welcome WAIMAHANA what part of Gods green earth do you hail from Mate???

Forgot to mention, I use a standard .22 mag rimfire supressor on the front of the .222 for this subsonic load and it works OK. The sound is similar to a standard subsonic .22LR with a suppressor.

Waimahana, unless you make a bullet shorter, making it lighter only makes it less stable. It is an interesting balancing act you are doing with your subsonic .222 loads. What twist is your barrel? Also, I tries using Trailboss on copper jacketed bullets and accuracy was disappointing. Then at the range one day I was helping a shooter chrony his handloads and was amazed how low the velocity spread was on his Trailboss. I told him I didn't see anything like that with my Trailboss loads. He told me Trailboss works best with lead cast bullets.

Welcome to HuntingNut!

I use a Sako 75 rifle with a 1:14 twist.
The lowest load I've used is 2.9 grains Trailboss which gives passable accuracy and consistency (1.5 - 2.0 MOA) with the Hornady 45 grain HP Bee projectile, however the projectile acts like a solid with no expansion.
3.7 grains Trailboss is just supersonic with this mix.
4.5 grains Trailboss is a good load with 1MOA accuracy and average velocities of 1340 fps, essentially duplicating a .22LR load.

I've haven't tried cast projectiles in the .222 as the Hornady HP Bee projectiles work so well.

I have used cast projectiles in my .375H&H using the Lyman 375449 gas check mold (nominal 264 grains) and orange magic lube with 48.0 - 56.0 grains ADI 2206H powder (no filler). The 56.0 grain load gives me an average velocity of 2212 fps with no significant leading, but it must be pushing the limits for leading (ADI 2206H is the same as H4895). The mix is wheel weights with around 2% tin, water quenched. Recoil seems similar to a .3006 load. Yet to try this on deer but it should give them something to think about.

A load of 25.0 grains Trailboss with this projectile gives an average velocity of 1301 fps and gave good accuracy with a 5 shot group of 15mm at 50m. A good cheap plinking load in the .375H&H with very light recoil.

Waimahana, you're very welcome and thanks for this info. I almost lost hope that one could get such results. I find the .22 Hornet difficult to reload as I never succeeded to duplicate the performance of the factory round Winchester 45 grs HP. So you gave me new courage to start trying.

And you already touched another favorite of mine, the .375 H&H...
amazing entrance you made here.
For your info: in .22 Hornet I'm using an Encore with a very short barrel (which likes RWS factory round best) and an Anschütz 1432 (which favorizes the Winchester 45 grs HP round). In .375 H&H I folowed my patriot feelings and spend my money on a Dumoulin rifle. Which rifle are you using in .375 H&H?

Hi Aloysius, I've never played with the hornet and can't be of any assistance with any loading recipes unfortunately.

The .375 H&H is probably a bit off course with respect to this thread, however, I'm a sucker for Sako rifles, particularly the stainless versions. I've trained mine to shoot consistently just under 1 MOA with the Sierra 250gr projectiles at an average of 2793 fps.

hornets are well known for being fussy...they likes what they likes... deer sniper has got one tuned in really good from memory.

Sako and Tika are not a bad choise at all. Scandinavian people know how to make good quality. Valmet is also a name to keep in mind.

Aloysius, It will be very easy to make a subsonic load for your .375H&H using Trailboss and cast projectiles. However, it will be pointless if you are not permitted to use a suppressor.

Just for interest.....one of the problems with subsonic loads in larger cases (i.e. .3006, .375H&H etc) is the projectiles generally do not expand and just make a pencil hole through game. However......I once knew a bloke who cast his own projectiles for a .44 magnum rifle. He drilled a deep hollow point hole in the .44 cal projectile and inserted a live .22LR round with its projectile cut off at the case mouth. The .22LR was a tight fit in the .44 projectile with the rim of the .22LR round resting on the meplat of the .44 cal projectile. The .44 mag round with the .22LR inserted was loaded into a .44 mag case and fired at subsonic velocity. When the projectile struck an animal (i.e. goat, deer, etc) it penetrated sufficiently and the impact was sufficient to detonate the .22LR round which exploded shattering the .44 mag projectile into several high velocity fragments. The result for the animal was more than just a bad day. This seemed an effective way to make a subsonic load capable of taking down large animals.
...Just an important caveat...you must check the legalities of using such a load in your country before attempting this.

