Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles 22 K-hornet Brass Forming?

I've had some problems with split necks while fire-forming using factory ammo. Hornady ammo all worked great, Federal ammo about 50% split necks, and PPU had 100% split necks. I see Norma has 22 Hornet brass and I'm wonder if it's worth getting. I was wondering if I neck it up to 6mm first, then FL with a K-hornet die to form the shoulder, would I get fewer split necks?

Not sure if necking up like that would help you or not.

I had issues with Hornady and Norma brass. Remington worked great though.

If you are splitting a lot of necks then the brass is too hard or the load too high pressure for fireforming. I would anneal the case necks and load a mid range load. You can probably also find info on fireforming without a bullet and just using some cream of wheat filler.

Hornady worked the best for me with almost 100% survival without being split. Surprisingly Nosler was the worst, less than 50% survival, Nosler that came with 250 per bag. Winchester was also bad, but WW Super seemed like the better of the Winchester. I’ve always reloaded, so can’t speak for factory cartridges. Never tried Norma. Annealing is a must with this one.

I would be annealing.

Kiss,find pressure and rock on. Norma is fhuqking Dog Schit,if only as per always. Hint.

Headspace control matters,for longevity,safety,accuracy and precision. Hint.

The KHorn conversion is worth it,if only to drive a real shoulder. Hint.





Just sayin'.............

I recently did a K-Hornet and haven't had a split neck in about 250 rounds thus far. A little Hornady and mostly WW Super brass. Haven't annealed anything as of yet either. I used BS's FF load with the same bullet and it worked like a charm for me. It is definitely one of the most fun little guns I own.

Not sure but maybe the chamber neck area is a bit big so maybe that is why you're suffering split necks as well?

If you look at Sticks picture above, like he said, kiss.

This provides positive headspace at the front of the case, not at the rim; fireforming off the rims is creating the splits and probably starting incipient head separations even on the ones not splitting.

You could neck up to create a front shoulder to fit off of but the Hornet cases generally will puke from doing so, being quite thin.

Headspace off the bullet....

last time i load my Hornet brass which is all K-Hornet brass now i have had little trouble with neck splitting may 1 out of 25 not sure ? i do not load to max ever i use 11 grs. of H110 when i load i load 100-150 cartridges with 33 gr. Hammer bullets . my rifles are not for target shooting in these K-Hornet rifles i use them to kill critters mostl and and one of the rifles just hangs in garage all here long here in Northern Minnesota from 90 degrees to 30 below. last week i shot the rifle twice killed to ugly possum, but when i do reload this next time in the future i will use the candle method annealing on my used K-Hornet brass , tumble shine brass then full length resize my K-Hornet brass this system might be helping keep the split neck problem away ? i have lots of used Remington and Hornady brass ,good luck,Pete53

I formed my K-Hornet brass from factory loads , or medium rate standard Hornet loads.
Load and fire at prairie dogs =fire formed. I don't recall losing a single case.
Maybe I was just lucky - who knows?

Never had any issues with Winchester or PPU in my 340 but Remington factory ammo always split 7 out of 10 on average. I bought a bunch of factory Remington ammo when I bought the rifle about 25 years ago and had nothing but trouble with the split necks , thought I had a bad chamber until I bought some Winchester and later a couple of cases of PPU and had no splits with either . My rifle is a standard Hornet not a K .

An alternative is a hydraulic forming die. Mine came from Hornady, but don't know if they still provide them. Water and a hammer is all you need to form perfect K-Hornet brass. Zero rejects and avoidance of splits or stretching. Downside is the messiness and need to dry before using. Off and running with good brass from the get-go.