Brass life in 22 hornet and 22-k hornet

[wdc]

Please give me your experiences with brass life in 22 Hornet and 22-K Hornet.

with 40gr bullet

22 Hornet speeds 2000 fps to 2700 fps

22-K Hornet speeds 2000 fps to 2900 fps

[coopershooter]

Ive been shooting 35 gr. v-maxes at around 3000 fps. and have gotten at least ten reloads. and have not had any issues with brass. i did anneal the cases at five, but it may not have been needed.

[Slowpoke Slim]

I'm using Win brass in my hornet. I load 12.5 grs of Lil-Gun and a 40 gr Vmax. I have never chrony'd the load, and it shoots so dang good I probably never will!

I'm on at least the 5th reload on this batch of Win brass, and I've never annealed the brass. I FL size the brass, seat the bullets long, and use Rem 6 1/2 primers.

It works for me.

[securitysix]

I had some Remington brass that I got 3 or 4 reloads out of after fireforming them to .22 K-Hornet from factory ammo.  I can't say exactly what the loads were, but I did try some 52, 53, and 55 grain bullets along with some 45 grain bullets.  Not sure exactly what powder I used with which bullets, but I got the data out of reloading manuals (Hornady 6th and Lyman 48th, I think).  I'm not 100% sure why they started splitting in the neck and shoulder area.

I bought some Winchester brass to replace it.  I haven't fireformed those yet, but will anneal them after fireforming and see how they turn out.

[doc-and]

I use Winchester brass with max loads of WW296 under a 45gr softpoint and after 8 reloadings have not lost a single case. By the way these are fireformed using the same load into K-Hornet



docand

[Hopalong7]

     I've no experience with the K-Hornet, but have greatly increased case life in my three regular Hornets with the use of the Lee Collet Sizing Die.  I've made some load changes, etc during the same period and so can't put all of the benefit to the die, but I am convinced it has made a big difference.  With the long(relative), tapered, thin walled case it just makes sinse to me that cutting out the pushing and pulling of a regular sizing die would have to help quite a bunch.  If you're not familiar with the Lee die, it squezzes the neck of the case around a mandrel without any push or pull on the case.
BTW, A tip from ol' hard head...if you should get one of these dies....pay close attention to the included instructions....the set-up and adjustment is different.
Walt

[Madmark]

I have seen lots of headless hornet casings on the line at IHMSA shoots. I, however, have experienced no case head separations. If you neck size only, or set your FL sizing die so it only sizes the neck, you should get plenty of loadings per case. Careful sizing saves cases...  I load at the minimum end of your specified range, but am around 10 loadings (I'd have to dig up records for the exact number) with one trimming and no annealing.

[Pin Shooter]

You are going to love this one.  I have hornet brass that has been full length resized and reloaded---------120+ times!!!
My chamber and dies must be almost an exact match.   My load used for silhouette is 8.0gr IMR 4227 behind a 55gr bullet in Win brass.
I have annealed the necks only once.  The only brass I Have lost is a couple of neck spits before annealing.

Let the steel fall!

[EdK]

My chamber and dies must be almost an exact match.

What dies are you using? Factory barrel?

[Pin Shooter]

I am using a 10" heavy factory barrel and standard RCBS dies.  Used to drive my father nuts.  He could only get 2 or 3 loadings on his.  He later found out he had a barrel with bad headspacing.


Let the Steel fall!!