218 Bee, the little gun that could

[elpac3]

"I loaded 4227 in the Bee and the Hornet. but I had Winchester 43s. Not the most accurate rifle out there."

Totally agree. I have a Win. 43 in .22 hornet I had struggled with for years. Had been loading 40 and 45 grain bullets with 2400 and 4227 and had mediocre accuracy at best.

Happened upon the 30 grain Varment Grenade with a recommendation from a forum member about trying 12 grains of W-296. Found the combo to take accuracy from mediocre to fantastic. Gun now shoots 1/2 minute at 100. Only took 40 years to figure this one out.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

I still have open boxes of 36 and 30 grain Varmint grenades. They were only OK in my rifles.

A friend of mine got out of very small 22 center fires and sold me his stock of bullets. He had several rifles chambered in 22 Chipmunk and 22 Squirrel. These cartridges are very shortened and reformed 22 Hornet cases.

So I now have several hundred Burger Bullets in 25, 30, & 35 grain. I have only used the 35's in my 22 BR over Hodgdon's Benchmark @ 4400 fps. The loading data said it would do 1/2" at 100, and that is the best it will do. (That rifle with 50gr Combined Technology's 50 grain BT will shoot 3800 fps and have groups in the "0's"! Why burn out a barrel just because you can?

I'll have to give the Burger's a try in the 22 Hornet and 221 Fireball Contenders.

Ivan

 

[elpac3]

Best luck I have had with the .221 is Sierra 52 grain MK's with 12.5 of 296. Will consistently shoot under 1/2 minute out of the XP-100.

The hornet runs right at 3000 fps with the 30 grain VG's, not top end but performs very well ( minute of prairie dog)