There are many different rifles chambered for the 22 hornet and 22k hornet. So results will vary not to mention all all the other variables; such as in handloading.
You MUST crimp.the bullet in, if you want consistently accurate loads. The brass is so thin, it will not hold the bullet tight enough to get a consistent jump out of the brass. Unless you want to shoot single shot, forget seating the bullet just off the lands, because it won't fit in the magazine afterwards. I have loaded 13 grs Lil' Gun behind 40 gr Ballistic Tips, 40 gr V Max and 35 gr V Max. All shoot sub MOA. I would load more, but 13 grs fills the case level full. I get an average of 2986 fps. I use the Hornet in areas of lots of cows, horses and houses. Best group is with Nosler Ballistic Tips.i like boat tails because they seat easier with.less ruined cases. I use the Lee Factory Collet CRIMP die. On the Ballistic Tip, I am actually crimping on the base of the ogive of the Spitzer. Try it. It works! Let me know how it worked for you.Hornets are terrible simply by the case design. While headspacing off the rim isn't necessarily a bad thing, the lack of any appreciable shoulder doesn't help with overall cartridge alignment. And take into consideration that the brass is so thin it's hard to seat the bullet anywhere near perfectly aligned with the case.
I'm not a Hornet fan, nor against them. I own one and I am going to spend some time trying to get it to shoot MOA if I can. Itty-bitty groups aren't in the cards and I know that. And reaming to a K isn't on the table as of yet. The rifle will see use as a close range (inside 150 yards) predator/varmint gun on our property so anything near minute-of-groundhog is acceptable for my use. And if it doesn't play out, I do have a T-Bolt 22WMR that is well under MOA if I decide to let the little Ruger go to another home.
And yeah ....... I'm probably a glutton for punishment ........
All I can tell you is my loads without crimps didn't group. A fella explained to me that the Hornet brass was so thin that it wouldn't hold the bullet consistently to build pressure before the bullet jump. I crimped and now I can cover 4 shots with a dime. This is the only cartridge that a crimp improved the group. I will say that when talking to a tech with a die company a week ago, told me that on other cartridges if you want to keep a load grouping right, after crimping, that you had to reduce the powder charge. We were talking about other standard cartridges such as 308, 30-06, 7mm, etc. I don't know because I have not tried that.
You are calling me a liar. I have been reloading for over 50 years. I reckon I know what I am talking about.
Rem brass is too soft. I have expander dies. No reason to pay for custom dies. An undersized expander die overworks the neck. I anneal when needed and have no problem with over worked brass. By annealing we would get up to 25 loads in a .223 bolt gun in NRA High Power. 12-15 with a gas gun. Unless we were using the M1 or M14. With these rifles. We started getting case head separation at 6 loads, but never split necks.
