Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters .22 Horneteers

I was loading some Hornet rounds today, and found out something. I had mostly Remington brass, but a few Hornady pieces. The guy I got the partial box of Hornady ammo from said it had smoked and backed out some primers. He quite shooting it after noticing the pressure signs. I said "Hmmmm." This was the 35 grain V max load.

So anyway, I sized the rounds and found the Hornady brass was harder to size. I remarked this, but didn't think too much about it at the time.

Then I dropped the powder, 13 grains of Li'l Gun. It was about 1/16 or so from the top of the Remington brass, but right up to the top of the Hornady brass and almost running over.
I discarded these three pieces of brass after weighing the charges to determine they were exactly 13 grains.

So I think I know why the Hornady rounds smoked the primers and backed them out. It's heavier, thicker, and has less inside volume. I haven't shot any of these rounds myself, and probably won't.

I wonder if anyone else had any experience with Hornady .22 Hornet? I use Hornady 35 gr. bullets, which do a job on vermin, but I think I'll eschew the brass.

I haven't used Hornady brass in the Hornet, but there is about a .5 grain difference between WW and Remington brass. I load 12.5 of Lil Gun in WW cases.

Gene,

The little bit of Hornady Hornet brass I have is at least a decade old, and it is LIGHTER than Winchester brass (which is what I normally use).

The answer might be that Hornady doesn't make it's own Hornet brass, but buys it from wherever it's available. This is more common than most shooters realize. Or maybe they used to buy it and now make their own.

I have run into this wide variation in Hornet brass before, which is why I acquired a bunch of Winchester brass when it was on sale a few years ago, and just use it.

I like Winchester brass a lot. I don't like Remington brass very much at all. Never had occasion to use Hornady Hornet brass but the others I have, both as a Hornet and K-Hornet.

I do like Hornady .416 Rigby brass though...few years back PMC made a run of 7x64 Brenneke brass that was the most uniform I've ever worked with regardless of cartridge.

I prefer Winchester.

Hornady Hornet ammo uses H 110 powder, by the way, and advertises 3100 fps on the box.

Have been loading .22 Hornet since 1962 and have used almost every kind of brass available - but never had any Hornady, so cannot opine there. The Winchester works well,

But, the most durable and useable was brass from about 5 boxes of military surplus Hornet ammo bought from a mail-order catalog over 40 years ago. I think it was made by UMC and, after asking a bunch of questions about GI use, was told that the miltary issued it and related firearms for guys who might get into survival situations - like pilots. Never have tried to verify that story, but would like to find some more of that ammo cheap.

LINK to a short summary of the M-4 Survival Rifle.

I have and use WW, RP and Hornady brass. I much prefer the WW, but will use the others if they are the only empty cases under the bench. I have noticed that Hornady brass won't hold my usual 13.0 LilGun charge, so I use it with flyweight bullets like the Barnes 30-gr Hornet Varmint Grenade and H110/W296.

I partially FL size my Hornet brass, leaving a short section of the neck unsized. That seems to equalize case volume between WW and RP, and also centers the case nicely in my chamber. I have only one Hornet rifle, so that works for me.

Thanks for the link. Now I know the full story.

I have a lot of that WCC Hornet Ball ammo, and it is good stuff. I found the little 10rd paper/foil packets at a show years ago and scarfed it all, then ran across the 50rd boxes at an estate garage sale. Most of the brass I load is RP or Win, had some Herters show up awhile back, forgot I had it.. I will keep an eye out for the Hornady though.

I have had Hornets since the 60s and tried about everything powder wise, finally hit on a load of Win 680 in the ZKW 465. The Anschutz 1730D liked it too, that rifle is amazing.. still wish I hadn't parted with the Sav 23D.

Rocky, I remember eyeballing those M4s in the WRM Kits on board the C-124s (53-0048), I recall the 780 section got rather testy when the seals were broke. still have some aluminum cased 410s too.