Need input about reloading 22 hornet........

shootist22-250

shootist22-250

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I am soon going acquire a Savage 22 hornet.
After perusing many different web sites the following questions are bugging me.
There are many discrepancies in the information that I found. Hence I would like CGN input on the following.

1. The brass has a short life...from 3 to 10 reloads...true or false?

2. If the short life is true...how can one extend brass life?

3. Seating the bullet is where you can destroy brass frequently by crushing the neck....true or false?

4. Do not full length size the brass ever?

5. When neck sizing only size about 1/4 to 1/2 of the neck?

6. Use small pistol primers as the ignition of a small rifle primer will start the bullet out of the case before powder ignition?

Thanks for your input guys.

R
 
Brass life depends on the load you choose.If you load hot,brass life is short,if you keep the pressures lower,brass life improves greatly.If you don't chamfer the brass before seating bullets,you can crush cases.I don't full length resize cases,I back the die off a bit.I prefer to use Remington 6-1/2 primers,because they work well,and are designed for cases like the 22 Hornet.

My gun likes Lil Gun which is good,because it produces more velocity than most other powders,with less chamber pressure,which increases brass life.
 
shootist22-250 said:
I am soon going acquire a Savage 22 hornet.
After perusing many different web sites the following questions are bugging me.
There are many discrepancies in the information that I found. Hence I would like CGN input on the following.

1. The brass has a short life...from 3 to 10 reloads...true or false?

2. If the short life is true...how can one extend brass life?

3. Seating the bullet is where you can destroy brass frequently by crushing the neck....true or false?

4. Do not full length size the brass ever?

5. When neck sizing only size about 1/4 to 1/2 of the neck?

6. Use small pistol primers as the ignition of a small rifle primer will start the bullet out of the case before powder ignition?

Thanks for your input guys.

R
Click to expand...

My first reloading started with 22 hornet and have not dabbled with it for a while, here are my observations that may answer your questions.

1 & 2. Hot loads will dramatically shorten case life. I've gotten up to 10+ per with slightly loaded down cases. Used case lube very sparingly as it's easy to dimple the shoulder.

3. Never crushed a case seating a bullet. This might have more to do with the style of seating die than anything. I was using a vickerman die.

4 & 5. I full length sized first time only then neck sized about 3/16" after that. Seemed to work fine. All case failures were neck cracks from work hardening. you could aneal the necks to extend case life.

6. Small rifle primers, never pistol primers. I think they may be too soft, but I'm sure others here may have more experience with that. A pistol primer would likely also start the bullet down the barrel. I was using CIL4227 (very old tin) H110 and Lil' Gun and they all worked fine with small rifle primers.

I'll look up some of my old recipes if you want. Hope this helps.
 
The hornet brass is very thin, so champfering the mouth takes care of any burrs that might catch on the edge of flat base bullets and crumple the case. I usually resize new or once fired from another rifle, then back off the resizing die a 1/2 to 3/4 turn so as not to push back what little shoulder there is. This round head spaces on its rim so if chamber is a little loose, brass grows a lot if resized too much. I have had cases seperate but not a big issue to remove. Remove bolt take a cleaning rod with a 30 cal brush on the end, ram into the chamber and pull it out the bristles grab the brass and pull it out. Watch for shiny ring above the base sign of possible seperation. Have fun.
 
About the only things I can comment on here are;

Never crushed a neck using my RCBS Comp seater die.
Neck sized only for the same rifle, never had an issue chambering a round.
The only powder I have used is LilGun with SRP, I loaded a batch with SPP as I haven't been real happy with the groups. As a side note IMO there is no danger using SPP as a magnum pistol round has a higher pressure than the Hornet.
Great little round in the gopher patch.
 
shootist22-250 said:
I am soon going acquire a Savage 22 hornet.
After perusing many different web sites the following questions are bugging me.
There are many discrepancies in the information that I found. Hence I would like CGN input on the following.

