Anybody Hunt with a .22 Hornet These Days?

[Sidewinder]

I'm setting up a Contender rifle, with a 21" .22 Hornet barrel, and a Rynite furniture. I'm hoping to be able to use it for small game and varmints. I re-load, so I should be able to work in some pretty flexible loads, to cover the bases. If you hunt with a .22 Hornet, please share your hunting adventures with us...good or bad.

[rugerla1]

I never have but a friend of mine did last year because he'd had shoulder surgery. Laid him one down at end of season. I'd never imagined hunting with it before but glad he was able to put meat in the freezer with it.

[gregintenn]

They are great for varmints, but sadly in Tennessee, they aren't very good for much else. They'd make a great turkey gun, but you aren't allowed to shoot a turkey with a rifle here. They'd work for small game, but again, you aren't allowed to hunt small game here with a centerfire rifle or handgun. I would consider it a bit small for deer, but certainly a deer could be taken with one. Groundhogs, foxes, bobcats, crows, and coyotes are most of what's left for them here.

 

I've had a couple of Hornets, but currently don't have one. I do have a similar chambered rifle in 218 Bee. It would be of great use for a lot of things if TWRA would rewrite some regulations.

[Sidewinder]

I see some videos online where a pig is taken with the .22 Hornet. Probably too light for the larger hogs. I picked up a copy of the 2014 - 2015 Tennessee Hunting & Trapping Guide the other day. Guess I'd better brush up on the regs sooner than later.

[gregintenn]

I see some videos online where a pig is taken with the .22 Hornet. Probably too light for the larger hogs. I picked up a copy of the 2014 - 2015 Tennessee Hunting & Trapping Guide the other day. Guess I'd better brush up on the regs sooner than later.

That would be legal, but you'd need to make up your own mind whether it is ethical or optimum for the job at hand.

[R_Bert]

TN has pig hunting???

[gjohnsoniv]

TN has pig hunting???

On hunt clubs and private property IIRC.

[R_Bert]

TN has pig hunting???

 

 

On hunt clubs and private property IIRC.

 

That's "rentapig".  ("paypig" & "pigpal" come to mind also!)

 

Heh. I think I'll  have better ROI on shooting a frozen ham in the Kroger's meat department.  Although I may not be allowed back in the grocery store for a while. 

Edited August 25, 2014 by R_Bert

[221 Fireball]

My best friend's son use a .22 Hornet to take a Michigan doe. He made a neck shot at 50 yards and it went right down.

 

I've taken deer with .221 Fireball and .222, always a neck shot, always dropped in its tracks. Those little varmint rounds are deadly with the right shot placement, but you have to have that perfect shot scenario. That's why my NORMAL deer caliber is a 7/08. With it, I can poke 'em anywhere in the frontal body cavity and it's brown on the ground.

[Sidewinder]

My best friend's son use a .22 Hornet to take a Michigan doe. He made a neck shot at 50 yards and it went right down.

 

I've taken deer with .221 Fireball and .222, always a neck shot, always dropped in its tracks. Those little varmint rounds are deadly with the right shot placement, but you have to have that perfect shot scenario. That's why my NORMAL deer caliber is a 7/08. With it, I can poke 'em anywhere in the frontal body cavity and it's brown on the ground.

Agree 100% 221. My normal deer rifle calibers are .243 & .30-30. I do have some pistol barrels, for my TC Contender, that can fill in as well....357 Mag., 7-30 Waters, and .30-30. Like gregintn says, all of us need to consider "every" shot, and make sure it is a clean humane kill shot, to the best of our ability. R Bert, these vids were probably taken somewhere else...maybe Florida or Texas...dunno.

[SingleStack]

I used to have a ruger .22 hornet. it was never a tack driver but still my favorite walking varminter.

It took countless woodchuck, gophers, prairie dogs, pine squirells, cottontails and jack rabbits.

Hornady v-max loads will make a jack rabbit look like some one put an M80 in side.

And where i was in  MT .22 hornet was polpular for deer. you think of longrange shots in montana

but there are so many deer getting up close was not a problem at all.