.22 Hornet reloading.

[HandyAndy]

Cheers jax, I was really cooking my fruit trying to get my head round the previous post. You have highlighted and confirmed my suspicion as I was saying before. There is no industry standard for the whole case design, each company have their own take on it. The externals will be the same as I mentioned before, so they fit in all weapons chambered for the designated round, this is where the similarities end, the inner wall thickness, the depth of the base, the size of the flash hole etc can and will be different across different brands.

To actually materially alter the design of the base of the case just to accommodate your standard decapping pin I think is a little short sighted. The physical amount of parent metal left in the case to retain the pressure that is exerted upon firing is going to be reduced and potentially will cause an unknown, un tested force.

Is it worth it? I wouldn't, I'm no expert, I just value my face no matter how ugly it is, its mine and I wish to keep it this way

[polski]

Thanks Jax, you've probably explained it better than I did(although it seemed pretty clear to me).
Andy,I still can't see a problem with opening the flash hole to a standard size,there are tools available to do this,

http://www.brownells.com/reloading/c...prod36020.aspx

Rick.

[HandyAndy]

Thanks Jax, you've probably explained it better than I did(although it seemed pretty clear to me).
Andy,I still can't see a problem with opening the flash hole to a standard size,there are tools available to do this,

http://www.brownells.com/reloading/c...prod36020.aspx

Rick.

I'll have a dig back to see what it was that convinced me it was a bad idea. Or shall I say swayed my decision.

Rick, search 'flash holes' then go about 3 pages back in the results and you'll find a thread I had regarding early problems I had loading for the hornet. Loads of pages but its in there others advised not to drill out the flash holes as this could cause over pressure.

[Eligus]

I managed to retrieve most of the stuck pin and re-insert it into the rod and it's working on de-priming Remington brass. As for the Hornady brass, I made a small hand pin punch and am popping them out by hand. I can locate the hole from inside even if it's not in the middle. At least I can reuse that brass as long as i keep it separate and don't try to run it through the die next time.

The biggest problem was the number of cases with holes off-centre. I shouldn't think there was a great issue with enlarging the tiny holes to the dimensions of the Remington ones providing they were central, it probably wouldn't work on off-set holes.

[Eligus]

Hi
If you are reloading S&B .22 hornet, the flash holes in most of them are off centre and will jam the pin of the decapper.
I try and avoid S&B brass. Most other brass, ppu, rws, winchester etc decap fine, I use a Lee hand loader and de primer.
regards
Steve

I was told that Hornady took over S&B and was using their brass for the .22 Hornet and new brass for the .17 Hornet and that the S&B was poor quality with misaligned holes a common problem. I'm using Lee equipment and it seems fine with "regular" sized holes.

[angrybear]

Well I can now officially join the club, bought a reloading kit this afternoon & having de-primed the first 9 no problem, number 10 has pulled the pin from the mandrel, ho hum, & so it begins

[Adamant]

In my bitter experience, reloading for the .22 Hornet is akin to visiting the seventh circle of hell... Buy a .222R instead!

[Graham2]

In my bitter experience, reloading for the .22 Hornet is akin to visiting the seventh circle of hell... Buy a .222R instead!

I've not found loading .22 Hornet any harder than any other calibre, what problems have you had?

[angrybear]

If anything like down here, finding Hornet bullets is the hard part.

[223AI]

Plenty of 40g options locally, struggling to find any 35 though

[angrybear]

Very little in 40gn around here either, I was given 1/2 a box of .223 Hornet 40's but the grouping is pretty poor, the factory 45gn Remington was pretty useless so I can't see the point in bothering to reload 45's, but it liked factory 35gn V-max.