Hornet advice please

[Cknerr]

Could you guys tell me what you found out in regards to some 22 Hornets?

I haven't paid much attention to them, and when they where addressed here, I ignored it?! oops

Anyway:
1) Is there enough difference in perfomancebetween a regular Hornet vs a K-Hornet to re-chamber ?
2) I have found 4 difference K-Hornet specs. Which one is considered the primary one today....IE. if I bought ammo for it at the store, which one is it for?
3) Can regular Hornet brass be fire formed to a K-Hornet.
4) Can one K-Hornet brass be fire formed into another flavor of K-Hornet?

Thanks in advance,
Chris

[aulrich]

1. it generally adds up to about 200 fps across the board though when I made my decision on account of heavy bullets 50 gr it added up to 400fps but this year hodgdon added 50 grain head and lilgun to thier hornet load data this year so even that is back down to 200 fps. There are guy talking about 3400 fps with 40 grain bullets but that has got to be way out os spec.

2 To add to the confusion the die makers are making at least 2 different specs. rcbs uses a 40deg shoulder redding uses 35 and I never heard back from Hornady. RCBS claimed that the 40 was the standard.

3. I fired one round on the weekend and it looked OK but I think to error on the side of caution i'll be pulling the bullets on my remaining factory hornet ammo. Fireforming though an extra step is not that much of a bother using fredm's cream of wheat method. no bullets required so I can do the fireforming in the garage.

4. I don't know, maybe but for the price of brass why bother.

Why did I do the conversion, a good 50 grain spizter @ 2800 fps gives my 50 - 75 yards more effective range as a coyote gun (arbetrary 400 ft/lbs of striking power). Why not a 223? because I the gun I wanted was the superlight since it is for my boys (the oldest two turn 11 this week) and I did not trust the 223 superlight to shoot well. The hornet does not tend to have the superlight issues. Initial testing is looking good

[RugerNo3]

The K-Hornet is considered a wildcat and is not factory loaded. As such you will have to specify the reamer for the appropriate die you have or make a chamber cast to have a custom die built for the chamber you have. Lyle Kilbourne developed the K-Hornet to improve case life over the lazy tapered Hornet case. Straighter case walls and the sharp neck allowed the case to resist web thinning and be reloaded for more usage. To hotrod the Hornet for velocity was a side benefit and led to the proliferation of K-Hornet shapes extant today. Much the same as generic Ackley Improved chamberings. The pragmatic reloader just partial sizes the fireformed Hornet case and lives with the result. Headspace is not an issue and case life is extended with little  loss in velocity. Remember, you have to burn 4% more powder to increase velocity 1% in the real safe world. A Hornet will sell a lot faster then a K-Hornet.

[Cknerr]

Ask and yea shall receive,

Thanks guys,
I appreceiate your answers. I was surprised the K-Hornet was still a wildcat. Thought by now it had settled down to a standard. That is what I get for thinking.

Thanks,
Chris