Sometimes a man likes to do things just because he likes to do so, even without direct necessity nor applications. Suppressor are not allowed here (on fire arms, they are a must on motors and other noisy stuff). But it's in discussion now, so maybe some lawmakers will see the light.
Your other proposal is a different story. We are not allowed to hunt with rimfire, nor can we use 'dum-dum'...
when you want you lead .375 bullet expand, why don't you make a short hard pointed bullet and press a pure lead .38 blackpowder bullet on top of it? Some combination of casting and swaging might bring good results and there's a lot of fun in the trials (when you have the time)
on the other hand: when the hole is big enough there's no need for the bullet to expand...

Waimahana wrote:

I use a Sako 75 rifle with a 1:14 twist.

With a 1:14 twist, I think you are doing great to get the accuracy you have. Must be a pretty short bullet. Keep us posted on your success. Aloys needs as much help as he can get.

and some extra time... it costs to become grandfather...

but as the old bull said to the young one: "Why running down the hill to 'take' a cow? Let's walk and take them all!"



It took me years to discover the advantages of the small calibers. It used to be that shooting roedeer with a .222 Rem was a no-go. But since I started testing I started loving that little round, even started using its smaller Hornet-family and now I'm sure I only discovered a small part of the possibilities. There are still so much ways I didn't go.

The best load I have for my .222 is: Lapua match cases, Win primer, Sierra 55rg Game King (1365) with 24.5 grains ADI 2206H (same as H4895). This is a slightly compressed load and low pressure due to the relatively slow burning nature of this powder in the .222 case. Accuracy is consistently 0.2 - 0.4 MOA with no fliers what-so-ever. Average velocity is 3079 fps. I have tried several other powders but nothing gave the level of accuracy and consistency as ADI 2206H. I find the Sierra 55gr Gameking projectile seems to be harder than the Hornady 55gr projectile and gives better penetration.
For rabbits and hares etc I use the Hornady 50gr V-max with either ADI BM1 or BM2 powder - they both work well.

I don't like the 55 grs bullets that much. The hunting load I prefer in my Sabatti is the 63 grs SMP (Sierra 1370) with 21,0 grs PCl507 in a Remington case with a CCI small rifle primer.
This load is not good in a Baikal single shot, nor in the custom-made varminter on a Mauser action.
And I still have to measure twists some day...

for the smaller than roedeer game I use the 45 grs Hornet (Sierra 1110) with 15,0 grs Vihta N110. This load works in all 3 (using Remington or RWS cases and CCI SR primers).

most rabbits I shoot with an airrifle, the BSA Scorpion in 5,5 mm or the Theoben MFR in 4,5 mm (because we are not allowed to use rimfire for hunting, even airrifles are (still) not allowed except on closed private land)

Waimahana wrote:

The best load I have for my .222 is: Lapua match cases, Win primer, Sierra 55rg Game King (1365) with 24.5 grains ADI 2206H (same as H4895). This is a slightly compressed load and low pressure due to the relatively slow burning nature of this powder in the .222 case. Accuracy is consistently 0.2 - 0.4 MOA with no fliers what-so-ever. Average velocity is 3079 fps. I have tried several other powders but nothing gave the level of accuracy and consistency as ADI 2206H. I find the Sierra 55gr Gameking projectile seems to be harder than the Hornady 55gr projectile and gives better penetration. For rabbits and hares etc I use the Hornady 50gr V-max with either ADI BM1 or BM2 powder - they both work well.

hard case Mate as that is my "go to" load for my .223...but I will put a speer projectile of 50-55 grns in front of it