I just went on arms list in my city yesterday and found some guy selling new primed Hornady stamped 22 hornet brass, projectiles, factory PPU ammo, fire formed k hornet brass, and k hornet dies cheap. He lived about 20 minutes from me. The add said he would trade for 44 mag, 357, or 45 acp ammo. I sent him a message and asked him if he was interested in Cast bullets. He said yes, so I traded him 475 cast bullets I powder coated and hornady gas checked. I had them divided up and color coated in one grain increments. I grabbed a couple piles of them from out in my garage that I’ve casted up over the last four or five years of massive overstock just because I have fun casting them up. I grabbed two plastic containers out in the garage and a bag of hollow points. I counted almost 825 and told him he could pick and choose what he wanted. He grabbed the 220 count bag of blue Lee 300 grain .430’s, a 109 count bag of lee 300 grain FN .452’s, and the bag of 144 Lyman devastator .430 hollow points in various colors. Said that would work for an equal trade for his 650 jacketed projectiles. I had a bag of 500 ACME 9mm in hytec green cast bullets I traded equally for 150 new hornady primed brass in blue plastic cases. I still have a bunch of 452’s and . 430’s if anyone is interested? So I ended up with 450 Remington 45 grain HPs. The fat round nose HP’s designed for hornets, and a box of 100 each of 35 grain and 40 grain vmax In the deal! They also had three boxes of factory PPU 50 count hornet ammo that was offered to me for 50 bucks for all three boxes which is a smoking deal, but I passed on it because I have more bullets, primers, a small rate flat box full of 22 hornet cases already in hand, and several pounds of powders then I know what to do with for hornet now.
He only wanted $75 for all 650 bullets and $45 for the primed cases. I would’ve snagged both of those up for cash regardless if he didn’t want to trade. Imo they were cheap and hard to get your hands on anything 22 hornet “anything“ right now.
my score…
some of the cast I traded him for…
I’ve shot all three of the cast bullet choices i traded him in my 450 bushmaster and 44 magnum rifles. The bushmaster shot MOA and my 44 magnum rifle was shooting almost half MOA With the hollow points all with healthy loads of H110 and lil gun.
The guy I got these from so he lived over in Germany for 30 years and was listing off his rifles he owned over the years. He also laughed when I told him I couldn’t find a good tight shooting load in my 24F and said that the round is not inherently accurate. He was telling me about his high dollar over under guns he use to own over in Germany and said they we’re tac drivers. He even had a couple of triple barrel ones I guess. He told me that the Remington 45 grain fat hollow points should be pretty accurate in my gun because they’re designed for hornet. The hornady 35 grain are designed the same way. They are designed fat and round so there is more contact surface with the rifling. The only light .224 bullet I had laying around to test at the time in mine were the same 40 grain vmax I got from him. He said they taper down (and also boat tail) so there is a lot less contact with the lands so they won’t be as accurate as the other ones I got from him that were specifically designed for the hornet. I’m sure the Remington hollow points that I got are probably obsolete or they don’t make anymore but I would tell you to look for that 35 grain Vmax since it’s a short little fat projectile just like the Remington. The 35 grain Hornadys I’ve been looking for on the shelves since I bought my gun last year and they have been non existent.
You can see in the close up here of how much surface is going to engage with the rifling which makes sense of what he was saying. The one in the bag is the 40 grain VMAX the one in the middle is the 45 Caliber hollow point made by Remington in the short fat one is the 35 Vmax made for hornet.
You can see the 40 grain… the one in the bag that’s boat tailed. Imo they probably aren’t as stable at low velocities since there's less contact surface for the rifling to come in contact with. I made green marks on how much bearing surface on the below photo to give you an idea of how much contact with the rifling you're getting with each bullet. Looks like both the 45 grain Remington HPs and 35 grain Hornady Vmax has at least 1/3rd, or more, longer bearing surface than the 40 grain vmax. Kind of reminds me of the concept of the round nose Sierras or core loct round nose bullet offerings that are short and fat. Most manufacturers say that the design aids in slower speeds and close range accuracy because there's more bearing surface to grab going down the barrel. Don’t know but I’ll find out when I load up some ladder tests with Lil gun.
