Military survival issue .22 Hornet ammunition was loaded with soft-point expanding jacketed bullets, not complying with the Hague Convention.

[8] Survivalist Mel Tappan on the .22 Hornet: "It is accurate, has virtually no recoil and a light report.... [I]ts performance limits its use to small game and pests within 150 or 175 yards.

"[9] Sam Fadala of GUNS magazine calls it "perfect for mid-range varmints of all stripes," everything from small game, mountain birds (e.g., blue grouse), turkey, javelina, peccaries, coyote, and Australian wild pigs and goats.

[11] At mid-century, southern sportsman Henry Edwards Davis pronounced the Winchester Model 70 chambered for the Hornet "the best commercial rifle for wild turkeys the world has ever seen".

[15] American hunter Jack O'Connor decried this practice in the 1950s, stating the Hornet could "under no circumstances" be considered a deer cartridge.

[16] Many jurisdictions such as the Netherlands, the UK (other than England and Wales) [6] and some states in the USA currently prohibit the Hornet (and other .22 caliber cartridges) for use on deer.

The .22 Hornet also proved popular among the Alaskan Inuit due to low cost, who used it for hunting seals, caribou, and even polar bears.

Older guns generally have a slower twist rate of 1-16" (or one turn in every 16 inches (410 mm) of barrel length) for lighter bullets with a .223 caliber dimension.