K Hornet dies

migrant hunter

migrant hunter

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I"m hankering after a 22 K Hornet. Who makes dies for them, do I need 3 dies (neck, full and seater) and who would you recomend?(my other stuff is all Lee) Lee do regular hornet dies, which I assume is no use (maybe the seater?)
thanks
 
"...assume is no use..." Right. It's a different case.
.22 K-Hornet dies are a two die set from RCBS, Hornady and Redding. Redding also makes a 3 die set that includes a neck sizing die. You can set up a FL die to neck size only though. They're all normal 7/8-14 threads.
I'm not seeing the .22 K-Hornet on the Lee site though.
The trick will be getting them where you are. Reloading dies exported out of the States don't require their export permit(at least not to Canada), but your laws may require some kind of daft permit to import them. You'd know more about that than anybody here.
 
No problems yet as far as purchasing reloading equipment from the US. They start doing that and they'll have to ban scales, micrometer's and all sorts of other tools.
 
Redding are available in Europe, but I"ll probably have to order the K dies as I doubt if anyone will stock them. I just need to check how much it"s going to cost to have the rifle posted to a smith in Scotland, reamed, posted to England, re-proofed, posted back to Scotland, and then back here!(no gunsmiths here!)
thanks for the replies.
 
I had to special order my rcbs k-hornet dies, but they were stocked at the canadian distributor so it was only a couple of weeks to get it, any shop that will special order should be able to get it.

Do watch out rcbs use a 40deg shoulder and Redding uses a 35 deg (If memory serves me correctly). so make sure it matches up with the reamer.

That said after a year I am not sure if it is a worth while conversion anymore.

When I did mine I had wanted to use heavier bullets and the data at the time showed a difference of 400 fps with 50 grain heads, on paper a 50 gr head at 2800 has about 75 more yards of coyote gun in it. After I had the work done new loading data appered showing only ~100 fps with lil'gun powder.

In the old days the conversion made sense mostly because of the sloppy hornet chambers, modern guns are much better, and even though a min chamber and max ammo is still a loose fit that can me medigated with appropriate loading procedures.

Sorry missed your location, a canadian distributor is of no use to you
 
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Thanks, I did"nt know that about the shoulder angle. I have just found a 3 die set from Redding on Midway UK. I should know in the next couple of days what the conversion will cost(I still want the "K") as I"m getting my mate who"s a gun dealer to price it with the smith in case he gets a better price with being in the trade. Once they sort that out I"ll ring the smith and talk angles and throat with him and then I can get dies to suit.
I"m not bothered about heavy bullets, I want something quieter than the .204/.222 or .223 for foxes out to 200 mtrs or so. 35 or 40 bt"s will be fine and they are easily available here as the 222, and more recently 223, are
common as muck.
 
A pointy bullet and that extra 200 fps should do just fine for foxes.

While you are ordering dies you should consider getting the lee factory crimp die(the plain hornet version works for the k-hornet too), lots of guys report a significant jump in accuracy.

What kind of powders are available, I was involved in a tread with a swede and he could not source Hodgdon Lil'gun powder, a real problem since it is if not the best hornet powder it is one of the best.
 
With all the BS I have to go through it could be 6 months before I get the rifle on my FAC, but I know i can get IMR powders and I have a load of N110 that I used to use in my .44.
I"ve always heard Hornet shooters rave about Lil"gun, so I"ll see if it can be had here. Been running loads through the Sierra program and it looks like a great little cartridge!
 
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