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Contender Varminting - .218 Bee

 

I have always loved the .22 Hornet.  My father had a Winchester bolt gun in Hornet when I was about 10 or 12 years old.  It had a scope, but I have no idea what model rifle or scope they were.  I hardly ever was allowed to carry it afield after woodchucks and such, although I was free to roam anywhere I wanted with a .22 LR.  The few times I ventured forth with the bigger, heavier gun, I was enthralled with its extra power.

Fast  forward about four decades.  Browsing the aisles of a gun show, a skinny little T/C Contender barrel sits alone amid the odds and ends of a private seller.  It turns out to be one of Thompson Contender’s earliest barrels in .22 K-Hornet.  A rakish little thing, this 10-inch octagon tent stake.  The seller shrugs.  It isn’t his; it belongs to a rancher who says it makes his Hornet ammo look funny when he shoots it.  I tsk tsk a time or two and shake my head in sympathy.  My palms leave sweat marks on my wallet.  The barrel goes home with me. 

The little K-Hornet soon wears an equally ancient Bushnell Phantom 2.5X scope with a rail mount.  With proper dies, reloads are soon assembled.  Even with the pitiful little scope, the K stays inside two inches at 100 yards.  Recoil is nil although the muzzle blast can peel paint.  It dispatches cords of rock chucks and piles of prairie dogs before it becomes part of a swap for something.

But before very long, there’s a gorgeous new Browning Micro-Medallion in the safe.  Caliber?  Hornet, of course.  It quickly turns into one of my favorite rifles.  None better for game from ground squirrels to fox.  Mild, accurate, cheap to feed and a delight to shoot, it rests front and center in my gun safe.  I seldom find reason to dig deeper.  But I wax nostalgic about that lost K-Hornet Contender barrel.  What could take its place?

I have a Contender barrel in the ubiquitous .223.  It’s a jewel, but the 14-inch tube costs considerable velocity.  And, the Contender really doesn’t do its best with rimless cartridges.  There must be a way to get full Hornet performance from a short tube with a rimmed round. What could it be? Bee? Hey! A .218 Bee!

Pull the Lazy Boy up to the bookrack, pardner, and let’s peruse the Bee.  The .218 was born in 1938 by Winchester.  Its big sisters are the .25-20 and the .32-20, both of which preceded it.  All use the same parent brass case adapted to the three different neck diameters.  All were designed for use in lever guns on respectively smaller game.  Later, the inexpensive and somewhat weak Model 43 bolt gun was also chambered in Bee. The original loading for the Bee featured a 46 grain flat nose, jacketed bullet at a listed 2860 fps.  At the time, the .22 Hornet was listed at only 2400 fps from similar-length barrels, so the Bee advantage was notable.

Today the Hornet flies faster, at an official 2690.  The Bee, on the other hand, has been throttled back to a nominal 2760.  While there are almost no new guns in Bee today, there is a whole new crop of strong, modern Hornets out there.  Cheese may get stronger with age, but guns don’t.  Those ancient Winchester lever and bolt guns in Bee simply deserve a milder diet and the revised factory loads reflect that need.

Fortunately for me, the one gun today available with a brand new Bee chambering is the Contender.  Available from Fox Ridge Outfitters, T/C’s designated custom house, or from independent makers such as Bullberry Barrel Works, Bee barrels are stock items.  Perhaps not as common as ditch water, but they’re out there waiting for you.  The same goes for dies and brass in .218 Bee.  Not exactly front shelf reloading components, but they’re definitely findable. 

With a larger, stronger case, the Bee in a Contender barrel should be able to equal the ballistics of a Hornet rifle.  Or so I surmised.  Reason enough to order one, don’t you think?  A few quick conversations with the nice people at Bullberry and a 15” bull contour barrel stamped .218 Bee was soon on its way.  As an aside, Fred Smith and his team at Bullberry are accomplished makers of all things for the Contender.  Their special stocks, forearms and attachment hardware are superb, and they understand all kinds of wildcat and standard chamberings.  In short, they speak Contender.  In quick order, a Pentax 2-7X pistol scope (now woefully discontinued) was mated and bore sighted.  Rough sighting in with factory ammo resulted in fired cases and a partially broken-in barrel ready to test.  Cases were measured to determine average expansion of factory rounds.  Sizing dies were adjusted to the point where a hint of resistance was felt when closing the action on a sized case.  Contender barrels shoot best and case life is longest when the case headspaces snugly on the shoulder, even with rimmed cases.  Bullberry barrels are cut with minimum chamber dimensions, so I was able to set my Lee dies down to about 98 percent of complete sizing.  Only a few thousandths of airspace separates the die from the shellholder when adjusted for my barrel.

