Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles 22 Hornet rim thickness.....

I picked up a near mint Anschutz Hornet and found that I was losing most of my Winchester cases to neck splits on the first firing...

I haven't had a loss with Remington factory rounds.... I checked the rim thickness on some of my Winchester cases and they seem to be 1.58-1.60mm...Isn't the factory standard 1.7mm ??

Does anyone have any Remington ( or Privi Partisan) cases and a vernier handy to give me a reading on their brass ??

I heard Privi Partisan cases have a thicker rim ??...or is this just heresay !

Thanks

Peter

I just checked 5 of my remington cases, they averaged 1.56 mm. The thickest being 1.58mm. I don't know if it matters but this brass has been fired 4 times.

Lee

Lee thanks for taking the trouble to do that !

mmmm thats interesting....I thought maybe Remington brass had a thicker rim... hence tighter headspace in sloppy chambers and maybe a thinner rim was the cause of the neck splits in Win brass....but no...

I have seen a few posts here that seem to favour Remington Hornet brass over Winchester....

Here's more data/info to chew on.

Unfired Remington lot 1 average of 5: 1.56mm, range 1.52 - 1.63
Unfired Remington lot 2 average of 5: 1.61, range 1.57 - 1.63
Well used Winchester average of 5: 1.58, range 1.55 - 1.63

Overall thickest 1.63mm, thinnest 1.52 mm

From the NRA book Handloading dated 1981:

SAAMI chamber, rim 1.65 to 1.83mm
SAAMI ammo rim thickness 1.40 to 1.65 mm (if I'm reading it right, the diagram shows "1.65 - 0.25)

Thanks you Mr Hawk !

I must admit I was lazy and just looked up Wikipedia for 22 Hornet to see the rim thickness standard ...not very scientific !!

Interesting info comparing Win & Rem brass.... not much in it with some lots of brass....strange that Win brass cracking on first firing though....

I've had a few neck splits on first firing but seems confined to certain lots. The chamber on my rifle seems to have been cut on the large side, fired cases are visibly larger near the shoulder area. How this could cause neck splits I don't know, though Hornet brass is quite thin. In any event I haven't had a problem with split necks with reloads, I neck resize almost always. I don't have a lot of experience with the Hornet but that's what I've seen so far.

I havn't had any trouble with my hornet but I got a bunch of split necks in Win 204 Ruger factory loads . Even had one blown primer ! I'm not even going to re-load the Win stuff , I bought new Rem brass .

I should correct my statement about the Hornet : I've never bought any Hornet brass and I've been loading for it since the sixties .I buy factory ammo and then reload it . I don't recall any of the factory stuff splitting necks on the initial firing , but seem to always get some after re-loading , regardless of the brand .

I am trying to figure out why you are connecting neck splitting with rim thickness. The neck on a .22 Hornet is so much longer than the rim variable that the thickness should not be an issue. Please explain your thought process.

Neck splitting could be a result of several causes: work hardened brass, improper chamber neck tolerances, expander die defects, or some issues that don't have enough information provided to extrapolate a qualified guess.

I shoot a .22 K-Hornet, R&P brass and have never had the problems you are experiencing. If you can connect neck splitting with rim thickness, please enlighten me.

22 Hornet from CIP:
http://www.intermin.fi/intermin/images.nsf/files/B0E765375DA00143C2256FBE0032DD2A/$file/TABIIcal.pdf

Case Head = 1.65 -0.25

Breech = 1.65

Bruce

AHF

Maybe it has nothing to do with my problem ?....I was just throwing the question out there...

I have been shooting a 22K in a Martini action that I suspect someone reamed with a 'near enough' drill bit ! ....although a bit rough I was suitably impressed and bought a mint Anschutz 22H (to possibly rechamber to K ... but properly...!) firing as is (22H) it has been spliting almost 50% of the new Winchester cases on first firing....(but not Remington)..I've read on other posts that some say Anschutz usually cut their chambers tight ???.....

I recently bought a 2nd hand CZ 22K Hornet when I was last back home (but didnt get to shoot it)....the owner said he was getting split necks but went to Privi Partisan cases, he said "..as they had thicker rims and the necks didn't split...."....maybe this was just a coincidence....

The only other rimmed case I've reloaded is the 30-30 and the cases usually last a least a few reloads before neck cracks develop...friends say the 303 Brit is notorious for this too....a few reloads are all you can expect...

I thought thinner rims = sloppy headspace... so the cases (new Win in my loads) are stretched more on firing and the already thin Hornet necks (which is the weak link of this round).....stretches, thins and splits...or maybe I just got a dud batch of brass?

I'm just soaking up whatever hints and advice on the 22H & 22K Hornet I can get before reloading further (loaded 22H is at least $50 (Aus)per box of 50 ....an new cases $50-$60 per 100...quite expensive for the amount of brass,lead & powder you get!(compared to other bigger rounds)....

A common theme I find from this and other 22H threads is Rem brass is 'better' ...(more popular anyway)....

Ozzie - for what its worth, my experiance with my K Hornet has been that the Rem brass holds up alot better than the Win brass when fire forming the cases. It could have been a bad lot of Win brass but after losing half of the cases to ruptures I switched to Rem.

Lee