22 hornet casings bulging

steve62

steve62

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I started reloading some 22 hornets. I am using a lee breech lock challenger press and RCBS carbon dies. Everything seemed to go great loaded up 40 of them. Then noticed a very slight bulge at the base of the bottle neck portion. This bulge was only on about half of them.

What am I doing wrong? This brass seems way to soft. Can it be to old? It was given to me by a neighbour. "WW Super 22 Hornet" a bag of 200 what looks to be new brass.

Thanks Steve
 
I have the FL die when I noticted the bulge I pulled the decapping pin and ran them through the full length die again. So yes they fit now, but never tryed them with the bulge.
 
All hornet brass is soft and thin. My guess is that you're probably inserting cases too deeply and bumping the mouth of the case on the "crimping" portion of the die when seating bullets. If there is no bullet cannelure under the exact spot where the crimp is being applied, you will bulge the case. Back off your seating die body a turn and lower your seating stem to compensate.
 
Are you sure the cases were not bulged from firing and your just noticing it now? Many hornets have over-sized chambers. Even with new brass and moderate loads this will occur with a large chamber.
 
I do not believe this brass has ever been fired. first time loaded. I will make a few ajustments and try again.

Thanks all
 
A&Shuntr said:
Are you sure the cases were not bulged from firing and your just noticing it now? Many hornets have over-sized chambers. Even with new brass and moderate loads this will occur with a large chamber.
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If the bulge was from a chamber issue it would probably be on all the cases and should have been taken out when sizing and before bullet seating.

My first thought was in line with what AJ and Longwalker are saying. Hornet brass can be a bit delicate compared to bigger brass.
 
From what I understand, most hornets have over-sized chambers. I combat this by neck-sizing only with Lee Collet dies, and there is a noticeable ridge left on the neck of my brass where the die does stops sizing. I see this as a good thing, as the body of the brass fits perfectly into the slightly generous chamber. I get excellent accuracy (average is 0.400" to 0.650" at 100 yards).

You could always have the barrel set back and re-chambered to k-hornet or something if you'd like, but I've never found any issues with brass life. I use lil-gun which provides lower-than-average pressures but excellent velocities, and I easily get at least 10 uses from each case.
 
I backed off the die and ran 10 through all came out perfect. Before today the smallest round I have ever loaded was a 30-06.

Thanks again!
 
Ok on to next subject.

loads; i am using CCI 400 primers 9-10 grs win 296 and 45 gr sp Hornady bullets.
what have you found to work best for you?
 
13.1 grains of lil-gun and remington small pistol primers work awesome for me with almost any bullet in the 35-45 grain range. 35 grain v-max are the most accurate, but all that I've tried so far are in the 3/4 - 1" range at 100 yards.
 
prosper said:
13.1 grains of lil-gun and remington small pistol primers work awesome for me with almost any bullet in the 35-45 grain range. 35 grain v-max are the most accurate, but all that I've tried so far are in the 3/4 - 1" range at 100 yards.
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I have read that the lil gun is the best for 22 hornet, but thought I should use up what I have first. I was at trout outfitters the other day, picked up the primers there but they had no lil gun.
 
My Anschutz 1730 prefers the 40gr v-max ahead of 12.5gr of Lil Gun,with Remington 6-1/2 primers.Five shot groups are sub 1/2" at 100 yards.I partial resize using a set of FL Redding dies.

Below are typical groups.

hornetgroups.jpg
 
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X2 for Longwalker's discription. I incountered the same problem when loading 303 British with cast bullets. Trying to do a roll crimp with the bullet seating die sometimes the neck gets pushed into the shoulder causing the shoulder to buldge. Pull out the decapping pin and run them through the FL sizing die. Back off your bullet seating die just a touch.;) I now use a Lee factory crimp die for everything I load for.
 
Brutus said:
Do you use the Lee Neck Sizer die?
I ask because I just purchased a Hornet, and I'm in the process of buying the right handloading tools for it.

Cheers!
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I have a Redding neck die and a RCBS Competition seater die. The seating die has the window to drop the bullet into and the inline sliding sleeve. I have never buckled a neck on a Hornet case with this seater. I have them for all rifle cartridges.
 
Cummins4x4 said:
I have a Redding neck die and a RCBS Competition seater die. The seating die has the window to drop the bullet into and the inline sliding sleeve. I have never buckled a neck on a Hornet case with this seater. I have them for all rifle cartridges.
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I have one of those seating dies for my match .308 rifle. I think that's a good idea for the Hornet too.
Thank you!
 
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