22 Hornet brass - Pro's and Cons

[Billo]

Interested to get some feedback on 22 Hornet brass, I wont entertain using hornady crap because of previous leaky primer pocket experience and I've just been given 3 different lots of brass to use. Winchester, Remington and S&B, has anyone compared case capacity ??

[bigrich]

Interested to get some feedback on 22 Hornet brass, I wont entertain using hornady crap because of previous leaky primer pocket experience and I've just been given 3 different lots of brass to use. Winchester, Remington and S&B, has anyone compared case capacity ??

22 hornet brass is thin and doesn't have a long life at best . i've used rem brass in the past and it seemed to have better case life than winchester . tried s&b brass once , the primer holes were off centre which resulted in a broken de-capping pin in my die . the good thing about hornady hornet brass is the primer hole is smaller than other brass from memory, which helps with bullet jump . if you don't know already billo , small pistol primers and a light crimp help with this and improve accuracy . at least in my experience . hope this is useful, cheers

[Billo]

thanks bigrich and yes I've had to ream out primer pockets with some S&B brass previously, good to know RP brass is betterer than WW Super.

Ive had leaky primers with Hornady brass before so I'll pass on hornady. Will do some brass prep later today and check case capacity to see if there is much difference.

[bigrich]

thanks bigrich and yes I've had to ream out primer pockets with some S&B brass previously, good to know RP brass is betterer than WW Super.

Ive had leaky primers with Hornady brass before so I'll pass on hornady. Will do some brass prep later today and check case capacity to see if there is much difference.

i suppose brass capacity depends on the powder and how far you seat the bullet . 40 vmax are a great bullet , very accurate, but too long for most mags . i also had great accuracy with the 35gn hornady vmax , which may be too light for some uses. cheers

[Oldbloke]

Not looking to argue, but I'm wondering what the attraction is to the 22 Hornet?
I know it's a great little cartridge, but everyone seems to have "issues" with the brass! Sometimes hard to find to I think.

I wanted one years ago for foxes but couldnt really justify buying one.
But when i revisited buying a fox rifle years later in the end i got a 223. Just dismissed the Hornet due to all these case issues.

If you load a 222 or 223 using 2206H at abt 60% (~15 grains) you end up with someting near the 22 Hornet max. And if needed you can abviously load it to normal loads.

Sooo, why buy a 22 Hornet and not a 222 or 223? What's the big advantage?

[Billo]

Not looking to argue, but I'm wondering what the attraction is to the 22 Hornet?
I know it's a great little cartridge, but everyone seems to have "issues" with the brass! Sometimes hard to find to I think.

I wanted one years ago for foxes but couldnt really justify buying one.
But when i revisited buying a fox rifle years later in the end i got a 223. Just dismissed the Hornet due to all these case issues.

If you load a 222 or 223 using 2206H at abt 60% (~15 grains) you end up with someting near the 22 Hornet max. And if needed you can abviously load it to normal loads.

Sooo, why buy a 22 Hornet and not a 222 or 223? What's the big advantage?

The gun safe needed to lose weight if I'm being honest despite having a super accurate 223 it's easy to step down and use a Hornet in its place for the type of shooting I will use it for.

I've gotten rid of my 223, 22lr and the 22 magnum will get sold in the next week or so.

Life will be simpler with the Hornet and if I need more legs then the 6mm will come out.

Oldbloke I didn't need to buy a 22 hornet as I already have an action on hand and I'm using a 224 barrel I have on hand to build exactly what I want.

It will be a handy 19inchs varmint profile that should stick out the window well and be easy to carry in the bush.

[yoshie]

I use PPU. Primer holes are under sized and grab onto the de-priming pin and pull it out of the die. It was pretty frustrating to deprime a 1000 cases. I drilled our the primer holes and now they are great. I usually loose a few cases when seating bullets due to how thin the cases are. A bullet with a boat-tail will seat easier and straighter

[Billo]

Thanks Yoshi, I have a handful of ppu on hand and actually made a few dummy cases. de priming rod went rhru OK, good to know

[Tinker]

The Remington brass is the thinnest. I use it for making 297-230 Morris Long cases by cutting off at the shoulder and sizing through the die. With the other thicker brands the internal neck diameter ends up too large. From memory PPU is the thickest.
Therefore the Rem brass should have a slightly larger case capacity if that's what you're after, but shorter case life if you're reloading.

[Billo]

The Remington brass is the thinnest. I use it for making 297-230 Morris Long cases by cutting off at the shoulder and sizing through the die. With the other thicker brands the internal neck diameter ends up too large. From memory PPU is the thickest.
Therefore the Rem brass should have a slightly larger case capacity if that's what you're after, but shorter case life if you're reloading.

Thanks Tinker, brass life isnt a really a consideration with this rifle, head shot accuracy is what Im after and I will be only using a 36gr copper projectile for head and neck shooting

[bigrich]

i always had good accuracy out of rem brass , as for being thinner , dunno . it just worked better for me than other brands