Whelen wasn`t the only person impressed by the cartridge, and she began to assert herself among the hunting community. Is the .22 Hornet a viable caliber/charge/cartridge for white-tailed deer hunting? The correct answer is “it depends”. However, the purpose of this article is simply to answer the question of whether the .22 Hornet is in the ideal range of suitable caliber to catch white-tailed deer. As with everything, the devil is in the details. To fully answer the question, we should assess the distance to the white-tailed deer, the type of bullet, the weight of the bullet grain, the physical condition of the firearm, the size of the white-tailed deer in question, the location of the shot, the local wind conditions, the expected accuracy of the shooter, the ethics of the ideal maximum number of shots – the list goes on. To say the least, Whelen was impressed with the performance of the .22 Hornet. In fact, many years ago, my grandfather killed his first deer with a Winchester Model 43 in .22 Hornet. Unfortunately, his experience pretty well sums up the two scenarios most likely to play out when you shoot big game with the tiny cartridge. Major ammunition manufacturers produce several varieties of .22 Hornet ammunition specifically designed for hunting predators and varmints. What is the average muzzle energy of a .22 Hornet? In this case, we assumed that the average muzzle energy for a .22 Hornet bullet was about 710 foot-pounds. What is the average weight of an adult male white-tailed deer? Here we tilted cautiously taking the average weight of a male individual of the species, as females generally weigh less and require less braking force.

In this case, the average weight of an adult male white-tailed deer is about 210 lbs. If you do a lot of hunting for the Varmint at long range or just like the high-speed cartridges, consider getting something like a .22-250 Remington or a .220 Swift, because the .22 Hornet probably isn`t for you. On the other hand, if you do most of your varmint hunting within 200 meters and want a nice shooting cartridge with minimal recoil and muzzle impact, then the .22 Hornet is hard to beat. My grandfather told me that he still regretted shooting the deer with that cartridge. Although he probably killed hundreds of coyotes and other varmints with this Winchester Model 43, he never went to hunt deer again. I`ve been harvesting deer since my first year of life, when I was 9 years old, killed with a .243, 30-30, .270 and my H&R Single Action .22 Hornet. Killed more than a dozen deer with the hornet. I watch these videos on TV where these guys shoot powerful guns, and the deer run away, and they can`t find them for hours. Killing a deer is not the size of the weapon, but the location of the shot. The deer I killed with the hornet didn`t move more than 5`.

My shot is either under the jaw or about 2 “left and 2” south of the shoulder, work EVERY time! In fact, the exit hole of a .45 ball of grain is about the size of my fist. This article does not serve as a last word, but only as a starting point for beginners as well as a place for further discussion. Feel free to agree, disagree and share stories from your own experiences in the comments section below. Disclaimer: The above information is provided for informational purposes only and should not be construed as permission to use any particular caliber, as a statement about the legality or safety of using a particular caliber, or as legal advice in any way. You need to read and understand your own local laws before hunting white-tailed deer to find out if the desired caliber is a legal option. We offer cheap ammunition and mass ammunition offers for the most popular ammunition calibers. We have a variety of offers for rifle ammunition, handgun ammunition, shotgun ammunition and rimfire ammunition, as well as ammunition for shooting, plinking, hunting or shooting competitions. Our website lists special offers on 9mm ammunition, 10mm ammunition, 45-70 ammunition, 6.5 Creedmoor ammunition, 300 blackout ammunition, 10mm ammunition, 5.56 ammunition, undergrowth ammunition, buffalo drill ammunition and other special offers for bulk ammunition.

One of the reasons the .22 Hornet became so popular was that it was so effective on small game and varmins like foxes, bobcats and coyotes at short and medium distances. When the cartridge was designed, riflescopes were nowhere near as common as they are today, so the vast majority of fighters who used the .22 Hornet in those early years fired iron sights. With a maximum effective range of about 200 meters, the cartridge allowed fighters to hit small targets as far as was realistic for most people with iron sights. Through it all, the .22 Hornet refused to die and hangs around to this day as a relatively popular Varmint cartridge. Even though it`s not cheap on paper compared to many more modern cartridges, there`s no denying that the .22 Hornet is appealing to varmint hunters looking for an accurate cartridge with tame recoil and a smooth ratio. The use of the cartridge for deer hunting is a somewhat controversial topic. For one, it`s not legal in some states. Assuming it`s legal to use it on the deer where you live, I still tend to agree with Mel Tappan`s assessment of the .22 hornet for deer hunting in his book Survival Guns (pp. 90-91): How far is this species usually hunted? Distance, of course, plays an important role in the viability of a certain caliber in white-tailed deer hunting. The kinetic energy of the projectile decreases significantly as it descends, mainly due to energy losses in the form of heat generated by friction against the air itself.

This phenomenon is called air resistance or air resistance. Thus, an effective calibre from 50 meters may not have sufficient braking force from 200 meters. With this in mind, we assumed that the average white-tailed deer hunting distance is about 150 meters. What about other assumptions? Here we have three other main hypotheses. First, the average weight of the ball is encapsulated in the average muzzle energy of the .22 Hornet. The second important assumption is the placement of “slightly suboptimal” to “optimal” shot. This means that we assume that the harvested white-tailed deer is shot directly or almost directly into vital substances (heart and/or lungs). The third hypothesis is that a projectile with appropriate terminal ballistics is used, which usually means an expanding bullet for hunting. For starters, the early .22 Hornet load he tested from a 45-grain soft-tipped sphere at about 2,400 feet per second was unmatched at the time. Being the first high-speed small-caliber cartridge designed for hunting small game and varmint, the .22 Hornet was a truly innovative development.