I been fire forming K Hornet brass using new Winchester brass, 45grain Winchester bullets and 296 powder. My problem is I been blowing out case on the side, near the base of the case.I was using 10 grains of powder and seating the bullet to touch the lands. I talked to the owner of a reloading store that I shop, and he's a small caliber wildcat guy, and he recommended PPU brass. We weighed a Winchester case and a PPU case and the PPU was about 10% heavier. He also recommended using Lil Gun instead of 296. I used 13 grains of Lil Gun and a 45 grain Sierra Hornet bullet today and loaded 5 Winchester and 10 PPU. This time I seated a little deeper hoping to lessen pressure. The Winchester made pretty little K-Hornet case with no signs of breakage or pressure but the PPU split the necks on 6 of the 10 cases. Do I need to anneal the PPU cases before fire forming? Or do I maybe need to back off the powder due to the thicker case? Kinda stumped here. What do you guys think?
22 K-Hornet brass delima kinda sorta
- Thread starter pyscodog
- Start date
Near the base of the case? Dang! This would indicate a whopping difference between the brass dia and the chamber dimension of possibilities.
Your load maybe too hot. I used aa sixteen eighty with forty grain speer spire point, bullet jammed in the lands...never lost a win case.
Hornet base dia is a problem, be aware.
I had a reamer ground to AI, then a Pac NOr barrel installed on a Ruger. Results was accuracy was no better, with a tad more velocity...
I would say that CFE black is an upgrade, drop your pressure and play close attention to the bulge on the back end of the case.
Your load maybe too hot. I used aa sixteen eighty with forty grain speer spire point, bullet jammed in the lands...never lost a win case.
Hornet base dia is a problem, be aware.
I had a reamer ground to AI, then a Pac NOr barrel installed on a Ruger. Results was accuracy was no better, with a tad more velocity...
I would say that CFE black is an upgrade, drop your pressure and play close attention to the bulge on the back end of the case.
K-22hornet.
New member
According to Hodgdon Powder Co., Lilgun powder will generate about 32,000PSI with a max load and give us about 2,800-2,900fps with a 45gr bullet..
Most of the other Hornet powders will run at 42,000psi, and get 2,600-2,700fps.
The moral of that story is, if you own a Hornet, try Lilgun.
Most of the other Hornet powders will run at 42,000psi, and get 2,600-2,700fps.
The moral of that story is, if you own a Hornet, try Lilgun.
IdahoRoger
New member
I use lil gun in my .22 hornet, and the cases fall out after firing, I think I will neck size only on the next reload.
Florida
New member
pyscodog . . . .
The only way I can see a case head separation happening is when the handloader doesn't know how much shoulder clearance his handloads have in his chamber.
If the clearance is more than .001" or .002", the case will stretch too much every time it is fired. This cumulative stretching makes cases paper thin just above the head.
Annealing is helpful, especially when forming cases. However, the real fix is to resize your case accurately.
The only way I can see a case head separation happening is when the handloader doesn't know how much shoulder clearance his handloads have in his chamber.
If the clearance is more than .001" or .002", the case will stretch too much every time it is fired. This cumulative stretching makes cases paper thin just above the head.
Annealing is helpful, especially when forming cases. However, the real fix is to resize your case accurately.
Rustydust
Active member
Originally Posted By: pyscodogSeems this is the same thing you said to Rustydust. LOL.
What we have here Bill, is that our Hornets have brass that is pretty thin near the rim compared to other more modern brass. I just size mine enough to get the rounds to chamber easily. I do not push the pressures high at all. No need to get crazy with mine. It's a .17 Hornet and not a .17 Remington so I am not after blistering speeds. Just enough to enough to kill a squirrel 200-300 yards out. I found it too. But I know that my brass is not going to have a super long life and I just deal with it. And even though I cannot seem to find a good deal on new brass anywhere I can find factory ammo cheap enough on occasion so I just use that for reloading. Been working fine so far.
What we have here Bill, is that our Hornets have brass that is pretty thin near the rim compared to other more modern brass. I just size mine enough to get the rounds to chamber easily. I do not push the pressures high at all. No need to get crazy with mine. It's a .17 Hornet and not a .17 Remington so I am not after blistering speeds. Just enough to enough to kill a squirrel 200-300 yards out. I found it too. But I know that my brass is not going to have a super long life and I just deal with it. And even though I cannot seem to find a good deal on new brass anywhere I can find factory ammo cheap enough on occasion so I just use that for reloading. Been working fine so far.
danno in va
New member
The .22KH and .17AH in 14" Bullberry Contender bbls were all i hunted groundhogs with before converting to the long gun. Used Win brass and fireformed w/ enough W231 under a tissue paper wad (no bullet) to form the case (it doesn't take much). Split cases were rare, but there were some pretty odd shaped assymetrical cases until the load was hot enough.
Some folks have had success with surprisingly accurate fire form loads. i agree the 45 grain bullet could be a bit heavy. It really liked the 40 grain ballistic tipped bullets - all brands shot under .5 MOA.
Some folks have had success with surprisingly accurate fire form loads. i agree the 45 grain bullet could be a bit heavy. It really liked the 40 grain ballistic tipped bullets - all brands shot under .5 MOA.
Neck sizing and maybe a little less Lil’ Gun seems like what I did with my K in a Contender. I do not have my data at my finger tips (it’s out in the man cave) but that is what rings a bell with me.
New PPU brass was what I used. My old Winchester stuff was too temperamental so I would say annealing would be a plus and do not charge it up but let the case fill out over a couple of firings.
As a rimmed case it is not going anywhere.
Enjoy!
Three 44s
New PPU brass was what I used. My old Winchester stuff was too temperamental so I would say annealing would be a plus and do not charge it up but let the case fill out over a couple of firings.
As a rimmed case it is not going anywhere.
Enjoy!
Three 44s
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I worked up a load in mine with 40g speer spire point with AA1680. The load was right near the top end of pressures in two rifles. The neat thing about the 40g Speer spire point is that I could touch the lands and still use the magazine box.
I don't recall ever loosing a case to splitting , Winchester only...thousands of cases fire formed on ground squirrels.
I don't recall ever loosing a case to splitting , Winchester only...thousands of cases fire formed on ground squirrels.
I was using about 12 grains and kissing the lands with the bullet and I was loosing several cases. I seated my bullets deeper and backed off to 10 grains of powder and never lost a case. I found the Winchester Hornet brass id pretty frail and this seemed to work. I also found chamfering the case neck helped when seating flat base bullets.