Reloading 17 hornet
- Thread starter Mike112288
- Start date
I did a guess of 5 reloads per casing just so I wouldn’t overreach. 10 reloads with Hornady brass is common? I’m trying to justify buying a 17 hornet. I’ve been thinking of reloading ammo again so ya. .53 cents don’t sound too worse
I've been reloading the little Hornet for a couple years now. First, you should never buy new, empty brass. It's actually cheaper to buy a box of factory ammo and reuse the brass. When buying factory loads, you can plan on about $.90/round (buying virgin brass will cost you close to $1.00/case). Then, using the brass, you can load them up at least 5 times (likely more) at about $.45/round. And, for what it's worth, you'll be hard pressed to improve on the accuracy of the factory stuff.
So, yeah, it's worth reloading the .17 Hornet. I love the cartridge.
So, yeah, it's worth reloading the .17 Hornet. I love the cartridge.
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Ya cabelas sells 25 rounds for 36$ which is insane. 1.50$ a shot is over kill. What kinda accuracy are you getting with your reloads? Being such a mild round compared to
Larger calibers I would think you’d get more than 5 reloads easily per case
Larger calibers I would think you’d get more than 5 reloads easily per case
The 500 box of the Zombie max bullets runs just under $100, so about $.20 per bullet, for under $.45 per round. I lucked out and purchased a large amount of bullets/powder and primers for a greatly reduced price in the EE, and I am loading for about $.27 per round until I have to purchase more supplies.
I recon you can reload .17 hornet, for about the price of the high performance rimfires, .17 HRM etc, 40-50cents, component prices have crept up, and finding bulk (500) lots of .17 cal bullets imposable, until Hornardy redoes a run, big step up in performance, easy to loose brass if dropped into grass,
CFE blackout is the standout powder in mine, for both speed and accuracy,
I am up over 10 reloads on sum brass, annealed at 5-6 reloads.
CFE blackout is the standout powder in mine, for both speed and accuracy,
I am up over 10 reloads on sum brass, annealed at 5-6 reloads.
I still have a few hundred rounds loaded with Lil Gun, , but I will be switching to CFE-BLK as well, after doing some testing last week. No copper fowling and hopefully, a bit more stable than Lil Gun.
discontinued bullet offering though
I use AA1680 & IMR 4227, would try some CFEBLK but at the rate I shoot my Hornet it will take 75 years to shoot those powders I have on hand!
Lot of good info here. I tried reloading 17 Remington and I just don't have dainty enough fingers to do it. I find even 22 Hornet to be fiddly but barely tolerable. I think I would go insane on 17 Hornet. While 17's are a cool caliber, it is one of those ones that I just accept that I will have to shoot it in the HMR format to enjoy. Not to de-rail but if I was considering the 17 I think that sanity should have say in your costing. 
prairie lover
CGN Regular
- Location
- southern MB
Hornady 17 hornet dies have a piece that drops down, bullet needs only to go into that sleeve hanging out the bottom. They then get a pushed up and seated. Still a bit of a pain.
I'm not sure if i would like to attempt loading a flat base bullet in regular dies.
I use a1680 in mine. Good accuracy and great speed. If I ever run out I will try the cfe-black.
I have tried 3 different bullets. The 20 gr z-max which i believe to be identical to a v-max, they shoot good.
20 gr nosler tipped they are a pain to get consistant in both my cz American and my current varmint. Actually gave up on them due to annoying fliers and put the remaining ones far back on my shelf where I hope they never bother me again.
20 gr nosler hp. Seems to shoot slightly better than the v-max just slightly. Both them incase I take it coyote hunting as the plastic tipped bullets are not good at making it through a coyote shoulder blade. I will probably not buy more of these unless they really impress me cause of there low bc.
I never did shoot a coyote with mine, I carried it a few times then went back to bigger stuff due to the range limits of the 17. I have shot skunks rabbits and plenty of pest birds and a few gophers. It does well there. At long distances (310 yards) a rabbit shot in the chest goes for a little run. 200 yards and under it's a bang flop with plastic tipped bullets.
I'm not sure if i would like to attempt loading a flat base bullet in regular dies.
I use a1680 in mine. Good accuracy and great speed. If I ever run out I will try the cfe-black.
I have tried 3 different bullets. The 20 gr z-max which i believe to be identical to a v-max, they shoot good.
20 gr nosler tipped they are a pain to get consistant in both my cz American and my current varmint. Actually gave up on them due to annoying fliers and put the remaining ones far back on my shelf where I hope they never bother me again.
20 gr nosler hp. Seems to shoot slightly better than the v-max just slightly. Both them incase I take it coyote hunting as the plastic tipped bullets are not good at making it through a coyote shoulder blade. I will probably not buy more of these unless they really impress me cause of there low bc.
I never did shoot a coyote with mine, I carried it a few times then went back to bigger stuff due to the range limits of the 17. I have shot skunks rabbits and plenty of pest birds and a few gophers. It does well there. At long distances (310 yards) a rabbit shot in the chest goes for a little run. 200 yards and under it's a bang flop with plastic tipped bullets.
The best value I've found so far on factory loads is Hornady's 25 grain HP. I typically have paid about $42 for a box of 50. They are extremely accurate and a useful load for varmints.
I haven't really discovered the upper limit of number of times for reloading brass. I have about 200 in rotation at a time (I have a couple thousand cases on hand, between some loaded 5+ times, once fired and factory yet-to-be-fired). Early on, using Lil Gun I was stretching primer pockets after one or two loads because Hornady's manual shows max at 10gr, which is way, way over max. (Some of the early Hornady factory stuff was also inconsistent, blowing primers, stretching pockets, etc). 9.5gr Lil Gun is actually about max and gives about 3700fps with the 20VMax, and delivers excellent accuracy.
With my handloads, I can usually count on about .5MOA with calm wind. I've occasionally gotten .25in groups @ 100 yards in calm wind with some of Hornady's factory loads, the 25gr HP in particular. I shoot a Savage 25 LWVT, by the way.
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prairie lover
CGN Regular
- Location
- southern MB
keep in mind early hornady loads with the 20 gr and gold primers had bad brass. leaking primers die to oval primer pockets, quick case head separation and bulging at the case head happened in 1 to 3 firings. later brass with silver primers and component brass I have no issues with. be careful with brass batches, I have seen pretty large weight differences from batch to batch which matters on such a small case.
I have some little gun but never tried it due to the stories about its sensitivity in the small case.
I have some little gun but never tried it due to the stories about its sensitivity in the small case.
I actually moved on to AA1680, once I got some, and was experimenting with H4198 on John Barsness' recommendation at the end of last season. But looking over my records from a couple years ago, I think I am going to try Lil Gun again now that I understand it, and the cartridge, better. It does appear to be temperature sensitive, so maybe not the best choice on a prairie dog hunt in the heat of summer, but my records show the velocities being quite consistent at the bench once I sorted out what was actually the max load.
