.22 Hornet RELOADING..Ready to Start..!

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CoyoteWolf 27

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Well, I finally have All The (Hopefully) 22 Hornet components ready, Think I have it figured out, and will start with Hornady and Sierra 45 Grain SP's..13 Gr L'IL Gun/ and cci SR Primer's..TEST Bullet seated, and Factory crimped..Look's Good So Far..Any Comment's, Complaint's or other INFO would be Appreciated, Thank's in Advance..Coyote Wolf 27/ Colo..Stephan WOLF.. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif
 
I have shot 13grs. of Lil'Gun behind a 46gr. Win. bullet with CCI small pistol primers in 3 different Hornets. It was mild in all of them and m.v. runs 3000-3050fps. It may be wise to start at 12.5grs. but I don't you will have any problems. Pedro
 
I must ask, as I see it often here, Why the crimp. Crimping is a deterent to accuracy in my opinion. I only crimp pistol loads and on rifle loads for tubular magazines. back sown on the starting load, everything else looks like a good starting point. Randy
 
Crimping is for pistols and elephant rounds. Otherwise it is a guaranteed accuracy killer. If it improves your regular reloads, you have a problem you need to address.

Jack
 
The Reason for Crimping, is I'm Reading The Richard Lee/ Modern Reloading/ Second Ed. I have The Lee Anniversery Kit. They stress Usage of The Factory Crimp, for Uniform Pressures, Increased Accuracy, Etc..This is All The info I Have, First time Reloading! You can Use Neck Sized Ammo, for Good Accuracy?..How should one Leave the Round, after Bullet Seating? The 13 Grain L'IL Gun load came from a Gun's and Ammo Mag . Article, by Jim Carmicheal, a Supposed Reloading Guru..Pet Load's..I can start of with 12.5 Grains and go up from there..2750 fps. would be fine for me..Again Thank's ! for the input guy's..Coyote Wolf/ Colo. Stephan Wolf..
 
Wolf, I am not a Richard Lee, or a Jim Carmichael, but I can say that in 25 yrs of reloading I have never crimped a rifle bullet other than for a Tubular Magazine rifle such as the Model 94 Winchester. The purpose of Crimping on that round is to prevent the round from being pushed back into the hull when putting them in the Magazine. I ull sixe 90% of my rounds and have never had a problem with the bullets being loose in the neck. Most Projos do not even have a crimping groove, That is for a reason. They are not needed. Crimping without a cannalure will cause bullet damage. Just resize the cases, prime, powder and seat the bullet. It will be fine. Randy
 
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Wolf go to the Post I just brought back to the top of this forum. It is not meant to replace a reloading manual. But I have given the easy to read and understand methods of reloading. Randy
 
Thank YOU 17 Shooter.!I have Now found and Read my Speer 12th Edition Reloading Manual/ You Are Absolutely Correct! Duh! On My Part! No Cannelure/ No Crimp! It Also state's that IF you DO crimp A Non-cannelure Bullet, it will cause Accuracy Problems,and Deform the Jacket. They say, to Crimp, you MUST have A Cannelure..Thanks for Saving my first Reloading Experience..I can necksize, and then seat..DO You Have To Full length Size NEW (WIN) .22 Hornet Brass? Or can you just Necksize? Ruger Target Gray/ 24" 1 in 14 RH Twist..Thanks for taking the time..Coyote Wolf/Colo..
 
Wolf, the only time I neck size is with new unfired brass, with a few exceptions. I will get into that next. The new brass is sized allready. In the shipping process it will get deformed and willhave small dents around the neck. these dents will scrape the bullet and again cause deformities in the bullet. a quick run through the neck sizer will take these dents out and produce uniform case neck tension on the bullets. the exceptions I talked about is when I am in a hurry and dont want to lube and clean the cases. I will neck size the brass going back into the same gun it was fired from. With the 22 hornet I dont even have a neck sizer. I do for everything else. the hornet has a great enough taper that it can be necksized just by not running the die all the way down to the shell holder. with a little practice and observations you can effectively size just the top.220 or so of the neck without touching the body of the case. on any bottle neck case, if the sizing die squeezes the body of the case, the shoulder will move forward. This shoulder will have to be set back(full length sized) in order to get the bolt to close. I hope this has helped. Randy
 
Crimping the Hornet loads seems to improve accuracy. Before I crimped them, I had 3/4" groups for 3 shots at 100 yards. Then I read a couple of posts by guys who had experienced improved accuracy in their Hornets by crimping. So, I bought a Lee crimp die and had my groups come down to less than 1/2" for 3 at 100 after doing the crimping. Small pistol primers helped accuracy too.
In all honesty, I don't think you can get too much Lil Gun in the case with the 40 grain bullets I use. I've tried 14 grains of it and that is a case full.
I have a Ruger Number 1 for a Hornet.
It's the only centerfire rifle round I've ever crimped, except for 30-30's for a Marlin 336.
Don
 
Thank-You 17 SHOOTER and Everyone who wrote back, to me, via the PM Forumn..I think Iv'e got some REALLY Good info now, on the Hornet Reloading, can't wait to get STARTED..Will Keep You Posted, on Result's..Thank's Again for your time, Coyote Wolf/ Colo..Stephan Wolf
 
27, welcome to the board. Seems like these guys have got you on the right track. Hornets can be a pain in the butt for accuracy but some really shoot well. You might want to look at using small pistol primers in some loads to see it that helps. Some rifles like the pistol primers to make them shoot well. Let us know what you find out.
 
I have loaded Hornets for 10 years and until I started loading Hornets I never crimped my reloads .However , I now use a Lee Factory Crimping Die on all my loads.I also neck size with a Lee Collet Die.When body sizing is required I use a Redding body die and seat my bullets with a Horniday seating die.Crimping with a Factory crimp die is not the same as crimping with the roll crimper supplied in a standard set of dies . I would say it improves accuracy as outlinned in the Lee manual you have . I use small pistol primers as well.
 
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