The .22 Hornet is a hundred years old, it makes about as much noise as a loud handclap, and it is the smallest cartridge on this site that will honestly kill a coyote.
732 foot-pounds at the muzzle — three times a .17 HMR — out of a rifle you can carry all day and shoot without ear protection ruining a stand.
The loads
| Brand | Load | Grain | Bullet | BC | Muzzle | 200 yd | 300 yd | Muzzle energy | 200 yd energy | 300 yd energy | Drop at 300 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hornady | Varmint Express | 35 | V-MAX® | 0.109 | 3,070 | 1,574 | 1,117 | 732 | 192 | 97 | -17.5” |
| Winchester | Super-X † | 34 | JHP | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Winchester | Super-X † | 45 | Soft Point | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Remington | Express † | 45 | Pointed Soft Point | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Prvi Partizan | — † | 45 | Soft Point | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
The coyote answer
Out to about 150 yards it is a genuine coyote cartridge, and past 200 it stops being one quickly. The full chart below is the clearest illustration of a low ballistic coefficient anywhere on this site.
Follow the 35 grain V-MAX across: 3,070 feet per second at the muzzle, and by 200 yards it has lost half its speed and is down to 192 foot-pounds. At 300 it is subsonic, carrying 97 foot-pounds — less than a .17 HMR has at the muzzle — and 12 feet 5 inches below the line of sight.
That is a 0.109 ballistic coefficient doing its work. The bullet is light and blunt and it simply cannot hold velocity.
So the Hornet is a close-country cartridge, and an outstanding one. Timber, brush, farmyards, anywhere a shot is under 150 yards and a .223 muzzle blast would be a nuisance or a problem with the neighbours. It kills cleanly at that range, it does not destroy a hide, and the report is genuinely quiet.
For open ground it is the wrong tool and no load will fix that. The .223 page is where to look instead.
The full chart
| Brand | Load | Grain | Bullet | BC | Muzzle | 100 | 200 | 300 | 400 | 500 | Muzzle energy | 100 | 200 | 300 | 400 | 500 | Zero | 100 | 200 | 300 | 400 | 500 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hornady | Varmint Express | 35 | V-MAX® | 0.109 | 3,070 | 2,274 | 1,574 | 1,117 | 918 | 802 | 732 | 392 | 192 | 97 | 65 | 50 | -1.5 | 2.9 | 0 | -17.5 | -62.7 | -149.2 |
Notes on the data
Every figure is Hornady’s published one. Source: Hornady 22 Hornet 35 gr V-MAX, item #8302, from a 24 inch test barrel at a 200 yard zero.
† Four loads are named without figures. Winchester, Remington and Prvi Partizan all load the .22 Hornet and their published data is not yet on this table. The rows are here so the list is honest about being incomplete rather than looking finished — and the older 45 grain soft points behave very differently from the 35 grain V-MAX above.
It is a SAAMI-standardized cartridge, so a rifle chambered for it anywhere will take any of the ammunition above — the published chamber drawings are the reason that is true of a hundred-year-old design.
Check your state. A few set a minimum caliber for predators that a .22 Hornet clears and a rimfire does not, and a few draw the line above it. The state regulations have it state by state.
Know a load that should be here? Tell me and I will add it.