Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc., better known by the shortened name Ruger, is an American firearm manufacturing company based in Southport, Connecticut, with production facilities also in Newport, New Hampshire; Mayodan, North Carolina; and ...
releasing a large frame version in 2024.
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.
See also
*
.17 Hornet
*
.22 Remington Jet
*
.221 Remington Fireball
*
5 mm caliber
*
List of rimmed cartridges
Below is a list of rimmed cartridges (R). Although similar, rimmed cartridges differ from rimfire cartridges (list). A rimmed cartridge is a cartridge with a rim, whose primer is located in the center of the case head; the primer is detonated by ...
*
List of rifle cartridges
List of rifle cartridges, by primer type, Caliber, calibre and name.
File:Cartridge Sample 2.jpg, 350px, From left to right: 1 .17 Hornady Mach 2, 2 .17 Hornady Magnum Rimfire, 3 .22 Long Rifle, 4 .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire, 5 .17/23 SMc, 6 5mm ...
*
Sectional density
Sectional density (often abbreviated SD) is the ratio of an object's mass to its cross sectional area with respect to a given axis. It conveys how well an object's mass is distributed (by its shape) to overcome resistance along that axis.
Secti ...
*
Table of handgun and rifle cartridges
This is a table of selected pistol/submachine gun and rifle/machine gun cartridges by common name. Data values are the highest found for the cartridge, and might not occur in the same load (e.g. the highest muzzle energy might not be in the same ...
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
Chuck Hawks .22 Hornet Page.22 Hornet article in Petersen's HuntingCartridge Dimensions at Steves Pages
{{DEFAULTSORT:22 Hornet
Rimmed cartridges
Pistol and rifle cartridges
Winchester Repeating Arms Company cartridges