The Bee comes in only one factory load today, with a flatpoint  bullet.  The Hornet comes in a variety of factory loads.  Handloaded, the Bee makes a pistol shoot like a Hornet rifle. 

Like a Hornet, the Bee is sensitive to crosswinds!  This ten-shot group still clusters in less than two inches.  Good load!

Author used Lee dies and virgin Winchester brass.  The Lee set comes with the excellent Factory Crimp Die and a shellholder. 

The Bee thrives on the same bullets as the Hornet, plus 50-grainers, which the Hornet doesn’t handle as well.  All are designed to expand violently at modest velocities.

Author uses these components for his Bee.  The combination matches Hornet performance in a pistol, but with a heavier bullet.  In a Bee rifle, this would be a devastating load to 250+ yards.

Load Data

Note:  All loads assembled in new brass using Lee dies and Remington 6 ½ primers. 

Ten-shot groups at 100 yards fired over Oehler 35P chronograph.

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This Bee has a 200-yard stinger!  The .218 Bee in a Contender is a great choice for ground squirrels.  It virtually duplicates a Hornet rifle in performance, says the author.

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Bench to Bench

Now to the fun part: reloading.  Because my goal was to duplicate Hornet rifle ballistics in a pistol, I mainly tested Hornet-style bullets in the Bee.  In addition to the standard weight of 45/46 grains, I loaded some 40s and some of the new Hornady 35-grain VMax bullets.  Even though they usually aren’t used in the Hornet, the Bee can handle 50-grain bullets.  So I tried a few of those as well.  I also standardized primers.  I have long believed that the smaller the case and powder charge, the milder the primer should be.  For this experiment I settled on the Remington 6 ½ small rifle primer.  This mild primer has long been called the “Hornet primer” because of its consistent results in that tiny case.  I also used virgin Winchester brass from a single lot of 500 for all test loads.  Each case was fired only once during load development to permit consistent expansion measurements.  Case prep was minimal: mouths squared and chamfered, cases inspected for defects (none found) and resized in the adjusted Lee dies.

My die set came complete with a Lee Factory Crimp die.  I tested all loads without applying this final crimp, mainly to minimize variables in this series.  In the future, I’ll recheck some of the better loads with and without crimp.  I prepared ten rounds of each test load and fired ten-shot groups with each at 100 yards.  The barrel was cleaned and cooled between each 10-round series and then fouled with one shot of factory ammo.  All test shots were fired over my Oehler 35 Chronograph from a concrete bench.  A Harris BR bipod and sandbag under the gun butt completed the test setup.

I’m a longtime admirer of Ken Waters, and an avid reader of his Pet Loads series in another magazine.  In tribute to his veracious and voracious approach to testing, I used a total of eight powders and six bullets to try to really learn this overlooked and almost forgotten little round.  Powders ranged from Alliant 2400 through Accurate Arms #9 and 1680, Winchester 296, Hodgdon 110, 4227, 4198 and Lil Gun.  Bullets included Hornady 35gr Vmax, Sierra 40gr SP, Nosler 45gr Hornet and Hornady 50gr Vmax.  (Also tested were the Sierra 45 SP and the Speer 50 SP.  Loads and results with these two were essentially identical to the Nosler and Hornady bullets of the same weights.)   All of these bullets are designed for expansion at Hornet-class velocities.

A word about load selection is in order.  I was able to find published and tested load data for only a few of the powders I intended to try.  For the ones without data, such as W296, H110, Lil Gun and AA#9, I scaled up loads known to be safe in the Hornet.  The average Hornet case will hold about 14 grains of water filled to the top of the neck.  The Bee will hold about 18, which is some 28% greater.  To be conservative, I scaled up the Hornet loads by about 15%.  That was sometimes about right, sometimes too hot and sometimes too conservative, as we will see.  All charges were weighed to the exact charge weight and dispensed by my irreplaceable RCBS Powder Pro electronic scale and dispenser.