1. The brass has a short life...from 3 to 10 reloads...true or false?

2. If the short life is true...how can one extend brass life?

3. Seating the bullet is where you can destroy brass frequently by crushing the neck....true or false?

4. Do not full length size the brass ever?

5. When neck sizing only size about 1/4 to 1/2 of the neck?

6. Use small pistol primers as the ignition of a small rifle primer will start the bullet out of the case before powder ignition?

Thanks for your input guys.

R
Click to expand...

Without looking at anybody elses answers, here are mine.

1) Depends.
2) Resize only enough to get the case back in the chamber and the neck sized enough to hold the bullet.
3) True. Part of my trouble may be the Lee shell holder. To prevent the crushing, use a quality shell holder, plus, give the inside of the neck a couple of turns with the little tool that reams the inside of the mouth.
4) See 2 above.
5) See 2 above.
6) Absolute pure, 100% hogwash. I have used both pistol and rifle primers. I found that for some reason the pidtol primers sometimes leaked a bit, so I think rifle are the best.

As an addition to 6 above, I once experimented with a Hornet case and 40 grain bullets, as follows. I seated the bullet in the normal fashion, without crimping, but no powder in the case. Neither pistol nor rifle primers would move the bullet the tiniest amount, out of the case!
 
As an addition to 6 above, I once experimented with a Hornet case and 40 grain bullets, as follows. I seated the bullet in the normal fashion, without crimping, but no powder in the case. Neither pistol nor rifle primers would move the bullet the tiniest amount, out of the case!

H4831
I kind of suspected this would be the case.
You know how internet rumors are....rumors which soon become fact with no merit.

I found that for some reason the pistol primers sometimes leaked a bit,

What do you mean by leak???

Thanks
 
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shootist22-250 said:
1. The brass has a short life...from 3 to 10 reloads...true or false?
2. If the short life is true...how can one extend brass life?
3. Seating the bullet is where you can destroy brass frequently by crushing the neck....true or false?
4. Do not full length size the brass ever?
5. When neck sizing only size about 1/4 to 1/2 of the neck?
6. Use small pistol primers as the ignition of a small rifle primer will start the bullet out of the case before powder ignition?
Click to expand...

1. No real reason the Hornet should be worse than other cartridges, unless it has excessive headspace or a very large neck in the chamber.
2. You can address the headspace issue by not full length resizing, or if you do, then only partial full length so you just bump the shoulder back 0.001". Best would be to neck size only with a Lee Collet die. This will limit working of the brass to the neck area and will not overwork the neck. If your chamber has a large neck there is not much you can do about that, other than select a brass mfg that has thicker brass in the neck. You can also anneal every 5 firings.
3. Again the Lee collet die should avoid a small neck ID, and allow you to control neck tension. Chamfering also helps.
4. That is a good rule with any cartridge. If the brass will not chamber with neck sizing only you have to do something. A partial FL size as I described earlier would be the best in that event.
5. I don't think that is possible with the Lee Collet, but is with some other dies. With the partial FL partial neck is possible too if the shoulder does not need to be bumped.
6. Most cartridges like a "soft" primer -- which is one that is very consistent and not necessarily powerful. Here is a good link on small rifle primer performance. For the Hornet I would probably pick the Federal 205M or CCI BR-4.

Small Rifle Primer Performance
 
The small pistol primers are designed to be used in the 357 magnum, which runs to 40,000 CUP.
In the Hornet I was using 13 grains of LilGun and a 40 grain bullet, which shows a pressure on the Hodgdon site of only 28,400 CUP.
That is why I said I could see no reason why they should leak, which meant some blackening on the edge of the primer rim.
These same CCI small pistol primers showed no leaking at all, with full power loads in the 357.
I am at a loss to know why, but I do think the pressure in my Hornet loads were considerably higher than shown in the Hodgdon site. My rifle is an old Brno in "like new," condition. The primers on old CIL factory loads showed far less flattening than did my handloads with 13 of LilGun.
 
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