17 hornet

[treetop]

I doubt the brass has stretched. Only been fired once with 9gr of LilGun. Hodgdon says start at 9.7. Others have said that's too much and have settled on 9.1 - 9.4gr. Apart from that it's only one or two that's loose. I did notice some were harder to get in than others. This is with Fiocchi primers which fit the Hornady shallow pocket nicely without poking out.
So assuming the brass hasn't stretched can anything be done? How much are the dies to neck down the 22 Hornet cases?

Without being rude, the brass HAS stretched beyond its useful size, which is why the primers are loose.. ( pjinox has given a very good method of checking ).

After using lilgun in the early days of my 17 hornet reloading, I know that there is not much room for errors as the pressure increases very rapidly... As for Hogdons data, I would treat that with caution, as there are loads that would agree with me that it's far to higher load...
There are lots of reports now coming out of barrels showing wear & pressure signs through the use of lilgun.

Personally, if I was starting out again I would try looking at Hogdons CFE BLK as a good powder,
However, I use IMR4227 as it was one of the early ' extream' powders & as such has good stability with Temp difference ( a big issue with small cases & high pressure loads ) also, from my calculations there is no way I can over pressure the case, as I can't fit enough powder in it - even a compression load won't !

The next thing you can look at is seating depth - this works in 2 ways , increase the lenght lowers the case pressure, but if the bullet touches the lands then you will have a vast increase of pressure,
Be careful when chasing the lands, as the bullets are not that accurate & uniform from batch to batch, so what you may think is 0.02 off you M actually find is touching !
I have a CZ, and I load to Mag lenght as my max, as the lands are way off & I find the extra lenght is great for my group ..

When resizing .22 hornet, there are various ways, I use a 'tween' die that starts the neck off, 1st at .20 then I turn it over & run again at .17 before I then Full length size..
I also use a lanolin mix to lube the cases & then sonic clean to remove after I have trimmed & sized

Others find that they can use a seating die to start the neck off ( as mentioned on here by Guesty ) likewise as he says, anneal after you have sized ...