First Range Results

Having a very large lot of virgin brass allowed me to indulge myself in a couple of marathon loading sessions in which I assembled ten rounds of just about every combination I had planned.  Sticking to the faster powders for the lighter bullets, I used 296, 110, 2400 and AA9 with 35gr and 40gr bullets, while with the 45gr and 50gr bullets I used 4198, 4227, 1680 and Lil Gun. 

At the range, I set up the old faithful Oehler 35P and a backer holding four targets.  With this setup, I could test all the loads with each bullet weight without having to change targets.  I started with the 35gr Vmax because it’s such an intriguing little bullet.  With it, I get 3000 fps and groups that hover right around a half inch in my Micro Medallion Hornet.  And so I eagerly looked forward to seeing what it would do in the Bee.  What it did was miss the target. 

My spirit sank when I looked through the spotting scope after my first shot.  Even squinting, I couldn’t find a hole in the typing paper-sized target.  I knew I was sighted one inch high with factory ammo, so where could the impact be now?  Knowing that my ten-shot group was history now anyway, I sighted at the point where the corners of all four targets touched in the center of the backer.  Instead of an 8.5 x 11” target, I was now shooting at one 17 x 22.  I squeezed off another round and sure enough, there was now one hole visible…eight inches above point of aim and half an inch left.  A simple scope correction here at the range, but afield, I’d not be able to switch bullet weights indiscriminately, for sure.

So that first group is an eight-shot for record.  It also wasn’t overly encouraging, going a generous 2 inches.  The next three groups with the 35gr Vmax unfortunately failed to improve much, registering 2.4, 1.6 and a dismal 3 inches.  I suspect that, even though loaded to an overall length of 1.68”, the same as factory loads, this stubby little projectile just wasn’t happy with the jump it had to take to reach the lands.  I also think that those fast, dense ball powders resulted in too low a loading density, especially with H110.  No ball powder likes much air space when loaded, and the Bee clearly has too much boiler room for these extremely dense powders to perform their best with these charge weights.

The Alliant 2400 turned out to be a maximum load, with case expanded to 0.3460”, the same as current factory ammo.  Velocity was 3,068 fps but the group was that dismal 3-incher.  Throttled back, this load might improve.

I have to confess to an aversion to 2400 powder in this application, or in the Hornet.  Published Hornet loads from the 1940s with 2400 powder (which was developed especially for the Hornet) are dangerously over maximum pressure with today’s thicker brass, hotter primers and redesigned bullets.  Besides, it’s still only good for about 2400 fps in the Hornet (that’s how it got its name) whereas modern powders easily produce 2800.  Accordingly, I use it in some heavy pistol loads and under cast bullets in rifles, but that’s about it.

The nearest thing to a good load in that first batch was with AA#9.  Although the charge turned in mild pressures and a velocity of not quite 2700 fps, nine of the ten shots went into 0.8 inches.  Pilot error doubled that to 1.6.  I might work this load up a bit to see if the velocity improves.  But because of the drastic changes in point of impact, I doubt I’ll be using this bullet much in the field anyway.

The 40-grain Sierra bullets were up next.  Their impact points were several inches lower, speeds also down a bit and groups not much improved.  Because I used the same four powders as in the 35gr loads, I suspect the same factor of low load density was also at work here.  Again, however, the best of the bunch turned out to be AA#9, which turned in the sole group of under two inches, but at a velocity of only 2433 fps.  Again, this turned out to be a very mild load, due to over-conservative guessing on my part.  I’d work some of these loads up, but I see no point in pursuing these fast powders any further in the Bee.

The reason for that dismissal came with the first loads using slower powders.  Suddenly, the Bee began to buzz!  The 45-grain Sierras and Noslers were next up.  The Nosler Solid Base bullet, one of only two still made in that excellent pattern, is designed for the Hornet. (The other is a 120-grain flat point specifically for the 7-30 Waters.)  H4227 pushed both 45-grainers out at only 2600 fps, and all but one Nosler went just into an inch.  A wind gust nudged that one out another three quarters, but still a very nice cluster.  The Sierra went into 1.5.   H4198 Short Cut almost exactly duplicated 4227 in both speed and group.  Then AA1680 upped the velocity to 2700 fps and also shot the Noslers into an inch, the Sierras into 1.3!  And if I had quit right there, it would’ve met my original goal, that of matching Hornet rifle performance in a pistol.  I was beginning to grin, but couldn’t wait to shoot the Lil Gun load. 

Why? Because when Hodgdon marketed this powder for the .410 shotgun, it also created the all-time number one best Hornet powder.  Period.  No argument.  Giving much higher speeds at lower pressures than other powders, it also is extremely accurate in the Hornet.  Simply stated, it makes the Hornet the round it always should have been.  So I was eager to see what it would do for the Bee.  I was not disappointed.

At the first shot with Lil Gun I thought my faithful Oehler had finally lied or died, because the Nosler recorded a sizzling 3200 fps.  Yes, that’s five HUNDRED fps faster than the previous load.  But the next nine not only confirmed that speed but nestled into 1.5 inches, too.  Later, for reasons I’ll explain below, I reduced that load by a full grain and retested it.  It still stopped the clock at 3075 fps, case expansion equaled factory and the group settled down into an inch even.  I think I’m in love.  

The only remaining bullets were the 50gr Vmax and Speer SP.  Once again, with a cool, clean gun and new targets, I resumed testing, much enthused.  The following data came with the Vmax, but the Speer performed almost identically.  This time, 4198, 4227 and 1680 delivered solid 2500 fps speeds, with all ten shots nicely and regularly forming 1.5 inch groups.  The 4227 load nudged 2600, and put five of its ten into a single half-inch hole with the other five shots surrounding it like a halo.  That, friends, is darned good performance from a pistol. 

I had genuinely looked forward to the final load, which would have been the Lil Gun/50 Vmax combo.  Unfortunately, just as I was changing targets, a strong and gusty crosswind suddenly boomed out of nowhere and didn’t let up.  Such a thing is common here in the mountains, and I knew better than to try to shoot under those conditions.  So I packed up.  Turns out to have been fortunate, anyway.  The load certainly would have been over maximum.  When I analyzed and measured all the other loads, I discovered that the Lil Gun/45 Nosler load was, as I intimated earlier, warmer than I like to see.  Those cases had expanded 0.001” more than factory ammunition, and that’s more than I like to see in a Contender.  So I pulled the loads with Lil Gun and the 50 Vmax and reduced them a full grain.  While I was dispensing Lil Gun, I also loaded some more of the Nosler 45-grainers for a retest of that load, again reported above.

So how did the Lil Gun /50 Vmax load finally shoot?  Can you see me grinning?  Ten shots tripped the Oehler at an average of 2955 fps, and punctured the paper in a nice round cluster only 1.25 across.  Center to center, that’s just about exactly an inch.  Case expansion is the same as factory stuff, so there’s no need to experiment any more.  For field use, I’ll be loading either the Nosler 45 or the 50 Vmax over Lil Gun powder.  Either is explosive enough to deal with quarry as dainty as ground squirrels yet tough enough to punch into the vitals of a fox or rock chuck from any angle.  I could substitute either the Sierra 45-grain or the Speer 50-grain in either load and get identical performance.

Which brings me to field trials.  So far, I’ve used the Bee on ground squirrels and prairie dogs.  Terminal effects are what you might call “conclusive.”  No, I don’t get the “air time” I get with a .223, but there is no doubt that there is no suffering – just instantaneous cessation.  I’ve tagged squirrels out to a laser-ranged 225 yards and prairie dogs to 210 with no problem.  I’ve carried the Bee for rock chucks and fox, but the chucks were way beyond pistol shot and the only shot I had at a fox I just plain missed.  Too eager to see the results, I suppose, but a clean miss nonetheless.  My confidence is such that I’ll be carrying the Bee a lot, however, so I’ll eventually tag a fox, chuck, badger, raccoon, skunk or something of that size.  I have no doubts about what’ll be the result.

So my love affair with the Hornet continues.  I have a Hornet rifle in the front row center slot in my safe.  And now I also have a Contender Bee that thinks it’s a Hornet.  I have no doubts that they’ll both be there for a long, long time.

(Published in The Varmint Hunter Magazine, Issue #40, October 2001)

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